Application awareness in Kerio Control

Application awareness in Kerio Control
NOTE
Watch the Application visibility and control video.
Application awareness has two parts:

• 
  Application control
  

• 
  Application visibility
  

Application control allows Kerio Control to recognize thousands of applications in the Kerio Control network. You can then:

• 
  Reserve or limit bandwidth for certain applications
  

• 
  Allow, deny, or block traffic from or to those applications
  

Application visibility allows you to review used applications in Kerio Control Statistics and Active Connections.
The application awareness is available under the Kerio Control Web Filter license. For details, read Changes in licensing.
The new application awareness means that the behavior of content filtering and bandwidth management in Kerio Control changes. Rules may become more strict and can be applied to more applications or connections that they match.
To set up and use application awareness, you first enable application awareness in Kerio Control. Then you can select and use applications in the Content Filter and Bandwidth Management rules.
Enabling application awareness
Application awareness does not work in combination with Kerio Control non-transparent proxy server enabled.

1. 
   In the administration interface, go to Content Filter.
   

2. 
   Click the Applications and Web Categories tab, and select Enable application awareness.
   

3. 
   Click Apply.
   

Setting content rules
Example: Social networks
Whenever Kerio Control processes a rule that includes applications and web categories, application awareness is activated. This example shows how to set up a rule that denies all users access to social networks.

1. 
   In the administration interface, go to Content Filter.
   

2. 
   Click the Content Rules tab, and click Add.
   

3. 
   In the table, type a name for the rule.
   

4. 
   Double-click in the Detected content column.
   

5. 
   In the Content Rule - Detected Content dialog box, click Applications and Web Categories.
   

6. 
   In the Applications and Web Categories dialog box, select Social Networking.
   

7. 
   Click OK twice.
   

8. 
   Do not change the Source column.
   

9. 
   Double-click in the Action column.
   

10. 
    In the Content Rule - Action dialog box, select Deny.
    

11. 
    Type a deny text that appears to users in their browsers when the rule is matched.
    

12. 
    Click OK.
    

13. 
    Click Apply.
    

From now on, Kerio Control refuses all attempts to use social media like Facebook or Twitter.

Example: YouTube, Twitter and Skype
If you don't want to be as strict as in the Example: Social networks rule, forbid access only:

• 
  To a group of users
  

• 
  To YouTube, Twitter, and Skype
  

• 
  During working hours
  

To configure such rule:

1. 
   In the administration interface, go to Content Filter.
   

2. 
   Click the Content Rules tab, and click Add.
   

3. 
   In the table, type a name for the rule, for example, YouTube, Twitter and Skype.
   

4. 
   Double-click the Detected content column.
   

5. 
   In the Content Rule - Detected Content dialog box, click Applications and Web Categories.
   

6. 
   In the Applications and Web Categories dialog box, find and select all items which include YouTube, Twitter, and Skype.
   

7. 
   Click OK twice.
   

8. 
   Double-click the Source column.
   

9. 
   In the Content Rule - Source dialog box, select Users and Groups.
   

10. 
    In the Select Items dialog box, select a group you want to restrict from using YouTube, Twitter, and Skype. For details, see Creating user groups in Kerio Control.
    

11. 
    Click OK twice.
    

12. 
    Double-click the Action column.
    

13. 
    In the Content Rule - Action dialog box, select Deny.
    

14. 
    Type a deny text that appears to users in their browsers when the rule is matched.
    

15. 
    Click OK.
    

16. 
    Double-click the Valid Time column.
    

17. 
    In the drop down list, select a time range. For details, see Creating time ranges in Kerio Control.
    

18. 
    Click Apply.
    

From now on, Kerio Control refuses all attempts to use YouTube, Twitter and Skype during working hours.

Setting bandwidth rules