Frequently Asked Question

ESET Smart Security's Personal firewall provides the ability to create a specific list of approved (whitelisted) web sites that may be accessed on a computer. To configure the Personal firewall so that only approved web sites can be visited, please follow the steps below:

Adding Approved Web sites

1. Open ESET Smart Security by clicking the icon in the Windows notification area or by clicking Start → All Programs → ESET→ ESET Smart Security.
   
   
2. Toggle to Advanced mode by clicking Toggle Advanced mode in the lower left corner or by pressing CTRL + M on your keyboard.
   
   
3. Click Setup → Personal firewall and then click Switch to interactive filtering mode → Configure rules and zones... from the main program window.
   
   
   
   
   
   Fig. 1-1
   
   

4. In the Zone and rule setup window, click Toggle detailed view of all rules and then click the New button to add a new rule.
   
   

   
   
   
   Fig. 1-2
   
   

5. Enter a name for the rule such as Approved Web sites. From the Direction: menu select Out and from the Action: menu select Allow. Do not click OK at this time.
   
   

   

   Fig. 1-3
   
   

6. Click the Remote tab and click Add port. In the Port selection window, click the Name: drop-down menu and select HTTP. Click OK to save the selection.
   
   
7. Click the Add IPv4 address button to enter the IP address for the site you wish to allow access to and click OK. Figure 1-4 below shows what the New rule window will look like after adding the HTTP port (Port: 80) and one IP address. The IP address shown below is only an example. When finished adding IP addresses, click OK to return to the Zone and rule setup window.
   
   

   

Block All Other Web sites

1. From the Zone and rule setup window, click the New button to add a new rule.
   
   
2. Enter a name for the rule such as Block Other Sites. From the Direction: menu select Out and from the Action: menu select Deny. Do not click OK at this time.
   
   

   

   Fig. 1-5
   

3. Click the Remote tab and click Add port. In the Port selection window, click the Name: drop-down menu and select HTTP, as well as any other ports you wish to block access to.
   
   
4. Click OK to save the rule and then click OK again to close the Zone and rule setup window.
   
   NOTE: If you want to ensure that the user is never prompted with pop-up messages from the firewall, check the list of existing rules in the Zone and Rule setup window – any rule that uses an action of Ask (orange arrow) must be changed to either Allow (green arrow) or Deny (red arrow). To do this, right-click the desired rule, click Edit and then change the value in the Action: drop-down menu.
   
   Also note that by skipping step 3 of the "Block All Other Web sites" section, you can block access to all ports. However, this may produce unexpected results if you have not specifically allowed every port the computer needs access to in step 6 of the "Adding Approved Web sites" section.