Sophos Firewall provides powerful web filtering and security features, but sometimes it may block legitimate websites due to category filtering or SSL inspection. If you are unable to open a trusted website like http://enter domainname, you can easily create an exception rule or allow policy in Sophos Firewall to whitelist it.
Open your browser and go to:
https://<firewall-ip>:4444
Log in with admin credentials.
Navigate to Web → Policies.
Check which Web Policy is applied to your LAN users (like “Default Policy”).
Click Edit on that policy.
Inside the Web Policy, click Add → Add Exception Rule or Add Custom Category.
Enter the domain:
enter_domainname *.enter_domainname
Set the Action → Allow.
Click Save and Apply.
Go to Rules and Policies → Firewall Rules.
Edit your LAN → WAN rule.
Under Security Features, select the Web Policy you modified.
Save changes.
From any system on your LAN, open the browser and try visiting:
If it loads successfully, the rule is working.
If still blocked:
Go to Log Viewer → Web Filter and check the category.
Disable SSL/TLS inspection temporarily.
Add *.enter_domainname to the global exception list under Web → Exceptions.
Allow only trusted websites.
Use category filters to prevent misuse.
Regularly monitor logs for suspicious access.
By adding a domain exception in the Sophos Web Policy and linking it to your firewall rule, you can easily allow access to a specific website like enter_domainname while keeping full web protection active.
