Allowed Hostnames

Allowed Hostnames work similarly to Allowed IP Address entries, except they are configured by hostname instead of IP address. A daemon periodically resolves the hostnames to IP address(es) and allows them through the portal without authentication in this zone.

The most common use of this feature is to make a “walled garden” style portal, where users are permitted to access a restricted set of sites without authenticating to the portal. This is also commonly used with the Pre-authentication Redirect URL if that page is hosted externally.

Note

Often sites will use many hostnames, content delivery networks, or ad servers as part of their content. In order to allow a site to load fully, all of these additional sites must be added to the list of allowed hostnames.

Direction:

The direction to allow traffic matching this hostname. In most typical use cases for allowing hostnames, the To or Both directions are the best fit.

To:

Allow traffic from local clients to a remote site matching this hostname as a destination without authentication. For example, a remote web server that must always be reachable by local clients, even when they are not logged in.

From:

Allow traffic sourced from this hostname through the portal, such as the hostname of a local client attempting to reach the Internet.

Both:

Allow traffic both to and from this hostname.

Hostname:

The fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the target host or site. The hostname must exist in DNS so that it can be resolved to an IP address.

Description:

Text describing the entry, if desired.

Bandwidth up/down:

The amount of bandwidth that traffic to or from this hostname may use. Leave blank to not specify a limit.