the pix firewall url filtering is provided in partnership with the netpartners websense product. the pix firewall checks outgoing url requests with the policy defined on the websense server, which runs either on windows nt or unix. websense version 4 is supported in pix firewall version 5.3 and later.

    pix firewall either permits or denies the connection, based on the response from the netpartners websense server. this server matches a request against a list of 17 website characteristics deemed inappropriate for business use. because url filtering is handled on a separate platform, no additional performance burden is placed on the pix firewall. for further information, refer to the following website:

    http://www.websense.com