Lightspeed to PAN-DB Category Mapping

By Jon Robinson | Published September 1, 2016 | Updated January 26, 2024

The following is a breakdown of Lightspeed URL categories and their Palo Alto Networks PAN-DB equivalent.

In some cases PAN-DB may not have a matching category, but this can usually be supplemented with applications instead of URL’s. For example, PAN-DB doesn’t have a photography category, but has an application subcategory for photo-video that can be reviewed and limited in availability. In this way, you can generally achieve the desired level of filtering equivalent to that of Lightspeed.

Hopefully this will be helpful when migrating or converting a Lightspeed config to Palo Alto Networks.

Lightspeed URL Categories PAN-DB URL Categories
access-denied No direct URL category
ads Web-Advertisements
adult adult
adult.art adult
adult.bodyart adult
adult.games adult
adult.language adult
alcohol alcohol-and-tobacco
audio-video streaming-media or application policy
automobile No direct URL category
business business-and-economy
business.construction business-and-economy
business.finance business-and-economy
business.jobs business-and-economy
business.manufacturing business-and-economy
business.real_estate business-and-economy
computers computer-and-internet-info
computers.consumer_electronics computer-and-internet-info
computers.filehosting shareware-and-freeware
directory No direct URL category
drugs abused-drugs
education See subcategories below
education.arts entertainment-and-arts
education.games games
education.history reference-and-research
education.literature entertainment-and-arts
education.media entertainment-and-arts and training-and-tools
education.music entertainment-and-arts
education.science reference-and-research and training-and-tools
education.sex sex-education
education.social_science reference-and-research and training-and-tools
entertainment entertainment-and-arts
entertainment.radio_and_tv entertainment-and-arts
expired parked
family No direct URL category
family.food society
family.health health-and-medicine
family.religion religion
forums recreation-and-hobbies
forums.blogs personal-sites-and-blogs
forums.dating dating
forums.im Covered by application policy
forums.mail web-based-email
forums.newsgroups news
forums.p2p peer-to-peer
forums.personals personal-sites-and-blogs
forums.social_networking social-networking and application policy
gambling gambling
games games
general No direct URL category
government government
ham Partially covered by web-based-email
hobby recreation-and-hobbies
humor entertainment-and-arts
kids_and_teens No direct URL category
kids_and_teens.animals No direct URL category
kids_and_teens.chat No direct URL category
law legal
local-allow Custom URL categories
local-block Custom URL categories
microsoft No direct URL category
music music and application policy
news news
offensive questionable
parked parked
photography No direct URL category
plagarism No direct URL category
porn adult
porn.illicit adult
search search-engines
security computer-and-internet-info
security.hacking hacking
security.nettools proxy-avoidance-and-anonymizers and application policy
security.phishing phishing
security.potentially_unwanted_applications malware
security.proxy proxy-avoidance-and-anonymizers
security.spyware malware
security.test No direct URL category
security.virus malware
security.virus_ignore No direct URL category
security.warez peer-to-peer and shareware-and-freeware
security.malware malware
Security.Shorteners No direct URL category
shopping shopping
shopping.auctions shopping
shopping.office_supplies shopping
shopping.spam covered by malware and phishing
society society
society.crime society
society.politics society
spam covered by malware and phishing
sports sports
sports.fantasy sports
sports.martial_arts sports
sports.youth sports
suspicious malware
suspicious.script malware
travel travel
violence questionable
violence.hate hate-and-racism
weapons weapons
world Covered by security policy (Built in regional objects, i.e US, Russia, etc. that can be controlled on a very granular level. For example, you can allow all regions to reach your website, but apply QoS, DoS protection, and stricter threat prevention policies just to foreign countries)