Policy enforcement actions

Each category has an action assigned to it. This is the action that the cloud service takes in response to a user's Internet request. The action applies to all users of this policy unless exceptions are configured.

The available actions are:

Allow access

Allow access means that any website within the category is always accessible, regardless of whether it exists in another category that has the Block access action.

Do not block

If you do not want websites to be blocked, select Do not block. This ensures that the site is not blocked under this rule, but if it also exists in another category that has an action of Block access, it is blocked under that category.

Require user authentication

This action allows you to monitor who is accessing sites in this category. If you are forcing users to be identified or authenticate themselves, it has the same impact as Do not block. If the users are not already identified or authenticated, they are forced to do so to access the site. If the site also exists in a category that has the action Allow access, the users are not forced to identify or authenticate themselves.

Confirm

Users receive a block page, asking them to confirm that the site is being accessed for business purposes. Clicking Continue enables the user to view the site.

Clicking Continue starts a timer. During the time period that you configure (10 minutes by default), the user can visit other sites in the confirmed category without receiving another block page. Once the time period ends, browsing to any other Confirm site results in another block page.

The default time can be changed on the General tab for the policy.

Use Quota

Users receive a block page, asking them whether to use quota time to view the site. If a user clicks Use Quota Time, he can view the site.

Clicking Use Quota Time starts two timers: a quota session timer and a total quota allocation timer.

If the user requests additional quota sites during a default session period (10 minutes by default), he can visit those sites without receiving another block page. If you are using per-category quotas, the user can visit only other sites in the same category without receiving another block page.

Total quota time is allocated on a daily basis. Once it is used up, each user must wait until the next day to access sites in quota categories. The default daily quota allocation is set on the General tab for the policy. If you are using per-category quotas, the total quota time applies to each category and once it is used up for a particular category, a user can still use quota time in another category, if available.

The session length and total quota time available for each category depend on the options selected on the General tab. If you have defined per-category quotas, you can select Use Quota for a category on the Web Categories tab to change the total quota time and session length available to users in the policy for that category.

See Using quota time to limit Internet access for more information.

Block access

This blocks access to websites in this category unless they exist in another category with that is assigned the Allow access action. If the website exists in another category with the action Do not block, it is blocked under this category. When a site is blocked, you can choose a notification page to be displayed.

Note that the block page that allows a user to View in Remote Browser is available for selection only if the remote browser isolation feature is enabled. See Configure Remote Browser Isolation for details.