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Just curious... I've entered a support call now on two separate occasions where I've asked support "why is my categorization different than yours AFTER I update the database". Each time instead of receiving an answer I get a response stating "your request has been sent to Websense Labs for re-categorization review" or something similar. The first support call of this nature actually resulted in a site being re-categorized 4 (no kidding) different times before I gave up.
So, can anyone answer my question. For example: www.video.emergencymanagementontario.ca is categorized on my installation as Network Errors. If I use the site lookup tool via websense.com, it is categorized as:
v7.x = Government, v6.x = Network Errors, Real-time = Government - perform manual DB update & installation still categorizes as Network Errors - I'm running v7.6.2 Stand Alone on Windows 2008.
The explanation for the above is that the site in question doesn't resolve to an IP. So how is it then that Websense can categorize it as other than Network Errors.
All I really want to know is why my database isn't synchronized with Websense after I perform a manual update. Things to check? Is this typical?
I don't know how else to explain this to support without running the risk of them re-categorizing the site multiple times. :)
Thanks,
Carter
CF
Network Errors is not a category that is actually a part of the master database; it's the category sites get thrown into when your Websense server is unable to reach the site for some reason (not sure exact reasons, but they throw errors).
In this case, that URL doesn't appear to exist. Maybe you have a typo, but I get a "Server not found" error because there's no DNS record for that URL. Are you forcing this via HOST file entry or something?
Note, I'm simply replying to you with the best information I can offer, but I am not in the department that handles this.
www.video.emergencymanagementontario.ca doesn't exist. I looked on the main site, and can find nothing for it. Then it should be Network Errors because dns doens't resolve it to an ip.
However, why would we categorize it realtime as government? Because the site "emergencymanagementontario.com" is categorized as government i'm assuming.
Second, you're running Web Filter, not Web Security, so your categorizations will be only updated once a day, whereas Web Security customers get updated nearly constantly. So that would be typical of Web filter subscription.
JACOB SLOAN, CCNA, WCSE
How can I differentiate those categories that aren't actually part of the Master Category set? When I look at the Master Categories on my deployment Network Errors is listed as part of that set under Miscellaneous. Are all sub-categories under Misc special categories?
No typo and no hosts files entry. When I type in the URL from my unrestricted account I can get there no problem. I'm guessing then that the site hosting this URL should update DNS records?
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE
I believe only Network Errors, Private IP Addresses, and obviously Uncategorized are not technically part of the database.
Maybe the site's so new it's not in DNS for anyone else which is odd… is Websense using a different DNS server than you?
Hey J Sloan, thanks for the response. All thoughts are welcome, I'm still quite new to this product and trying to understand it. Does Websense actually perform a DNS Lookup?
Your are correct, my mistake. www does not exist but http does. It's an alias to wsd3.korax.net which resolves to 216.201.96.107. For some reason WS does not understand this?
Yes, Web Filter updates 1 / day but you can manually update the database at any point throughout the day, which I have done & the above still doesn't explain why my categories are not consistent with the most recent from WS. Having said that I believe if one looks now the site is categorized as Malicious Website so WS isn't really sure what they are doing with this one.
Hey Glitch;
Thanks & yes we would both be using different DNS Servers. We have our own then we use our ISP's, unless I'm misunderstanding? If you glance at the response I left J Sloan there's more detail there that I wasn't aware of before.
I do have one question though... if the answer is as "if the URL doesn't resolve to an IP then it's categorized as Network Error" I'm confused. www.agagoogoo.com doesn't resolve to an IP and it isn't blocked?
Yes, the filter service and the Content Gateway services both do DNS lookups. The Filter service is is set to "Auto" which means that it will only do DNS lookup when the integration does *not* send the IP with the URL Request..
Clicking the database download does not necessrily update the database. The database versons are tracedy vesion nmber. So if your filter services is at DB version 45857, when you click "UPDATE", i will fetch the version number of the latest release. Only one version is published per day. Real-time Updates to the database are tracked by a seperate version and authorized only if your subscription permits it. Only after validating that your db is not current would it fetch the latest incremental change.
Hey guys, just want to say thank you both for your patience and assistance with this. As someone who's new to WS with no formal training left to figure it out as I go, I run into something new almost daily with this product. It's awesome to be able to draw upon a resource where both users and staff are available to provide input.
I was curious about the DNS because of my previous post, it looks like once WS finds the alias record it doesn't go any further so that was confusing to me. The database download I had no idea about.
I was recently informed by support that the site(s) in question is currently categorized as Malicious Website (which still doesn't answer my ticket) so I guess this makes the issue one of moot at this point.
Thanks again for all your help and especially your patience!
