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This article outlines DNSFilter's recommended Filtering Policy settings to protect against Uncategorized and Unknown site traffic.

DNS requests to never before seen domains trigger our Artificial Intelligence (AI) engine to scan and classify them, so that future DNS requests are treated accordingly. Block new and very new domains under the Threats tab under your policies. 

The options below can help further protect against these threats by categorizing in real-time or altogether blocking unknown site traffic. These Labs features are still in active development, so we recommend trying them out in non-critical environments first. They may evolve as we gather feedback, and your input plays a key role in helping us fine-tune their functionality.

FirstSight Blocking

One of DNSFilter’s distinct and market-leading features is our FirstSight filter. If a domain has never been seen by DNSFilter’s content filtering system, it is categorized in real-time upon the first visit by our AI engine. 

Turn on FirstSight in your Filtering Policy and be seamlessly taken to the site if the scan results match up with what is allowed in your policy. The page will display the Filtering Policy's block page if the site is blocked.  

1. From the DNSFilter dashboard, navigate to Policies and select Filtering
2. Select a new or existing Policy to edit
3. Navigate to Labs
4. Toggle the Enable FirstSight Page Feature switch on
5. Select Save Policy to implement the change

Block Uncategorized & Unknown Sites

The Uncategorized & Unknown Sites option under Labs introduces a strict setting that restricts functionality for most users. Globally blocking Uncategorized and Unknown sites will likely cause some services to stop functioning normally. Many web pages and software applications use content servers that are often obscurely named and not documented, which causes them to appear as Uncategorized.

Use the Query Log to determine which traffic to allow to the policy's Allow List so that users have reduced interruption.

✍️ The Block Uncategorized and Unknown Sites setting applies to entries labeled Top Level Domains the same as entries labeled Uncategorized. Filtering behavior for these entries is unchanged.

To block all Uncategorized and Unknown sites:

1. From the DNSFilter dashboard, navigate to Policies and select Filtering
2. Select a new or existing Policy to edit
3. Navigate to Labs
4. Select Uncategorized & Unknown Sites
   A warning will appear reiterating the potential loss of functionality for users when this category is blocked.
5. Select Save Policy to implement the update