URL Pattern Matching

Cyber Web Filter lets you use powerful regular expressions to match any URL. The following are examples of patterns that match different URLs. If you need help matching a URL, contact us and we will gladly help.

Matching a web site

Problem: Match the web site www.something.com.
Solution: www\.something\.com

Matching a directory

Problem: Match the "images" folder on any web site.
Solution: /images/

Matching a filename

Problem: Match the file "sample.jpg".
Solution: sample\.jpg

Matching a file extension

Problem: Match any MP3 file (*.mp3).
Solution: \.mp3

Matching a whole keyword

Problem: Match the whole keyword "sample", but not "samples".
Solution: \Wsample\W

Matching a web site prefix

Problem: Match any web site that starts with "ads.". For example, ads.something.com.
Solution: http://ads\.

Note: The period character has a special meaning in regular expressions; it means "any character" which is similar to the question mark in DOS. To match the literal period character, you must preceed the period with a backslash. That is why in the above examples you see the backslash followed by the period.