Cisco Cisco Web Security Appliance S670 User Guide

You can configure the Web Security appliance to inform users that it is filtering and monitoring their 
web activity. The appliance does this by displaying an end-user acknowledgment page when a user first 
accesses a browser after a certain period of time. When the end-user acknowledgment page appears, 
users must click a link to access the original site requested or any other website. 

If you choose to have clients explicitly forward requests to the web proxy, you must also decide how to 
configure the clients to do this. Choose from the following methods:

Configure Clients Using Explicit Settings. Configure clients with the web proxy hostname and 
port number. See individual client documentation for details on how to do this.

The web proxy port uses port numbers 80 and 3128 by default. Clients can use either port.

Configure Clients Using a Proxy Auto-Config (PAC) File. PAC files provide clients with 
instructions on where to direct web requests. This options allows you to centrally manage 
subsequent changes to the proxy details. 

If you choose to use PAC files, you must also choose where to store them and how clients will find them.

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You must publish PAC files where clients can access them. Valid locations are:

Web servers. 

Web Security appliances. You can place PAC files on a Web Security appliance, which appears to 
clients as a web browser. The appliance also offers additional options to manage PAC files, including 
the ability to service requests that use different hostnames, ports, and file names.

Local machines. You can place the PAC file locally on a client’s hard disk. Cisco does not 
recommend this as a general solution, and it is not suited to automatic PAC file detection methods, 
but it can be useful for testing.

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