How to Block Employees From Accessing Websites(Video)

How to block Employee Internet access with BrowseControl

NEW 2022: How to Block Employees From Accessing Websites With BrowseControl

Need to restrict internet access in your network? In this tutorial you will learn how to block websites using a free trial of BrowseControl, CurrentWare’s web content filtering software.

With BrowseControl you can…

Block websites based on URL, category, domain, or IP address

Schedule unique internet restrictions throughout the day 

Assign custom policies for each group of computers or users,

and enforce internet usage policies, even when devices leave the network

There are 3 ways to block employee internet access with BrowseControl

1) Block access to specific websites with the Block List

2) Restrict internet access to only certain sites with the Allow List 

3) Using the Category Filtering feature you can block access to content categories such as Porn, Virus Infected, or Social Media 

For complete control over internet and application use in your network, you can combine BrowseControl with BrowseReporter, CurrentWare’s internet monitoring software.

All right, let’s get started.

To begin, sign up for a free trial of BrowseControl at CurrentWare.com/Download. After filling out the form you will be provided with the files you need to get started with BrowseControl.

To install BrowseControl, run CurrentWare.exe on the administrator’s computer and follow the installation instructions; this will install the CurrentWare Console and Server. 

After that, deploy the CurrentWare Client Setup file (cwClientSetup.exe) on all of the computers you would like to control. 

From there you can import your Active Directory organizational units or manually create your desired policy groups.

For full installation instructions, please visit our knowledge base at CurrentWare.com/Support. 

Now that you have BrowseControl installed, I’ll show you how to block specific websites based on their URL, domain, or IP address with the URL Filter.

This feature can be used to block your employees from accessing distracting websites like Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram.

First, decide whether you want to control internet access based on users or computers and select the desired mode.

Next, click on the URL Filter then select “Blocked List”

From the drop-down menu, select the group of computers or users that you want to restrict

Enter the URL, domain, or IP address of the websites you want to block to the master URL list, then press the Enter key or click “Add”. 

BrowseControl will apply a wildcard to the URL, ensuring that any paths within the domain will be blocked as well.

In the master URL list, select the websites you want to block for the chosen group, then click “Add to Blocked List”.

If you would like to add the selected websites to the block list of multiple groups, you can press the drop-down arrow and select “add to multiple groups”, select the desired groups, then click “add to blocked list”

If you have a large number of websites you would like to block, you can also use the import feature to import an existing list.

Finally, click “Apply to Clients”.

That’s it! You have now blocked your employees, students, or patrons from accessing those specific websites. 

Next, I’ll show you how to restrict internet access to only certain sites.

This feature is ideal if you want to prevent your employees, students, or patrons from accessing websites that are not explicitly allowed by your organization.

The process is identical to how you would block a website, except this time you will set the internet to “off” and add the websites you would like to allow to the Allow List.

With this method, your users will only be able to access the exact websites that have been approved by your company.

Here are the full instructions.

First, decide whether you want to control internet access based on users or computers and select the desired mode.

Next, click on the URL Filter, then ensure that “Allowed List” is selected

From the drop-down menu, select the group of computers or users that you want to restrict

Next, set the internet to “Off”. This will ensure that only the websites that are added to the allowed list can be accessed.

Enter the URL, domain, or IP address of the website you want to allow to the master URL list, then press the Enter key or click “Add”. BrowseControl will apply a wildcard to the URL, ensuring that any paths within the domain will be allowed as well.

In the master URL list, select the websites you want to allow for the chosen group, then click “Add to Allowed List”

If you would like to add the selected websites to the Allowed list of multiple groups, you can press the drop-down arrow and select “Add to Multiple Groups”, select the desired groups, then click “Add to Allowed list”

If you have a large number of websites you would like to allow, you can also use the import feature to import an existing list.

Finally, click “Apply to Clients”.

Next, I’ll show you how to block websites based on content categories such as Porn, Virus Infected, and Social Media 

With BrowseControl’s category filtering feature you can block billions of websites across over 100 URL categories. More than 10,000 new domains are added each day, making it simple to restrict internet access even as new sites emerge. 

Here’s how:

First, decide whether you want to control internet access based on users or computers, then select the desired mode.

Next, click on “Category Filtering”

From the drop-down menu, select the group of computers or users that you want to restrict

Select the web content categories you would like to block, then click “Add to Blocked List”

Finally, click “Apply to Clients”.

That’s it! 

The Allow List can also be used in tandem with the Category Filtering feature to allow websites that would otherwise be blocked based on their content category. 

For example, you could use the Category Filtering feature to block Social Media while still allowing access to LinkedIn.

Now that you’ve seen the 3 key ways you can block a website with BrowseControl, I’d like to show you how to restrict internet access at certain times.

With BrowseControl’s Internet Scheduler you can schedule custom block or allow lists throughout the day. 

This feature will bring some flexibility to your internet restriction policies; in this example, we will allow our employees to browse the internet during lunchtime.

Here’s how to use the internet scheduler

First, decide whether you want to control internet access based on users or computers and select the desired mode.

Next, click on “internet scheduler”

From the drop-down menu, select the group of computers or users that you want to restrict

Next, click “New Schedule”

Set the start and end time of the schedule. Then, select the schedule type.

Internet On will allow internet access to all websites that are not on the URL Block List

Custom allowed list will only allow access to specific websites.

Custom blocked list will block access to a specific list of websites and allow access to the rest of the internet.

Custom Category blocked list will block specific categories and allow access to the rest of the internet.

Next, set your desired schedule frequency.

Daily will enable the schedule every day during the specified time period.

Weekly will enable the schedule only on specific days of the week.

Monthly will enable the schedule only on specific months.

Next, click “Add Schedule”.

If you selected one of the custom block or allow list options, you can click the link provided under the “schedule type” column to set the websites or categories that you would like on the list.

And finally, click “Enable Scheduler” if it is not already enabled

That’s it for today. If you’re ready to start blocking websites you can get a free trial of BrowseControl at CurrentWare.com/Download. 

If you have any questions during your evaluation our support team is available to help you over a phone call, live chat, or email.

See you next time!

How Block Websites in the Legacy Console

Video Transcription

Hi there welcome to the CurrentWare video tutorial series. In this video, we will teach you:

Let’s get started 

How to block the internet with a blocked list

Use the block list to block your employees from accessing distracting websites like Facebook and YouTube. 

  1. First, add a new group and give it a name. Drag and drop new computers into this new group.
  2. On the right-hand side under BrowseControl select internet on
  3. Click on the URL filter
  4. Add the websites you want to block

In this example we’re blocking Facebook and YouTube.com. Make sure you’ve selected the block list, highlight the websites on the left-hand side, click on the right arrow button in the middle, and move them on to the list 

Your employees are now blocked from going to those two websites 

How to block the internet based on website categories

On top of the block list we’re gonna further restrict internet access by using the category filter. Blocking categories is easy. 

  1. Click on the category filtering button
  2. Select the categories you want to block and add it to the block list
  3. If you’re not sure what category our website belongs in use the URL category lookup to help you out.

In this example, we’re blocking celebrity gossip, chats, gambling, magazines, movies download,  porn, shopping, social networks, and sports.

That’s it! Your employees are now blocked from browsing distracting websites 

How to control internet access with an allowed list

Now we’re going to show you a stricter way of controlling internet access by using the allow list. 

  1. The first thing you’re going to do is to turn the internet off
  2. Then click on the URL filter. Add only the websites you want your employees to go to. For example, you might put in your company’s website or any internal portal links
  3. Add them to the allowed list on the right-hand side and click apply.

This is the best way to prevent your employees from browsing to any unauthorized website. 

How to schedule internet access

Let me introduce you to the internet scheduler. This feature will bring some flexibility to your internet restriction policies. It allows you to apply different restrictions during different times of the day.

  1. Click on the internet scheduler to open up the window
  2. Then click on the Add button to add your very first schedule.
  3. Assign the scheduled time. In this example, we will allow our employees internet access during lunchtime. 
  4. Pick the schedule type. 

There are four schedule types to choose from:

  1. Internet on will allow internet access along with the block list from your URL filter
  2. Custom allow list will turn the internet off and let you assign a new list of allowed website
  3. Custom block list will turn the internet on and let you assign a new list of blocked websites 
  4. Category block list will turn the internet on and let you assign a new list of blocked websites based on categories.

In this example, we will allow our employees to browse the internet during lunchtime, so we will select internet on. After you finish don’t forget to click on enable scheduler to activate the internet scheduler. 

Conclusion

This brings us to the end of this video tutorial. For more information on CurrentWare feel free to contact us directly by email, phone, or visit our website. Thank you for your time 

Want to block employees from accessing websites? Get started today with a free trial of BrowseControl, CurrentWare’s employee internet access blocking software.

Dale Strickland
Dale Strickland
Dale Strickland is the Digital Marketing Manager for CurrentWare, a global provider of user activity monitoring, web filtering, and device control software. Dale’s diverse multimedia background allows him the opportunity to produce a variety of content for CurrentWare including blogs, infographics, videos, eBooks, and social media shareables.