Blocking settings

The basic carriers of blocking settings in the latest version of nVision are: Atlas, User groups, and user account.

Unlike the monitoring settings (which have a predefined list of possible settings), the blocking settings are based on defining as many blocking rules as you like.

The Atlas does not contain any default blocking settings unless they have been created as a result of the data migration from nVision 9.

In nVision 10, the default website blocking action: “Block all websites except for the following ones” has been removed. If the Administrator has not configured any website blocking rules, access to all websites is still possible (nVision behaves as if the default action was always set to “Enable for all websites except for the following ones”). In practice, this means that the website which does not match any of the defined rules is not blocked.

In the program, you can define as many website blocking rules as you like.

Each rule contains its own name, type of action, domain (or IP address) and effective validity time.

•The rule’s action is one of the two options: “Allow” or “Block”.

•Domain (or IP address) is a pattern to which the visited websites will be matched.

In the pattern, you can use the “*” which indicates matching of any string.

•The effective validity time is a time pattern in which you can specify the days of the week or hours within the day.

If the validity time has been defined, the rule is ignored outside this time.

If the visited website matches more than one rule, then:

•If all of these rules have the “Block” action set, the website is blocked.

•If at least one of these rules has the “Allow” action set, the website is not blocked.

If the website being visited does not match any rule, it is also not blocked.

Similarly to website blocking, you can define as many application blocking rules as you like in nVision.

Each rule contains its own name, name of executable file to be blocked and effective validity time.

•For the application blocking rules, you cannot define the “Allow” action (each of these rules always comes with the “Block” action).

•You can also use the “*” in the pattern of the name of the executable file to be blocked.

If the application being run does not match any rule, it is not blocked.

Similarly to website blocking, you can define as many downloaded file extension blocking rules as you like.

Each rule contains its own name and file extension to be blocked.

•For the downloaded file extension blocking rules, you cannot define the “Allow” action (each of these rules always comes with the “Block” action).

•You cannot also use the “*” in the pattern of file extension to be blocked.

•The downloaded file extension blocking rules do not have the effective validity times (they are valid all the time).

If the extension of the file to be downloaded does not match any rule, it is not blocked.

Atlas is the primary object in nVision 10 that contains the essential, global blocking settings. It means that the user account which does not belong to any of the groups will adopt monitoring settings that are assigned to the Atlas.

The Atlas does not contain any default blocking settings unless they have been created as a result of the data migration from nVision 9.

Each user group contains all blocking rules of the Atlas and parent groups it belongs to.

At the group level, you cannot modify in any way the rules inherited from the Atlas or parent groups. You also cannot remove them or exclude from inheritance.

At the group level, you can define as many individual rules to be added to the set of inherited rules as you like.
The individual rules defined in a group are inherited by all descendant groups assigned to it.

The user account uses the rules inherited from groups (and the Atlas) and the individual rules.

For a single user you can disable inheriting the blocking rules from the Atlas and groups.

If the user has the rule inheritance function enabled, the summary collection of the following is applicable to them:

If the user account is assigned to several groups for which different blocking rules are configured, the resulting blocking rules will be applied.

If the user has the rule inheritance disabled, only the individual rules are applicable to them.

•If any website was blocked globally, you can define the group of users who will have access to it.

•If any website was not blocked globally, you can define the group of users for whom it will be blocked.

•If a user is assigned to a group that has the “Allow” rule set for any website, you cannot override it by the “Block” rule and assign the user to another group.

•The “White List” function (“Block all websites except for the following ones”) can still be executed by means of the “Block” rule for the “*” domain.

•If any application or downloaded file extension was blocked globally, you cannot unlock them at the group level.

•If any application or downloaded file extension was not blocked globally, you can define the group of users for whom these entities will be blocked.

•At the user setting level, you can always define an individual set of rules, regardless of the inheritance mechanism operation.