Web filtering with the Cisco ASA

Hi folks, so web filtering is a popular feature in firewalls these days. Administrators want the ability to block certain web sites and firewall companies know that this is a valued feature. More often than not, you have to pay extra for this functionality.

This is all good and well until you are running a small business where every dollar counts. Luckily with the Cisco ASA you can implement web filtering without subscribing to a web blocking service. You can still subscribe to a service if you want to, but you aren’t forced to.

Instead you can use class-maps in the ASA to provide the ability to do this. This should only be done in small environments however. Once you go to a larger environment you should buy the subscription service. Please visit this link for instructions on how to do this.

-RP