Lounge

We use 8e6 (pronounced "eighty-six"), http://www.8e6technologies.com/.

It's not a proxy server. Instead, you arrange for it to observe browsers making connections out to the web. If it sees a connection to a disallowed site, it takes over the connection and redirects the browser to a web page. This means that no modifications are needed on user PC's, and you can turn the appliance box off, and the connection to the internet will not be interrupted, though now it will be unfiltered. We like that feature, but others may not.

The redirected web page, which is under our complete control, explains that the site is blocked, and optionally can allow the user to submit a request for the site to be reviewed by a human, or to bypass the filter if they have the appropriate credentials. It's very flexible. The human review happens at 8e6 -- very little intervention is required by us: set up the redirection web page, set policies, deal with user complaints (teaching them to actually READ the redirection page), email the vendor about the rare problems.

They use various heuristics for initial classification of sites, but then respond to requests for review within a day. They have many different classifications, perhaps 20 or more. We only block pornography, but as I remember there are classifications for violence, hate-sites, shopping, sports, and many others.

It's been pretty reliable, though we've had cases where the local database gets out of synch with the global service. Probably the most common problem is when a porn site happens to be hosted on a virtual server at the same IP address as a legitimate site. Once someone asks for a review it gets corrected within a day, usually.

I don't know how flexible it is with policies for individuals or groups. We don't use that feature if it exists. We do have arrangements for people who need to bypass, for example people doing legitimate academic research on porn sites, so there is some flexibility. You'd definitely want to check whether large groupings like faculty and students are feasible.

We were very reluctant to do any filtering, but the student organization actually asked for it. The 8e6 solution has worked pretty well for us.

Don't know if you have come across the Edugeek site. It was set up in the UK to support school technicians but it now seems to have a world-wide audience. This is the sort of topic that is often discussed at length (particularly in the forums). It may be worth your while to have a browse around or even pose the same question there.

Dave Berry

PS I will get my senior technician to post the details of our solution when I return to work on Tuesday.

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We and several other school systems have been quite satisfied with Dan's Guardian. With simple editing we can control (black or gray) or whitelist sites as the needs change. Also the younger ones are fairly shielded from the inappropriate sites with the standard lists.
It only proxies port 80 if that is what you want. It can be managed by Webmin on most linux distros.
The only browser change is for the proxy ip and port used.
As the cost is very low, (and only for periodic list updates) and the license is GPL, we can implement as many low end servers as we need based on school policies and teacher requests.
In our case we allow Teachers unrestricted net access directly through proxy bypassing the DansGuardian port. Our Employee User Policies require self-governance of a Teacher's Internet use.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dansguardian/

No system will outwit the ingenious mind. ..and thank goodness!

http://www.news.com.au/sundaytelegraph/story/0,,22304224-5005941,00.html

Thanks all! Dan's Guardian looks very good, and Clark Connect could be just the way to install it easily. Thanks!