Update: As of September 2011, Microsoft has discontinued Forefront. For more information on how to protect your Microsoft environment, check out our Managed Service and Cloud Consulting services.
URL Filtering allows you to control end-user access to Web sites, protecting the organization by denying access to known malicious sites and to sites displaying inappropriate or pornographic materials, based on predefined URL categories. Visit TechNet to read about Planning for URL Filtering and Managing URL Filtering.
The table below summarizes the URL categories available. Those marked with an asterisk are blocked by Forefront TMG when in the Web Access Policy Wizard you choose to create a rule blocking the minimum recommended URL categories.
URL Filtering allows you to control end-user access to Web sites, protecting the organization by denying access to known malicious sites and to sites displaying inappropriate or pornographic materials, based on predefined URL categories. Visit TechNet to read about Planning for URL Filtering and Managing URL Filtering
. The table below summarizes the URL categories available. Those marked with an asterisk are blocked by Forefront TMG when in the Web Access Policy Wizard you choose to create a rule blocking the minimum recommended URL categories.
| Category | Description |
| Liability | Aggregation of sites that may be in conflict with applicable legal and/or policy compliance obligations. |
| Alcohol | Alcohol Web sites promote or offer for sale alcoholic beverages or the means to create them; supplies, recipes or paraphernalia; glorifies, touts, or otherwise encourages alcohol consumption or intoxication. |
| Gambling* | Gambling Web sites are sites where a user can place a bet or participate in a betting pool (including lotteries) online; obtain information, assistance or recommendations for placing a bet; receive instructions, assistance or training on participating in games of chance |
| Tobacco | Tobacco Web sites glorify, promote, offer for sale or otherwise encourage the consumption of tobacco. |
| Obscene/Tasteless* | Obscene/Tasteless Web sites provide vulgar, crude, disgusting or otherwise offensive material, e.g., mutilation, murder, and defecation. |
| Profanity | Profanity Web sites are sites that advocate or convey what may be interpreted as insulting, rude or vulgar behavior (through words, gestures, or other behavior); or otherwise show disrespect towards, or desecration of, something held sacred. |
| Violence* | Violence Web sites are sites which advocate or provide instructions for causing physical harm to people or property through use of weapons, explosives, pranks, or other types of violence. |
| Weapons | Weapons sites are sites which sell, review, or describe legal weapons such as: guns, knives, or martial arts devices; provide information on their use, accessories, or other modifications. |
| Nudity | Nudity Web sites are sites containing images of human nudity, e.g., nude art, incidental nudity |
| Pornography* | Pornographic Web sites are sites containing sexually explicit material for the purpose of arousing a sexual or prurient interest. |
| Provocative Attire | Provocative attire Web sites are sites which sell, review, or describe alluring attire but do not involve nudity. |
| Mature Content | Mature sexual content sites contain sexually explicit information that is not of a medical or scientific nature. |
| Criminal Activities* | Criminal activities Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate illegal activities, or describe how to commit criminal activity. |
| Dubious | Dubious Web sites are sites with questionable, suspicious, or ethically ambiguous content. |
| Hacking/Computer Crime | Computer hacking/crime Web sites are sites which advocate or provide instructions for causing harm to people or property through use of unauthorized computer activity. |
| Hate/Discrimination* | Hate Web sites are sites which advocate hostility or aggression toward an individual or group on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality, ethnic origin, or other involuntary characteristics; a site which denigrates others on the basis of those characteristics or justifies inequality on the basis of those characteristics; a site which purports to use scientific or other commonly accredited methods to justify said aggression, hostility or denigration. |
| Illegal Drugs* | Drug Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate the recreational or illegal use, cultivation, manufacture, or distribution of drugs, pharmaceuticals, intoxicating plants or chemicals and their related paraphernalia. |
| Illegal Software | Illegal Software Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sells, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate the use, cultivation, manufacture, or distribution of software that is illegal in one or more major jurisdictions. |
| School Cheating Information | School Cheating Information Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate information used to cheat in school. |
| Bandwidth | Bandwidth Web sites are sites which may result in large amounts of data being uploaded or downloaded, e.g., video download, file download, etc. |
| Media Sharing | Media sharing Web sites are sites which promote, sell, offer, supply or allow sharing between users of media, e.g., video download, file download, etc. |
| Streaming Media | Streaming media sites provide media for streaming consumption, e.g., on demand video, internet radio. |
| Business | Business Web sites are sites which promote, sell, offer, or supply business information, e.g., employment services, financial institutions, online trading and brokerages. |
| General Business | Business Web sites are sites which promote, sell, offer, or supply business information, e.g., corporate Web site, business to business sites. |
| Employment | Employment Web sites are sites which promote, sell, offer, or supply employment information including providing job seeking information. |
| Financial | Financial Web sites are sites which promote, sell, offer, or supply financial information including financial account access. |
| Online Trading/Brokerage | Online Trading/Brokerage Web sites are sites which promote, sell, offer, or supply trading information including online trading and brokerage account access. |
| Communication | Communication Web sites are sites which provide a means for digital communications. These sites may include access for adding, removing, and updating personal content, e.g., chat, forums, and blogs. |
| Blogs/Wiki | Blog/Wiki Web sites are sites which provide dynamic content where users frequently add, remove, and update content. |
| Chat | Web chat Web sites are sites which provide Web-based chat as the main feature or function of the site. |
| Digital Postcards | Digital postcard Web sites are sites which enable users to send and receive digital postcards and greeting postcards. |
| Forum/Bulletin Boards | Forum/Bulletin Board Web sites are sites which provide dynamic content where users frequently add content. |
| Instant Messaging | Instant Messaging Web sites are sites which provide Web-based or downloadable chat-related applications as the main feature or function of the site. |
| Online Communities | Online Community Web sites are sites which provide dynamic content for the purpose of social networking. These sites may include access for adding, removing, and updating personal content. |
| Portal Sites | Portal Web sites are sites where the main purpose is to route users to Web content. |
| Usenet News | Usenet news Web sites provide access to Usenet archives. |
| Web E-mail | Web E-mail Web sites are sites that enable users to send and receive email. |
| Web Meeting | Web Meeting Web sites are sites which provide online meeting services. |
| Web Phone | Web Phone sites are site which provide online phone services. |
| Web-based Productivity Applications | Web-based productivity application Web sites are sites which provide Web browser-based productivity application services, e.g., Web browser-based word processing. |
| Entertainment | Entertainment Web sites are sites that distributes, displays, discusses or promotes entertainment related content - e.g., games, humor, recreation or hobbies. |
| Art/Culture/Heritage | An art/culture/heritage site is a site that distributes, displays, discusses or promotes art, culture, or heritage related content - e.g., books, literature, theater. |
| General Entertainment | Entertainment Web sites are sites that distribute, display, discuss or promote entertainment related content, e.g., movies, television, and music. |
| Games | Games Web sites are sites that distribute, display, discuss or promote game related content, e.g., board games, video games, etc. |
| Humor/Comics | Humor/Comics Web sites are sites that distribute, display, discuss,. or promote humor related content, e.g., comics, cartoons, etc. |
| Recreation/Hobbies | Recreation/Hobby Web sites are sites that distribute, display, discuss or promote recreation and hobby related content, e.g., model airplane building, knitting, sewing, etc. |
| General Productivity | General productivity Web sites are an aggregation of sites believed to engage users in time or resource-intensive activities that may be in conflict with expected use of computer and network resources. |
| Education/Reference | Education/reference Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate educational or reference information. |
| Child Friendly Materials | Child friendly materials Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supplies, encourage or otherwise advocate child-friendly materials. |
| Government/Military | Government/Military Web sites are sites created and maintained by an official government or military organization |
| Health | Health Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate health information. |
| History | History Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate historical information. |
| Legal Services & Reference | Legal services and reference Web sites are sites which provide, promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate legal services and reference information. |
| Non-Profit/Advocacy/NGO | Non-profit/Advocacy/NGO Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate non-profit, advocacy, or NGO information. |
| Politics/Opinion | Politics/Opinion Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate politics or opinion information. |
| Public Information | Public information Web sites are sites which provide general reference information for public consumption, e.g., listings, maps, weather, etc. |
| Religion/Ideology | Religion/Ideology Web sites are site which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate religion or ideology. |
| Search Engines | Search engine Web sites are sites where the main purpose is to provide search Web content based on user-defined queries. |
| Information Technology | Information technology Web site are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate technology information, e.g., free hosting, Internet services, Web ads. |
| Technical Information | Technical Information Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate technical information, e.g., tutorials for computer programming, reviews of computer software or hardware, technical forums, information security. |
| Edge Content Servers/Infrastructure | Edge content servers/infrastructure Web sites are sites which hosts files for other Web sites usually for high-volume consumption. |
| Free Hosting | Free hosting Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate free Web hosting information, e.g., Web sites that allow users to create personal homepages. |
| Internet Services | Internet services Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate Internet services information, e.g., domain registration, ISPs. |
| Web Ads | Web ads Web sites are sites from which advertising content originates. Advertising content includes but is not limited to banners, marketing trackers, and text ads. |
| Lifestyles | Lifestyle Web sites are sites that cater to or discuss personal or social interests and activities with content intended for a specific audience. |
| Dating/Personals | Dating/Personals Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate dating or personal information. |
| Special Interests | Sites that reflect a group or collection of persons that have a common interest or issue that is representative of who they are, their life situation, or is of closely held significance to them. This includes without limitation, cultural or ethnic identity, organization/club affiliations, or sexual orientation/identity. |
| Restaurants/Dining | Restaurants/Dining sites are sites which promote, encourage or otherwise advocate information about restaurants or dining choices. |
| Social Opinion | Social Opinion Web sites are sites that provide information related to variety of social topics, e.g., movie reviews, actor critiques. |
| Self Defense | Self defense Web sites are site which promote, encourage or otherwise advocate information about self defense - e.g., karate, mace, stun guns. |
| Travel | Travel web sites are sites which promote, encourage or otherwise advocate traveling. |
| News/Reports | News/Reports Web sites are sites that provide news or report information. |
| News | News Web sites provide news media such as local weather, and other relevant regional, national and international information. |
| Sports | Sports Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate professional athletics, e.g., professional or recreational baseball leagues. |
| Purchasing | Purchasing Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, and encourage purchasing of products. |
| Fashion/Beauty | Fashion/Beauty Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate the use, or distribution of fashion or beauty related products. |
| Motor Vehicles | Motor Vehicles Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate the use, distribution or discussion of motor vehicle related products. |
| Shopping | Shopping Web sites are sites which promote, offer or sell products or services online. |
| Pharmacy | Pharmacy Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate the use, distribution or discussion of prescription drugs. |
| Real Estate | Real estate Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate the buying, selling, managing or maintenance of real estate. |
| Security | Aggregation of sites which may either directly constitute a risk to IT resources, or are associated with activities suspected to increase risk of exposure to these dangers. |
| Anonymizers* | Anonymizer Web sites are sites used to anonymize a user's originating IP address |
| Anonymizing Utilities | Anonymizing utilities Web sites are sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate the use, manufacture, or distribution of anonymizing utilities. |
| P2P/File Sharing | P2P/File sharing Web sites are sites which offer, sell, supply, encourage or otherwise advocate the use, manufacture, or distribution of P2P/File sharing software. |
| Parked Domain | Parked domain Web sites are sites that no longer contain content or are no longer registered. |
| Personal Network Storage | Personal network storage Web sites provide Web-based storage for personal files, e.g., pictures, documents, etc. |
| Remote Access | Remote access Web sites are sites which provide Web-based or downloadable remote access related applications as the main feature or function of the site, e.g., a Web site that allows a user to access a computer from a remote location. |
| Resource Sharing | Resource sharing Web sites are sites that provide information about applications that utilize otherwise unused system resources, e.g., SETI@home. |
| Shareware/Freeware | Shareware/Freeware Web sites are sites which provide Web-based or downloadable applications as the main feature or function of the site. |
| Botnet* | Botnet sites are sites which covertly install applications onto targeted systems allowing unauthorized remote control for malicious activity. |
| Malicious* | Malicious Web sites covertly install applications onto targeted systems with the intent of causing harm to people or property through use of unauthorized computer activity. |
| Phishing* | Phishing sites are sites that masquerade as a trustworthy entity for the purpose of tricking users into disclosing personal information. |
| Spam URLs | Spam Web sites are sites that contain unsolicited information from spam e-mails. |
| Spyware/Adware* | Spyware/adware Web sites are sites which covertly install applications onto targeted systems with the intent of performing unsolicited activity, namely, transmitting personal information or providing unsolicited advertisements. |
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