Trying to block youtube without success

[JakiHergerson]

Good morning,

I try to block the page youtube.com with a block rule, but unfortunately this does not work, no matter if I use youtube.com, *.youtube.com or *.youtube.*, the result is that youtube.de goes into the block page, but youtube.com is still executable.

what am i doing wrong?

greetings

Sven

[andrewbailey]

Hi Sven,

Welcome to the forum.

So, in summary it sounds like you are using the web filter to try and block YouTube.

Most websites these days are pretty complex and use content delivery networks (CDNs) etc to deliver improved performance. That can make a simple URL block unsuccessful or easy for people to work around.

You are better using an Application Filter- that will monitor for YouTube's application behaviour and block or allow on that basis.

If you search the forums you find this previous discussion:-

https://forum.fortinet.com/tm.aspx?m=159142

In that link Toshi (one of the Expert members in this Forum) suggests the Application Control approach and provides a Cookbook reference. I'm not sure if that link is still valid but the Fortinet documentation site is pretty useful and describes this sort of approach too. Try this for example:-

https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/latest/administration-guide/19814/basic-category-filter...

The Application Control is far more liikely to work well and of course the Application Control filters are upgraded if the application behaviour changes (which should result in you not having to revisit the rule if YouTube changes it's policy or approach to it's web site).

Lastly, if you need to you can of course add a schedule to the policy blocking YouTube- that might be useful if you want users to be able to access YouTube at lunch time, after work hours or once the kids have done their homework etc.

Good luck.

Kind Regards,

Andy.

[JakiHergerson]

Hi Andy,

thank you for the warm welcome.

The way via Application Control was exactly the right one, thanks :)

Greetings

Sven