URL Filtering Licenses

The URL Filtering license allows you to write access control rules that determine the traffic that can traverse your network based on URLs requested by monitored hosts, correlated with information about those URLs. To support this feature license, you can purchase the URL Filtering service subscription as a stand-alone subscription or in combination with IPS (TC) or Threat and Malware defense (TMC) subscriptions. IPS license is a prerequisite for this license.

Tip

Without a URL Filtering license, you can specify individual URLs or groups of URLs to allow or block. This option gives you granular, custom control over web traffic, but does not allow you to use URL category and reputation data to filter network traffic.

Although you can add category and reputation-based URL conditions to access control rules without a URL Filtering license, the management center will not download URL information. You cannot deploy the access control policy until you first add a URL Filtering license to the management center, then enable it on the devices targeted by the policy.

When you disable this license:

  • You may lose access to URL filtering.

  • Access control rules with URL conditions immediately stop filtering URLs.

  • Your management center can no longer download updates to URL data.

  • You cannot re-deploy existing access control policies if they include rules with category and reputation-based URL conditions.

If the license expires, your entitlement for the above capabilities ceases and the management center moves to the out-of-compliance state.