Wildcards

[joealbergo]

I wanted to talk about something else, figured I'd ask about Wildcards.

Does anyone want to throw me their 2 cents?

I'd love to know a bit more about the Wildcards when using exclusions for example in the Web Shield.

Anyone

[Avosec-UK]

There are two wildcard characters the star symbol(*) and the question mark symbol (?).

The star symbol wildcards a string of characters e.g. *.txt, *\user* or C:\Folder\*
- The first example will wildcard all TXT files
- The second one will wildcard all files/folders which have names starting with "user"
- The last one will exclude all files and subfolders in: C:\Folder\

The question mark symbol wildcards a single character e.g. ?:\PageFile.sys or *\file.ab?d
- The first example will wildcard all page files on each drive(the page file can be placed on as many drives as the user want)
- The second one will wildcard all files which have names starting with *\file.ab(all letters, numbers, characters(except the system reserved characters)) and ending with the letter d

[joealbergo]

Thank you that is awesome, what about in regards to websites?

For example if I want to wildcard all Google results, what would be the best option?

I find sometimes using the incorrect wildcards.

[Avosec-UK]

*.google.*/*

The above example should wildcard all subdomains and domains of google.
However google uses SSL(HTTPS) connections, something which avast! doesn't scan.

[avast@@dvantage77.com]

I have several different examples, with several different outcomes, so I wrote an article on this issue (however, this was SBC):

http://advantage77.com/blog/2012/01/27/business-protect-clients-are-ignoring-url-site-blockings-when-deployed-by-the-sbc/

"in the Value field, add the list this way:
 
Url1;Url2;Url3;so on…
 Please not that the URL should contain “http://” ”
 
I decipher this to mean:
 
“http://www.myspace.com;http://www.facebook.com;http://www.youtube.com”

however, when pushed to the client from SBC, does not match the required client settings, which are “*facebook.com*” This did not work.
 
So I tried this: “*myspace.com*;*facebook.com*;*youtube.com*” to match what avast! Pro settings that work. This worked intermittantly.
 
So, http://www.facebook.com* works in a stand alone avast! So I tried this:
 
“http://www.myspace.com*;http://www.facebook.com*;http://www.youtube.com*” THIS WORKS!

NOTE: Webshield must be STOPPED and STARTED at client to guaranteed that you are using these new setting!

[joealbergo]

All this information is awesome ! I am very appreciative of these replies and will read them through and through!

Thank you

[joealbergo]

I have several different examples, with several different outcomes, so I wrote an article on this issue (however, this was SBC):

http://advantage77.com/blog/2012/01/27/business-protect-clients-are-ignoring-url-site-blockings-when-deployed-by-the-sbc/

"in the Value field, add the list this way:
 
Url1;Url2;Url3;so on…
 Please not that the URL should contain “http://” ”
 
I decipher this to mean:
 
“http://www.myspace.com;http://www.facebook.com;http://www.youtube.com”

however, when pushed to the client from SBC, does not match the required client settings, which are “*facebook.com*” This did not work.
 
So I tried this: “*myspace.com*;*facebook.com*;*youtube.com*” to match what avast! Pro settings that work. This worked intermittantly.
 
So, http://www.facebook.com* works in a stand alone avast! So I tried this:
 
“http://www.myspace.com*;http://www.facebook.com*;http://www.youtube.com*” THIS WORKS!

NOTE: Webshield must be STOPPED and STARTED at client to guaranteed that you are using these new setting!

What did you change when you went from *facebook.com* ? I am missing something in your explanation.

[avast@@dvantage77.com]

Yes sir.  I found that the settings did not always match what would work in the console, and what would work in the stand alone avast! Pro version.

To clarify:  *facebook.com* worked in avast Pro and the SBC client, but did not work in the console.

avast! tech Support, to add exclusions to SBC, wrote:

"in the Value field, add the list this way: Url1;Url2;Url3;so on…    Please not that the URL should contain “http://” ”

I decipher this to mean: “http://www.myspace.com;http://www.facebook.com;http://www.youtube.com”  and did NOT work in the SBC console.

So I tried this: “*myspace.com*;*facebook.com*;*youtube.com*” This worked intermittantly in the SBC Console, and worked perfectly in the stand alone client / avast! Pro
 
“http://www.myspace.com*;http://www.facebook.com*;http://www.youtube.com*” THIS WORKS in the Console, and works in the stand alone client!  And it fits the avast! tech Support Statement.

To everyones benefit, please post back what worked, and whether stand alone or Console, and version of avast!  Thanks,  J.R. Guthrie


 

[joealbergo]

I'm going to keep playing with these settings, thank you kindly sir!