Actions

Web Security Help | Web Security Solutions | Version 7.8.x

Category and protocol filters assign an action to each category or protocol. This is the action that Websense Web Security solutions take in response to a client's Internet request. The actions that apply to both categories and protocols are:

Block the request. Users receive a block page or block message, and are not able to view the site or use the Internet application.

Permit the request. Users can view the site or use the Internet application.

Evaluate current Bandwidth usage before blocking or permitting the request. When this action is enabled, and bandwidth usage reaches a specified threshold, further Internet requests for a specific category or protocol are blocked. See Using Bandwidth Optimizer to manage bandwidth.

Additional actions can be applied only to categories.

Confirm—Users receive a block page, asking them to confirm that the site is being accessed for business purposes. If a user clicks Continue, she can view the site.

Clicking Continue starts a timer. During the configured time period (60 seconds by default), the user can visit other sites in Confirm categories 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 Settings > General > Filtering page.

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.

Total quota time is allocated on a daily basis. Once it is used up, each client must wait until the next day to access sites in quota categories. The default daily quota allocation (60 minutes by default) is set on the Settings > General > Filtering page. Daily quota allocations can also be granted to clients on an individual basis. See Using quota time to limit Internet access for more information.


	Important In multiple Filtering Service deployments, Websense State Server is required for correct application of the Confirm and Quota actions. See Policy Server, Filtering Service, and State Server for more information.

Block Keywords: When you define keywords and enable keyword blocking, users requesting a site whose URL contains a blocked keyword are not allowed to access the site. See Keyword-based policy enforcement.

Block File Types: When file type blocking is enabled, users attempting to download a file whose type is blocked receive a block page, and the file is not downloaded. See Managing traffic based on file type.