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You can block or allow lots of web addresses at once using wildcards. Large websites often have very complicated addresses. For example, if you visit the Microsoft site at www.microsoft.com, a link might take you to search.microsoft.com or support.microsoft.com. The key thing here is that all the web addresses end with microsoft.com. So, if you want to block or allow access to the entire Microsoft site, just enter *microsoft.com – and it’s done.
And yes… if you enter *.com in your block list, all sites ending in .com will be off limits. Enter just * in your block list and the whole of the internet is shut off!
Limitations – it doesn’t work the other way
To continue the example above, you cannot block or allow access to microsoft* – in other words, you can’t put the wildcard at the end of the web address, only at the beginning. Therefore, you cannot block or allow any web address that includes the word microsoft by adding *microsoft* to your list.
Wildcards in branches
Unlike in the main web address, wildcards are fully supported after the forward slash. This might be useful if you want specifically to allow access to some parts of a website and block access to other areas of the same site. If you just want to block or allow access to the whole site – don’t bother with the branch and let the filter take care of it.
This is best explained by way of example. Any of the following examples are possible as block or allow list entries:
www.animals.com/*birds would block or allow any branch of the animals site that ended with the word ‘birds’
www.animals.com/birds* would block or allow entry to any branch of the animals site which began with the word ‘birds’
www.animals.com/*birds* would block or allow access to any branch of the animals website that included the word ‘birds’ anywhere.
In most cases you’ll probably just want to block or allow all branches. That’s why when you enter www.website.com into a list, the filter displays *://www.website.com/* – any branch is covered.
NB: the Microsoft site and www.animals.com are used here purely as examples and should not be taken as a recommendation to block or allow access to either site.