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Firewall Admin Guide

The Firewall Administrator's Complete Guide to Blocking AI Tools

Your organization mandated AI tool blocking — now you need a domain list that actually covers the landscape. Import 17,410+ classified AI-tool domains into any major firewall platform in under an hour, with daily automated updates.

17,410+AI Domains
18Categories
7+Formats
DailyUpdates
NGFW EDL Feeds
UTM Threat Feeds
DNS Blocklists
Cloud SWG Categories
Hosts & PAC Files
Daily Automated Updates
The Challenge

Why Your Firewall's Built-In Categories Fall Short

Every next-generation firewall ships with URL filtering categories — but those categories were built for gambling, malware, and adult content. They were never designed to classify the fast-growing long tail of AI tools.

The coverage gap: most firewalls either lack an "AI" category entirely or list only a few hundred obvious domains like openai.com and midjourney.com. Tens of thousands of specialized AI writing tools, code generators, voice cloners, and autonomous agents remain completely unblocked.
The velocity problem: new AI tool domains register faster than any firewall vendor's content team can classify them. A tool launched on Monday has employees pasting confidential data into it by Wednesday — your firewall vendor might add it six months later.
How the AI Tools Blocklist fills the gap
  • 17,410+ AI-tool domains classified into 18 categories
  • Built from a 102-million-domain corpus, updated daily
  • Delivered in every native format — EDL, threat feed, DNSBL, custom URL category, and plain-text domain lists
  • No conversion scripts, no manual reformatting, no maintenance burden
Platform Support

Every Major Firewall Platform, One Blocklist

We deliver the AI domain blocklist in the native format each platform expects. No conversion scripts, no manual reformatting, no maintenance burden.

Next-Gen Firewalls (NGFW)

Hosted EDL that your NGFW polls automatically — attach it to a security policy rule and every AI-tool domain is blocked at the session level. Updates propagate within the refresh interval you set, typically five minutes.

UTM Appliances

Create a web filter profile with a custom URL category referencing your AI domain feed, and the UTM appliance enforces the block via firewall policy. The threat feed connector refreshes the list automatically on your chosen schedule.

DNS Filtering Platforms

Upload AI-tool domains as a custom blocklist in your DNS filtering platform and associate it with a DNS policy. The platform blocks resolution before any connection is established and reports which users hit blocked domains.

Cloud SWG Platforms

Add AI-tool domains as a custom URL category in your cloud secure web gateway (SWG) and reference it in a URL filtering rule. Every user connected to the SWG is covered regardless of location — cloud-native, no on-prem infrastructure required.

Open-Source Firewalls

Point your open-source firewall's DNS blocklist plugin at our hosted domain list URL to sinkhole-block every AI-tool domain at the DNS level. Works transparently for all network clients with no proxy configuration needed.

Endpoint Protection Platforms

Import AI-tool domains as URL indicators with a block action in your endpoint protection platform. Enforce via endpoint management or network protection across managed Windows, macOS, and mobile endpoints regardless of network.

Automation

Automating Updates: Never Maintain a Manual List Again

Static blocklists decay within days — a list accurate in January is missing hundreds of new tools by March. Automate with a scheduled job that pulls the latest database from the API every day, so the infrastructure handles updates without manual intervention.

1

Scheduled Download from the Database API

A daily cron job downloads the database CSV, extracts the domain column, and writes the plain-text list your firewall or resolver consumes. Pre-formatted EDL exports are also available from your account downloads page — host either file internally (e.g. https://edl.yourcompany.internal/ai_domains.txt) for appliances that poll a feed URL.

# Example: cron job to fetch the latest AI blocklist and reload your firewall
# Runs daily at 2 AM: downloads the CSV, extracts the domain column, reloads DNS

0 2 * * * /usr/bin/curl -s -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://www.aitoolsblocklist.com/api/database/?action=download_database" \
  | tail -n +2 | cut -d, -f1 > /etc/blocklists/ai-tools.txt \
  && /usr/sbin/unbound-control reload
2

REST API with Change Detection

Our REST API exposes database metadata for programmatic integration. Poll the metadata endpoint, compare last_updated_unix with your saved value, and re-download only when the database has changed — then diff locally to see what was added or removed.

# Check whether the database changed since your last sync
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://www.aitoolsblocklist.com/api/database/?action=database_info"
# Response is JSON metadata including "last_updated_unix"

# If last_updated_unix is newer than your saved value, re-download and diff
curl -s -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://www.aitoolsblocklist.com/api/database/?action=download_database" \
  | tail -n +2 | cut -d, -f1 | sort > /tmp/ai-tools-new.txt

comm -13 /etc/blocklists/ai-tools.txt /tmp/ai-tools-new.txt   # added
comm -23 /etc/blocklists/ai-tools.txt /tmp/ai-tools-new.txt   # removed
3

PAC File for Browser-Level Enforcement

A PAC file routes AI-tool domains through a blocking proxy for remote workers and BYOD devices not behind the corporate firewall. Deploy it via Group Policy or MDM profile.

// PAC file snippet — block AI tool domains via proxy sinkhole
function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {
    var aiDomains = [
        "openai.com", "chat.openai.com",
        "claude.ai", "anthropic.com",
        "gemini.google.com", "bard.google.com",
        "midjourney.com", "jasper.ai",
        // ... full list from our feed
    ];
    for (var i = 0; i < aiDomains.length; i++) {
        if (dnsDomainIs(host, aiDomains[i])) {
            return "PROXY block.internal:8080";
        }
    }
    return "DIRECT";
}
The Data Underneath

The Numbers That Matter

Every feed format draws from the same classified corpus — scanned, categorized, and refreshed on a 24-hour cycle.

17,410+AI tool domains classified
300KNew domains scanned per day
102MTotal domain corpus
24hrUpdate cycle
EDL Threat Feed DNSBL Custom URL Category Hosts File PAC File CSV / API
Granular Control

Category-Based Blocking: Block What You Need, Allow What You Don't

Not every organization wants a blanket block on all AI tools — some teams need code assistants while others must be blocked from AI writing tools. Our 18-category taxonomy enables per-department, per-category granularity.

One data source, different rules per team. Every domain is classified into one of 18 categories and subcategories, and you can filter by category when downloading or consuming the feed. For example, block "Text & Language" for finance while allowing "Code & Development" for engineering.
Resilient to rebranding. Categories are based on functional behavior, not marketing labels — an "AI writing assistant" and a "content optimization platform" both land in "Text & Language" because they both accept and produce text. This makes your policy immune to vendor marketing euphemisms.
Text & LanguageChatbots, writing, translation
Code & DevelopmentCode assistants, autocomplete
Image & VisualImage gen, editing, avatars
Agents & AutomationAutonomous agents, RPA
Audio, Voice & MusicTTS, voice clone, transcription
Data & AnalyticsBI, scraping, extraction
Implementation

Step-by-Step: From Zero to Full AI Blocking in Under an Hour

The implementation workflow is the same regardless of firewall vendor — only the specific menus and CLI commands differ. Follow this universal workflow, with platform-specific guides linked throughout.

1

Choose Your Format

Determine the ingestion method your firewall supports: EDL (next-gen firewalls), external threat feed (UTM appliances), destination list (DNS filters), DNSBL (open-source firewalls), custom URL category (cloud SWG), or indicator import (endpoint protection). A plain-text list works with any system that reads a text file.

2

Select Categories

Decide whether you need a full block of all 18 AI categories or a targeted block of specific ones. Category-filtered lists are available via the API or as pre-built downloads for common policy profiles (e.g., "block all except Code & Development").

3

Configure the Feed

Point your firewall at the feed URL or import the domain list, and set the refresh interval (daily recommended; hourly available for enterprise plans). Apply the block rule to the appropriate user groups, VLANs, or security zones.

4

Verify and Monitor

Test by navigating to a known AI-tool domain from a client behind the firewall, then check logs to confirm the block action. Set up SIEM log forwarding for alerts and monitor feed refresh logs to confirm daily updates pull successfully.

# Quick validation script — test if AI domains are blocked from a client machine
# Run from any machine behind the firewall

#!/bin/bash
DOMAINS=("openai.com" "claude.ai" "midjourney.com" "jasper.ai" "copy.ai")
for domain in "${DOMAINS[@]}"; do
    response=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --connect-timeout 5 "https://$domain")
    if [ "$response" == "000" ] || [ "$response" == "403" ]; then
        echo "[BLOCKED] $domain"
    else
        echo "[OPEN]    $domain — HTTP $response"
    fi
done
Endpoint-Level Blocking

Hosts File: The Simplest Possible Block

For individual machines not behind the corporate firewall, the hosts file is the fastest path — it maps AI-tool domains to 0.0.0.0, sinkholing them before any network request is made. No additional software is required and it works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Instant coverage: our feed includes a pre-formatted hosts file — download it, append it to the system hosts file, and the machine instantly blocks all 17,410+ domains. For managed environments, deploy via Group Policy, macOS configuration profiles, or tools like Ansible, Puppet, or Chef.
Network-wide alternative: for DNS sinkholing without per-machine hosts files, use Pi-hole, AdGuard Home, or your DNS resolver's blocklist feature. The operational principle is the same — resolve AI-tool domains to a sinkhole address — but enforcement happens at the network level rather than the endpoint level.
# /etc/hosts — AI tool blocking (excerpt)
# Full hosts-format file available from your account downloads page

0.0.0.0  openai.com
0.0.0.0  chat.openai.com
0.0.0.0  api.openai.com
0.0.0.0  claude.ai
0.0.0.0  anthropic.com
0.0.0.0  gemini.google.com
0.0.0.0  midjourney.com
0.0.0.0  jasper.ai
0.0.0.0  copy.ai
0.0.0.0  writesonic.com
# ... 17,410+ domains total

Ready to Deploy AI Blocking on Your Firewall?

Download the free 50-domain sample to test on your firewall today. Or tell us your platform and we will send the feed in the exact format you need.

Tell Us Your Firewall Platform

Specify your firewall vendor, firmware version, and preferred format (EDL, hosts, PAC, API). We will send a ready-to-import feed within 24 hours.

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