[KB2960] Exclude a safe website from being blocked by Web Access Protection in ESET Windows home products (15.x–16.x)

Issue

  • Web access protection is blocking a website you know to be safe

Solution

Before excluding a website

Excluding a website poses a security risk. An experienced system administrator can configure this if instructed by ESET Technical Support.

Best practices:

  • Exclude a website for a specific period only.
  • Do not exclude websites where you provide sensitive information (such as banking websites).
  • Do not disable real-time file system protection while downloading and running files from excluded websites.
  • Report miscategorization if you think ESET should not block a specific website.

Business users: Perform these steps in ESMC

Mac users: View instructions for ESET Cyber Security products.

Video Tutorial

  1. Open the main program window of your ESET Windows product.

  2. Press the F5 key to open Advanced setup.

  3. Click Web and Email Web access protection. Expand URL Address Management and click Edit next to Address list.

Figure 1-1
  1. Select List of addresses excluded from content scan and click Edit.

Figure 1-2
  1. Click Add in the Edit list window. Type the website or domain you want to exclude in the respective field and click OK → OK to save your changes and exit the Advanced setup window.

Use wildcard symbol for web addresses

For each website you add, be sure to either include "www." or a wildcard "*" symbol, as in "www.eset.com" or "*eset.com*".

Figure 1-3