XII. Firewall/Security Features

DrayTek's GlobalView is built into most of our routers and allows you to select specific categories of web site which your router will allow access to. The GlobalView Web Content Filtering service is a category based way of setting which web sites should be blocked or allowed by the router. The GlobalView licence allows the router to query the central database. Once the router is set up with an active GlobalView license, the Web Content Filtering can be used on the router but it is not applied by default. To use the GlobalView service a licence has to be enabled on the Web Content Filter; the steps for this process are explained in a separate FAQ.

This guide explains how configured the router to apply a Web Content Filter profile that will affect all users on the network.

The GlobalView central database is continuously updated with new sites and changes to sites but also records normally legitimate sites which have become compromised or contain malware (a unique feature to GlobalView). Access to the GlobalView server requires an annual subscription. A free 30-day trial is included with all new routers so that you can try the feature out before subscribing. Scroll down the box below to see the 64 different categories which can be blocked by GlobalView, either permanently or at certain times of day/week according to your chosen schedule and for the PCs you choose.

To set up the Web Content Filter profile to block sites / categories as required, go to CSM – Web Content Filter Profile and on there, either edit the Default profile or set up a new profile:

Before setting up filtering, it is possible to check which categories sites would fall under by clicking on the “Check URL Category…” link on the CSM – Web Content Filter Profile page and entering the site name to check which category it has been placed in.

On the Web Content Filter profile, set the Profile Name as needed, leave the Black/White List option unticked for now, set the Action to Block and select categories as required:

When clicking OK on that profile, it will bring up the following message, which is only a warning message. This is to inform that if applying both the URL Content Filter and Web Content Filter in a filter rule, the Web Content Filter would not be applied because the URL Content Filter would be processed first:

To apply the Web Content Filter profile that has been configured, go to Firewall – General Setup, select the Default Rule tab on that page, select the Web Content Filter profile that has been configured and click OK, which would then apply the Web Content Filter to all devices on the network:

There is an additional facility for applying the Web Content Filter with firmware versions after 3.6.4 on DrayTek routers such as the Vigor 2830; this is the DNS filter which is useful in scenarios where some HTTPS sites may not be blocked by firewall. To configure it, go to CSM – DNS Filter and on that page, enable it, select the Web Content Filter profile that would be applied then click OK for that to take effect:

Once this is set, the router will check whether a site would be allowed through the web content filter before providing a DNS response and if it’s blocked, the router will show a page to indicate why the site has been blocked:

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