BrowseControl is an Internet restriction software used by many companies to enforce Internet Access Policies on their network. This article highlights the best ways to setup BrowseControl for first time users.

1. Always change your CurrentWare Client password

It is important that you change your CurrentWare Client password. Having a unique CurrentWare client password will increase the security of your software. You can set a new CurrentWare Client password during the client installation or change it anytime on the CurrentWare Console.

2. Understanding how Internet restriction works in BrowseControl

BrowseControl can block or allow the Internet completely. When this is used with the Allowed list and the blocked list, it becomes a very effective way to restrict Internet access on your network.

Allowed list: On the CurrentWare Console, when you select Internet > Off, your users will only have access to the websites on their allowed list.
Blocked list: On the CurrentWare Console, when you select Internet > On, only the websites on the blocked like will be restricted.

3. The best way to set up your Allowed list and Blocked List

The Allowed list and Blocked list defines the websites that the administrator is allowing or blocking their users from accessing. In the URL filter under the CurrentWare Console, it is important that you remove “http://www.” from your entries. For example, if you want to allow http://www.CurrentWare.com, simply put in the entry CurrentWare.com.

Here is a screenshot that displays an Allowed list with proper entries:

4. The best way to set up your Appblocker List

To block an application using BrowseControl’s Appblocker, you have to add the original file name of the application to the Appblocker list. Not every executable files have the same original file name. Because of this, it is important that you let BrowseControl determine what the original file name. To do this, instead of typing in the filename and adding it to the AppBlocker list, click on the browse button and browse to the files that you want to block.

Keep in mind that the location of the file is not important. Since BrowseControl is blocking the process before it starts by using the original file name, even when the user moves the file to another directory, it will still be blocked. If there is a program you want to block but it is not installed on the administrator’s computer, you can simply copy the files from the client machine to the CurrentWare server computer and browse to it.

5. Use Download Filter to block downloads of unauthorized file types

You can prevent users from download unauthorized files by blocking the file types on the Download Filter. To block files from being downloaded onto your user’s computer, follow the steps below to configure your download filter.

1. Add a Category on the download filter.
2. Add the File Types
3. Change the permission to Blocked.

Below is a list of common file extensions for audio, video and applications that you can apply to your download filter. Keep in mind that if you are blocking audio and video files, even if the media is on the Allowed list, you will not be able to play it because the file type is blocked. The download filter takes priority over the Allowed list.

Common Audio File Extensions
.aac
.aif
.iff
.mp3
.mpa
.ra
.wav
.wma

Common Video File Extensions
.3g2
.3gp
.asf
.asx
.avi
.flv
.mov
.mp4
.mpg
.rm
.swf
.vob
.wmv

Common Application File Extensions
.zip
.exe
.bin
.bat
.ini
.rar