SmartFilter configuration overview

Requirements to use SmartFilter

To use the SmartFilter feature, you must do the following:

Determine the version of SmartFilter that you want to use.
Obtain a licensed user name and password and the location of the control files.
Purchase a SmartFilter subscription, as described in Obtaining a SmartFilter subscription. Alternatively, you can evaluate SmartFilter for three weeks. See Evaluating SmartFilter.
Set up the SmartFilter feature on this NetCache appliance, as described in Basic SmartFilter options.
Regularly obtain new (updated) versions of SmartFilter control files.
Network Appliance recommends that you set up NetCache to automatically obtain updated control lists to ensure that the most recent list of potentially objectionable sites is always available. See SmartFilter control file updates for information about obtaining new control files manually and automatically.

Ways of setting up SmartFilter content blocking in NetCache

You can set up SmartFilter content blocking as shown in the following table.

Method of configuring blocking for SmartFilter	When you would use this method...
Selecting SmartFilter categories on the SmartFilter pages in the Appliance Manager.	To block one or more categories of content as a global setting for your users
Setting access control rules for SmartFilter	To make exceptions to the policies that you have set up for entire content categories. For example, you might Exclude URLs from SmartFilter categories you have blocked Override blocking of content for specific users
Setting category restrictions by authentication group	To block a category that you have not blocked on the Access Control - SmartFilter page (that is, for all users) for a specific group of authenticated users

Method of configuring blocking for SmartFilter

When you would use this method...

Selecting SmartFilter categories on the SmartFilter pages in the Appliance Manager.

To block one or more categories of content as a global setting for your users

Setting access control rules for SmartFilter

To make exceptions to the policies that you have set up for entire content categories. For example, you might

Exclude URLs from SmartFilter categories you have blocked
Override blocking of content for specific users

Setting category restrictions by authentication group

To block a category that you have not blocked on the Access Control - SmartFilter page (that is, for all users) for a specific group of authenticated users

Although you could use ACLs to block entire categories of content, the easiest way to block categories is to block the content categories on the SmartFilter pages. Then use ACLs to set exceptions to your SmartFilter category settings. See SmartFilter blocking with ACLs for more information.

Note
If you decide to use only ACL rules for SmartFilter blocking, you must also set up some basic SmartFilter options, as described in Basic SmartFilter options.

Precedence of access control settings

NetCache access control list options have precedence over SmartFilter options. NetCache checks all ACL rules that are set before it checks content category restrictions that are set in the SmartFilter options.

Using NetCache ACLs is helpful, for example, if a SmartFilter content category restricts a URL that you want one or more of your users to be able to access. You can explicitly allow the URL by using NetCache access control options. All other URLs in the SmartFilter content category continue to be restricted, but the users you specified in the ACL can access the URL that you explicitly allowed for them.