[OPLINTECH] Internet Content Filter Evaluations

[Chad Neeper]

Still dansguardian here. Although it's forked and now called e2guardian.
Free and open source. It uses a combination of lists and individual page
rankings (among other methods). ALL http traffic flows through it via
redirection at the firewall. Doesn't matter if public WiFi, staff, patron
computers. Doesn't matter what proxy/config the individual computers might
have.

Individual page rankings have been a particularly nice feature (and unique
amongst content filters) over the years. However, the page rankings have
been slowly disabled as websites switch from http to https. (Without using
what's essentially a man-in-the-middle attack, dg/e2g can't read https
pages. It's quite doable, but I don't endorse public libraries doing that.
Private companies are one thing, but I think a MITM probably exposes a
public library to legal risk.)

If not dg/e2g, I'd probably switch over to the OPLIN-funded OpenDNS.
Although I'm definitely not a fan of a DNS-based filter, it's already
funded and easy to use and configure for individual libraries. dg/e2g is
"free", but definitely *not* for the faint at heart without using someone's
well-designed GUI front-end. No filter is perfect. (And I still don't know
of a filter that truly achieves the goal behind CIPA:  to accurately filter
the *pictures*.)

2 cents.
Chad


______________________________
*Chad Neeper*
Senior Systems Engineer

*Level 9 Networks*
740-548-8070 (voice)
866-214-6607 (fax)

*Full IT/Computer consulting services -- Specialized in libraries and
schools*

On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 1:00 PM, Chris Krumnow <ckrumnow at defiancelibrary.org>
wrote:

> It's that time of year again. We are re-evaluating our content filter
> subscription. I have a question.
>
> What are you using to filter internet?
>
> What is your opinion of the application so far.
>
> We are currently using Websense. We filter for 3 different rules (Teens,
> Children, and Adults) with the ability to bypass. It works really well but
> takes up a lot of IT resources and special network configurations are
> necessary.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Chris Krumnow
> IT Specialist
> Defiance Public Library System
> Work:419-782-1456
> Cell: 419-956-2767
> defiancelibrary.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OPLINTECH mailing list
> OPLINTECH at lists.oplin.org
> http://lists.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/oplintech
>
>
>
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