Your Web Filtering Policy in Venn enables you to apply broad limits to the sites that users can access when browsing in Venn at the domain level by intercepting domain name requests (DNS queries). You can block domains by category (e.g., gambling or hate speech) and/or allow or block specific domains.

On the Web Filtering Policy Admin page, you can also view logs of all DNS queries made by your users in Blue Border by IP address and any actions taken by your web filtering policy.

Your Web Filtering Policies are applied to all user DNS queries in Blue Border. You can set up Web Filtering Policies for the All Users group or for any other user groups with assigned Private Company Gateway IP addresses.

You can also configure your Web Proxy Policy in Venn, including your Blocklist/Allowlist and TLS inspection. Learn more about the different types of Web Policies in Venn or how to configure and manage your Web Proxy Policy.

Access Your Web Filtering Policies

To access your Web Filtering Policies:

1. Navigate to login.venn.com and sign in with valid credentials.
   You may be required to verify the sign-in by completing the multifactor authentication on your mobile device.
2. Click Company admin or Manage > Company admin.

   

3. Using the left-side navigation menu, click Policy Admin, then select Web Policy.

   

On the Web Filtering Policy page, you will see a list of all of your groups with assigned Private Company Gateway IP addresses. Each group with PCG IP addresses assigned in Venn has a distinct Web Filtering Policy associated with it. Learn how to add a web filtering policy for a new group of users.

View and Manage Web Filtering Policies for a Group

To view and manage the Web Filtering Policy for a group, follow the steps above to navigate to the Web Filtering Policy Admin page and click Manage next to the group name.

In the window that opens, you can view and adjust DNS filtering for the selected group.

• DNS Filtering by Category
• Allowed Domains
• Blocked Domains

DNS Filtering by Category

On the Categories tab, you can choose which web domains are blocked by domain category. Checked web domain categories are blocked for users of the selected group in Blue Border.

Venn selects a standard set of blocked domain categories by default. Several categories on the list are greyed out and cannot be deselected because they pose known security threats. All other categories can be selected or deselected as you see fit to meet your company's needs. Once you have made appropriate changes, click Apply in the bottom right corner to save your changes.

Allowed Domains

On the Allowed Domains tab, you can add any web domains on your company's "allowlist" that you have identified as safe and legitimate in order to avoid the domain from being mistakenly blocked.

To add additional domains:

1. Click Add domain.

   

2. Input the web domain name.
3. If needed, check the Include subdomain checkbox.
   • For example, if you add example.com to your list of allowed domains, including subdomains would also allow domains like mail.example.com, blog.example.com, and support.example.com.
4. Optionally, add a comment to provide context about why the domain was added for other Company Managers.
5. Click OK.

   

Use the pencil and x icons to edit or remove domains from your Allowed domains list.

Blocked Domains

On the Blocked Domains tab, you can add any web domains on your company's "blocklist" in order to prevent users from accessing them in Blue Border.

To add additional domains:

1. Click Add domain.

   

2. Input the web domain name.
3. If needed, check the Include subdomain checkbox.
   • For example, if you add example.com to your list of blocked domains, including subdomains would also block domains like mail.example.com, blog.example.com, and support.example.com.
4. Optionally, add a comment to provide context about why the domain was added for other Company Managers.
5. Click OK.

   

Use the pencil and x icons to edit or remove domains from your Blocked domains list.

Add a Web Filtering Policy for a New Group of Users

Each group with assigned Private Company Gateway IP addresses in Venn has a distinct Web Filtering Policy.

If you would like to create a Web Filtering Policy for a group of users that doesn't appear on the Web Filtering Policy

1. Create the group and add users to it (if it hasn't already been created in Venn).
2. Assign Private Company Gateway IP addresses to the group.

Once Private Company Gateway IP addresses have been assigned to the group, it will appear on the Web Filtering Policy page. Follow the steps above to view and manage the Web Filtering Policy for your new group.

View DNS Query Logs for a Group

On the Web Filtering Policy Admin page, you can view logs of all DNS queries made by your users in Blue Border by IP address and any actions taken by your web filtering policy.

To view DNS query logs:

1. Follow the steps above to navigate to the Web Filtering Policy Admin page.
2. Click Manage next to the group name that you would like to view logs for.
3. Click Logs in the Settings menu at left.

On the Logs tab, you can view details about the domains that your users access or attempt to access in Blue Border and any actions taken by your web filtering policy. 

You can filter the logs by date accessed/attempted to access, domain category, and action (allowed or blocked).