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Administration Guide

Web rating override

Web rating override

Web rating override requires a FortiGuard license.

This option is for you to categorize websites by different criteria. Even for the same criterion, an organization might want to block most websites in a category while allowing access to specific URLs in that category.

For example, a website called example.com is in the subcategory of pornography and the organization uses FortiGuard Web Filter to block access to sites in the category of pornography. However, in this example, example.com is a client and that website is for artists that specialize in nudes and erotic images. In this example, there are two approaches. The first is to use the web rating override function to assign example.com to the nudity and risque category instead of pornography category to match the criteria that the organization goes by. The second approach is to assign the website to a custom category that is not blocked because the website belongs to a client and staff need to access that website.

Another example from the reverse perspective is a school decides that a website specializing in selling books online should not be accessible because it sells books with violent subject matter. Fortinet categorizes this website, example2.com, as General Interest - Business with the subcategory of Shopping and Auction, which is a category that is allowed. In this example, the school can reassign this website to the category Adult Material which is a blocked category.

You can assign a website to a built-in category or a custom category.

Create a local custom category

You can create a custom or local category and assign a URL to it.

To create a custom category in the GUI:
  1. Go to Security Profiles > Web Rating Overrides and click Custom Categories.
  2. In the Custom Categories pane, click Create New.
  3. Enter the category Name, for example, mylocalcategory.

  4. Click OK.

    The custom category appears in Web Filter under Local Categories where you can change the Action for that category.

To create a custom category in the CLI:
config webfilter ftgd-local-cat
    edit "custom1"
        set id 140
    next
    edit "custom2"
        set id 141
    next
    edit "mylocalcategory"   <<---- the name of category you created
        set id 142           <<---- the id for this category in Web Filter profile
    next
end
To change the action to block for a custom category in the CLI:
config webfilter profile
    edit "webfilter"
        config ftgd-wf
            unset options
            config filters
                edit 142               <<---- this is the id of local category
                    set action block   <<---- set the action to block
                next
            end
        end
    next
end

Override URL category

You can override a URL to another category or to a custom category. This example shows overriding www.fortinet.com to the custom category: mylocalcategory.

To override a URL category in the GUI:
  1. Go to Security Profiles > Web Rating Overrides and click Create New.
  2. In the New Web Rating Overrides pane, enter the URL you want to re-categorize.
  3. To view the URL's current rating, click Lookup Rating.
  4. In the Override to section:
    1. For Category, select Custom Categories.
    2. For Sub-Category, select mylocalcategory.

  5. Click OK.

    The URL www.fortinet.com now belongs to the mylocalcategory category.

To override a URL category in the CLI:
config webfilter ftgd-local-rating
    edit "www.fortinet.com"
        set rating 142       <<---- this is the id of mylocalcategory
    next
end

Web rating override

Web rating override requires a FortiGuard license.

This option is for you to categorize websites by different criteria. Even for the same criterion, an organization might want to block most websites in a category while allowing access to specific URLs in that category.

For example, a website called example.com is in the subcategory of pornography and the organization uses FortiGuard Web Filter to block access to sites in the category of pornography. However, in this example, example.com is a client and that website is for artists that specialize in nudes and erotic images. In this example, there are two approaches. The first is to use the web rating override function to assign example.com to the nudity and risque category instead of pornography category to match the criteria that the organization goes by. The second approach is to assign the website to a custom category that is not blocked because the website belongs to a client and staff need to access that website.

Another example from the reverse perspective is a school decides that a website specializing in selling books online should not be accessible because it sells books with violent subject matter. Fortinet categorizes this website, example2.com, as General Interest - Business with the subcategory of Shopping and Auction, which is a category that is allowed. In this example, the school can reassign this website to the category Adult Material which is a blocked category.

You can assign a website to a built-in category or a custom category.

Create a local custom category

You can create a custom or local category and assign a URL to it.

To create a custom category in the GUI:
  1. Go to Security Profiles > Web Rating Overrides and click Custom Categories.
  2. In the Custom Categories pane, click Create New.
  3. Enter the category Name, for example, mylocalcategory.

  4. Click OK.

    The custom category appears in Web Filter under Local Categories where you can change the Action for that category.

To create a custom category in the CLI:
config webfilter ftgd-local-cat
    edit "custom1"
        set id 140
    next
    edit "custom2"
        set id 141
    next
    edit "mylocalcategory"   <<---- the name of category you created
        set id 142           <<---- the id for this category in Web Filter profile
    next
end
To change the action to block for a custom category in the CLI:
config webfilter profile
    edit "webfilter"
        config ftgd-wf
            unset options
            config filters
                edit 142               <<---- this is the id of local category
                    set action block   <<---- set the action to block
                next
            end
        end
    next
end

Override URL category

You can override a URL to another category or to a custom category. This example shows overriding www.fortinet.com to the custom category: mylocalcategory.

To override a URL category in the GUI:
  1. Go to Security Profiles > Web Rating Overrides and click Create New.
  2. In the New Web Rating Overrides pane, enter the URL you want to re-categorize.
  3. To view the URL's current rating, click Lookup Rating.
  4. In the Override to section:
    1. For Category, select Custom Categories.
    2. For Sub-Category, select mylocalcategory.

  5. Click OK.

    The URL www.fortinet.com now belongs to the mylocalcategory category.

To override a URL category in the CLI:
config webfilter ftgd-local-rating
    edit "www.fortinet.com"
        set rating 142       <<---- this is the id of mylocalcategory
    next
end