/) to the end of a rule in the Website URLs section of a GoGuardian Admin policy, allowing IT administrators to target top-level domains (TLDs), such as *.edu, while preventing users from accessing lookalike domains. Auto-Format Domains is enabled by default and applies only to rules you add going forward.
Review How Auto-Format Domains Works
A website URL rule is made up of a scheme, a subdomain, a domain, a top-level domain (TLD), a path, and query parameters. GoGuardian removes the scheme and thewww subdomain before matching a rule against a URL, and it applies a trailing slash when Auto-Format Domains is enabled.
Without a trailing slash, a rule matches any address that starts with it, including lookalike domains that only resemble the one you intended. google.com also matches google.com.evil-site.net because the rule has no boundary that marks where the intended domain ends.
Scope Rules to an Exact Top-Level Domain
To block or allow every website under a specific top-level domain, such as every.edu site, put a wildcard before the TLD. Auto-Format Domains adds the trailing slash for you, so *.edu becomes *.edu/.
Without the trailing slash, a rule like
*.co also matches .com domains, because the match has no end boundary. Scoping the rule with a trailing slash is what limits it to the intended TLD.
Know When Auto-Format Domains Does Not Apply
Auto-Format Domains only reformats a rule that names a host and nothing more specific. It leaves the following rule types unchanged, because they already target something more specific than a bare domain:- Rules with a path already, such as
docs.google.com/document. - Rules with a trailing wildcard, such as
google.com*. - Keyword and substring patterns, such as
*proxyor*games*, which search for text anywhere in a URL rather than matching a domain.
Auto-Format Domains applies only to rules entered directly in the Website URLs field. It does not reformat rules added through a CSV upload.
Turn Auto-Format Domains On or Off
Auto-Format Domains is on by default. To change it for a policy:- In GoGuardian Admin, navigate to Policies.
- Click the name of the policy you want to update.
- Open the Website URLs tab.
- Turn Auto-Format Domains on or off, next to the Website URL or Wildcard field.
Resources
Use Wildcard Rules in Policies
Reference for wildcard syntax elsewhere in a Website URL rule.
Allow and Block Websites
Add Website URL rules to a filtering policy.