How to Block Websites With BrowseControl Web Filtering Software

The base price for BrowseControl is $3.99 USD per license per month.

For even more advantageous pricing on our web filtering software, we offer a variety of deals.

• Get up to 15% off with pre-pay discounts for 3-year subscriptions
• Get up to 10% off when you purchase the full CurrentWare Suite
• Non-profit and education organizations can qualify for up to 10% off
• CurrentWare’s resellers and Managed Services Providers enjoy advantageous pricing on their licenses
• Volume discounts are available starting at 100 licenses

For more information on the best deals or to request a custom quote, please contact our sales team.

Yes. The client agent installed on the computers has the ability to block the internet even if it does not have a connection with the CurrentWare Server. Your off-site workers will continue to not be able to access blocked websites.

This offsite management capability makes BrowseControl the best web filter for remote workers; internet security policies will remain enforced even when employees are connected to their home network. As with on-premises workers you can block inappropriate websites, allow certain websites, and unblock websites. 

The client agent stores and enforces BrowseControl’s internet restriction policies locally on the device. CurrentWare’s last known policies will continue to be enforced even if the computer loses internet connection or connects to a different network.

Note: If you wish to update policies or receive reports from client agents outside of the network they will need to be able to communicate with the CurrentWare Server.

Once a connection is reestablished you will receive your user’s internet usage data and any web filtering policy updates will take effect.

Learn More

To unrestrict a website that is blocked by Category Filtering, add it to the URL allow list. This will allow you to block an entire content category while selectively allowing specific websites.

For example, you can block the Social Media category while allowing access to LinkedIn.com

To unrestrict a website that is on your  Blocked Sites List, simply select the user or group you would like to modify and remove the website from the Block List. 

Learn More: How Do I Control Internet Access With BrowseControl?

Yes. BrowseControl can block websites on all modern internet browsers on the Window operating system including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, and Firefox. You can find the most up-to-date system requirements here.

To stop employees from accessing certain websites you can add the websites you want to block to the Blocked Sites List.

If you would like to block a specific category of websites you can use the Category Filtering feature to block sites that belong to categories such as porn, social media, and virus-infected. This allows you to easily limit adult websites based on a pre-defined database of websites known to have adult content without needing to use URL blocking for blocking specific websites. 

URL Filtering limits access to specific web pages, IPs,  and domains (websites) by comparing web addresses that end-users are attempting to visit against a database of websites that are on an Blocked or Allowed List.  This is the ideal method for blocking specific websites.

Category Filtering blocks websites based on content categories such as Porn, Social Media, and Hate sites. This allows thousands of websites to be blocked without the administrator knowing their specific URL. As new websites are identified by the category filtering provider they are sorted into their respective content categories, which can be sorted through by scrolling or with the included search bar.

 BrowseControl includes three features to restrict internet access to allow users to visit websites based on time – internet quota limit, internet scheduler, and internet timer. 

The Timer feature allows you to turn the internet on or off after a set time limit has elapsed. Once the timer has expired, the Internet settings will return to the previous Internet mode (ON/OFF or Schedule).

The Internet Scheduler allows you to set unique allowed websites and blocked websites lists on a set schedule. This is typically used to allow employees or students access to unproductive websites during their breaks while restricting them during work periods. 

The Internet Quota feature allows the administrator account to control how long users have access to the Internet on a daily basis. This allows end-users to browse the web throughout the day until their quota is reached. This feature is ideal for internet cafes and other organizations with users that do not require ongoing access to the internet.

Learn More: Using Timer and Internet Quota to Set Internet Time Limits

If you would like to block a given web content category while selectively allowing access to specific sites, simply log in to the administrator account and add sites you would like to unblock to the URL Allow List.

With this method you can block the Social Media category while allowing access to LinkedIn.com or block the File Hosting category to prevent personal cloud storage use while still allowing access to sanctioned cloud storage providers.

Yes. BrowseReporter and BrowseControl support a variety of deployment options that allow you to monitor and restrict internet use no matter where the devices are.

To use our web filtering and internet monitoring software for your remote users, you will need to configure a few settings.

As always, our customer support team is here to assist you so you can make the most out of CurrentWare; if you need assistance you can reach out to us by phone, live chat, or email.

Remote workforce management options:

1. Port Forwarding: By configuring inbound port forwarding settings on your network’s router you can connect the CurrentWare Client software on your remote user’s computers to the CurrentWare Server in your network.
2. Cloud Deployment: Install the CurrentWare Server on a cloud-based virtual machine and adjust a few settings to allow traffic between the CurrentWare Server and Clients.

Learn More: Block Websites for Remote Users

You can block websites on Google Chrome by using a compatible website blocking app such as BrowseControl.

Simply add the URLs, IP addresses, or content categories of the website you would like to block on Google Chrome to the blocked sites list.

In addition to Google Chrome, BrowseControl can block websites on all the other modern internet browsers including Microsoft Edge, Safari, Opera, and more!

Which websites you should block depends on the goals of your organization.

For the best results you must ensure that the sites you block align with your organization’s goals. When you block a website you should consider the impact the blocked sites would have on your company. For example, you will want to limit adult websites to maintain a respectable work environment.

• Improve productivity by blocking distracting websites such as Facebook.
• Maintain a respectable environment by blocking inappropriate websites with explicit content such as pornography, hate, or crude humor.
• Improve network security by blocking high-risk websites such as peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, illegal streaming sites, and as many sites that are known to be malicious.
• Increase internet speed by blocking bandwidth hogs such as Netflix and YouTube.

Yes. Simply set the internet to “off” in BrowseControl  to completely disable access to the internet, then add the authorized intranet sites to the Allow List using their hostname or IP address.

Learn More: Block Internet & Allow Intranet with BrowseControl

BrowseControl allows you to enable the logging of blocked URLs for troubleshooting purposes.

This allows you to see what websites BrowseControl is blocking, though for optimal performance it is recommended that you disable it after you have finished troubleshooting. 

In addition, you can use BrowseReporter’s URL Categories Visited report to see what URLs have been visited, what category they belong to, and whether or not the user was blocked from accessing the website.

Learn More: Find Out What Websites BrowseControl Is Blocking

To completely block internet access, simply set the internet to “Off” in your BrowseControl web filtering settings. This will allow applications to connect to the internet while preventing your users from browsing the web.

To selectively allow or block URLs or IP addresses, add them to the Allow List (whitelist) or Block List (blacklist/deny list) of the URL filter.

To block websites based on content, add the content category you would like to block from the Category Filtering list. You can exempt specific URLs within a category by adding them to the URL Allow List.

Yes. The CurrentWare Suite is supported on desktop computers, virtual machines (VMs), and servers running modern versions of the Windows operating system.

CurrentWare is a verified Citrix Ready partner; you can install the CurrentWare Clients on your Citrix Workspace running Windows.

In addition, all CurrentWare components are compatible with Remote Desktop Services (RDS) or Terminal Servers (TS).

When restricting internet access in Citrix with CurrentWare you can block websites on PC Mode to restrict the individual Windows virtual machine or on User Mode to restrict internet access for specific employees across multiple devices and/or virtual machines.

Monitoring and managing your end-users with CurrentWare in a Terminal Services environment works similarly. The exception is that in a Terminal Server/Terminal Services environment the server will be registered as an individual endpoint; to apply granular policies for each user, department, or Organizational Unit you will need to use User Mode.

Learn More:
CurrentWare for Remote Desktop & Terminal Server

CurrentWare for Citrix Activity Monitoring

CurrentWare System Requirements

BrowseControl allows you to assign unique web access policies for each Windows computer, user, or workgroup.

Simply add the specific Windows computer or user you would like to control to their own policy group, then use the Internet Scheduler, URL Filter, or Category Filter to block internet access. You can manually block websites, block site categories, and unblock websites as needed.

To change between users mode and computers mode, simply click the users tab or computers tab.

Learn More: How to Restrict Internet Access With BrowseControl

Yes. BrowseControl’s web filtering methods do not use SSL inspection, SSL stripping, or Transport Layer Security Inspection (TLSI) to block HTTPS sites; it simply reads what’s in the browser’s address bar, among other methods. This allows you to restrict internet access without the security risks and performance impacts of decrypting web traffic.

What is SSL inspection? SSL inspection is a process in which web filtering software decrypts, analyzes, and re-encrypts the content of encrypted websites to decide whether or not they should be blocked based on web filtering policies.

No. BrowseControl is designed for blocking sites for enterprise clients, schools, libraries, and other organizations.

BrowseControl is not a suitable filtering software for parents that want parental controls to restrict their child’s computer and internet use.

• The minimum order quantity is 10 licenses, which may not be feasible for parents with a limited number of devices for their child.
• BrowseControl web filtering software starts at $3.99 USD per license per month. While this is advantageous pricing for a business environment blocking sites for their employees, it may be cost prohibitive for parents that simply want a web filtering service for their child.
• All of CurrentWare’s solutions are developed with a businesses, schools, and similar organizations in mind. As such, our features, device settings, and development processes are not focused on managing child computer use in the way dedicated parental controls would be.

For filters that are more suited to blocking sites with explicit content for families, please see the Best Parental Controls Software reviews from PCMag.