Use of expressions in Web Pattern Blocking

Description

The difference between Web URL & Web Pattern Blocking

Explanation

As explained in the Administration Guide, URL blocking is intended for a list of the following items:

Limited use of wildcard can be used in URL blocking.  But, generally speaking, wildcard and regular expressions are intended for use in the section entitled "Web Pattern Blocking".

notes:

• The wildcard character * cannot be used on the left-hand side of an expression.
• use of ( ) is not permitted in MR7-MR9 but will be reintroduced in MR10

Example

To block access to all site, you can use the following regular expression:

^.*$

Why this might be useful:

This might be useful in one of the following two settings:

1) when used together with an exempt list
e.g., if you want to ONLY permit certain sites but exclude all others

2) when used together with web authentication

e.g., you have two groups of users
group #1 unrestricted web browsing
group #2 no web browsing