Blocking Facebook Chat with Application Visibility and Control (AVC)

Question:

How do I allow Facebook but block Facebook chat using Application Visibility and Control on the Web Security Appliance?

Environment:
AsyncOS 7.x and later

Symptoms:
Occasionally it becomes necessary to block user access for instant messaging (IM/chat) traffic within the environment to avoid loss of productivity.

Solution:
From GUI:

• Navigate to the Web Security Manager > Access Policies page.
• Click the link in the policies table under the Applications column for the policy group you want to edit. The Applications Visibility and Control page appears.
• Choose Define Applications Custom Settings in the Edit Applications Settings section.
• Click Facebook  under Application column to expand it (that will show all categories within Facebook)
• Click on Facebook Chat and then check radio button Block
• Submit and commit.

Please note:

1. Assure AVC is enabled.
2. Check access policy setting/configuration.
3. Verify clients are hitting correct access policy using access logs details.

Related Articles:

• Enabling Application Visbility and Control 
• Block File Transfer within the Yahoo Messenger using Application Visibility and Control