Web Control - Sophos Central

Question

Hi, 
 
 Using basic Web Control feature in Central. Trying to wok out if the feature is an exclusive whitelist / blacklist - if a website does not exist in the allowed tag will it be blocked and similarly if a site is tagged in the blacklist (e.g. blocked) will it allow everything else? 
 Are wildcards needed also e.g. bbc.com/* or bbc.com*? 
 
 Thank you

Gowtham Mani · Answer

Hi zk1, 
 Web control is focused on giving the administrator control over web browsing with specific differences between User Policies and Server Policies: 
 
 User Policies
 
 Block by category of site 
 Block particular file types or specific websites 
 Prevent access to sites that increase risk to the organization. 
 Help improve productivity and potentially limit bandwidth. 
 Policies for Web control can also be configured to apply to users only at certain times of the day if required. 
 Applies to the logged on User

Server Policies
 
 Provides control of potentially inappropriate websites for acceptable use by site category. 
 Applies to any account that accesses the internet from the server.

Check here for FAQ's on Web control. 
 From the above example if you block bbc.com it would block all other pages from the site and no wildcard entry is required. For more information on Web control policy refer Sophos central Admin document .