Hit: Filters-- Very Long

["Mary J. Soucie" <mjsoucie@HTLS.LIB.IL.US>]

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Hi everyone,
Please excuse the cross posting.  Here is the compiled hit of responses I
received to my Filters query.  I left all identifying information out.
Thaks to all who responded,
Mary

We are using Border Patrol and I don't like it.  It filters out the good as
well as the bad.
========================================================================
We filter our youth Internet stations with SurfWatch.  We have it set up
with minimal categories blocked, and with that set-up we have had no
problems with legitimate stuff blocked.  Occasionally big kids get around
it, but we haven't had epidemics of that either.  I'm sure it doesn't
filter out everything, but we do use keyword blocking so at least kids
can't do internet searches on the f word or whatever.
========================================================================
Our school board mandated that we use a filter - SurfWatch was chosen - on
all Internet access computers.  Their philosophy is that with a filter,
we're demonstrating to the community that we're attempting to provide a
safe learning environment for students when they use computers and the
Internet.  So - I have SurfWatch on the 6 student access computers in my
library (grades 7-12 in Baker, Montana) I haven't noticed any major
problems with it - when students are just messing around - surfing for fun
on an available computer, I leave it on.  However, if they are doing
research for an assignment and having trouble because of blocked sites, I
disable it right away.  So far, no problems with students not being able to
get the material needed for assignments.  One senior boy hacked his way
through SurfWatch to some porn sites and he's lost his computer privileges
for the rest of the year.  (This happened on a VoAg computer - not in the
library.)  Hope this helps!
========================================================================
Our high school uses launcher.  It was originally installed on all
computers including mine, but they had to bypass my computer because I was
not able to reach book sites, such as BN, ABEBOOKS, etc.  I did not select
the filter and do not know much about it. I do believe that the
administrator can add or delete specific sites if someone complains that it
should not be filtered or if someone thinks it should be.  Then again some
sites get through the are questioned, and there are always attachments that
get in through a legit site.
========================================================================
I have a firewall on my Internet at school.  It has caused some minor
inconveniences, but I suppose overall it has worked well.  The biggest
glitch we found was that it blocks AOL messenger.  I had a reading teacher
who wanted to participate in a discussion via AOL messenger and we couldn't
do it.  She asked too late for me to be able to get a hole temporarily
punched in the wall for her.
========================================================================
My district uses a blocking service which actually tracks down new porno
and hate and any other objectionable sites we encounter and blocks them
through the use of Novell Border Manager--daily!  Now this is not a perfect
solution, but it's much better than filtering, I would think.  In my
libraries, when some kid finds a naked butt or something to leave on our
screen, we just take the URL down and send it in to Novell and they block
it immediately.  I think it's a much more sensible solution because
filtering is so unintelligent ...blocks the good with the bad oftentimes.
========================================================================
We use Cyber Patrol.  Pay monthly for "someone" to determine the sites to
be filtered.  Many things get through that should not and we are always
seeing things we should not see.  Also many sites we would like to see are
filtered because of certain words used in a search --ex.  breast cancer.
Won't go there because of breast!  Most of the Geosites are blocked.  There
are some good things there.  Good luck.
===============================================================
We have BESS.  It's controlled by real people so you can get sites blocked
or unblocked if you need to do that.  A lot of sites get blocked and we
can't figure out why though.  I really don't like filtering at all but BESS
isn't too bad.
========================================================================
One of our four public Internet terminals is filtered with BESS/N2H2.  It
gets used much less than the other three because it blocks e-mail service,
which is what most of our users want from the terminals.  We have only
anecdotal evidence of this, but it also blocks some useful sites.  One man
was looking up his investments and found that he couldn't get one of his
holdings because the filter thought that one of his stock symbols was a
pornographic reference!  Some students have been frustrated by being unable
to access information on various countries for the same reason. We have had
no experience with anyone being able to fool the filter and find
pornographic information, but others have reported this elsewhere, I
believe.
========================================================================
_________ Public Library is not using a filter although at present we are
facing a challlenge from two women.  Most likely we will not use one as
they usually harm more than help Internet search results.  We do have
Internet permission slips and stickers on cards that Identify children who
have signed slips. Computers are assigned after patron shows a library card
or we can look them up.  This method is working pretty well and our
problems with patron looking at pornography has been minimal and easy to
handle.  The women challenging have just begun and the board will decide
soon about any changes.  We don't believe any filters will be added due to
the fact that no matter which way we go a lawsuit is a possiblity anyway..
We do not have Internet access on the two computers in the children's
section although the children can sign up for the adult computers.
========================================================================
Here at _________ School District, we utilize the X-Stop R2000 solution.
Overall, we have been fairly pleased with it.  However, as with everything,
there are good and bad points:
Goodies:
* It allows for a lot of flexibility insofar as which categories are
blocked, passed, tracked, etc.
* The updates, maintenance, and upgrades to the box are seamless and
automated, making it a "Plug and play, walk away" type of situation.  With
the amount of work we have supporting users, a low maintenance box was a
necessity.
* You have a service technician assigned to your R2000 that monitors it on
a daily basis.  This is nice if you have issues with the configuration or
with the service, as you have one person who really knows your setup and
situation.
* The R2000 can notify you when it encounters a system problem or alert.
This alert can occur as an email to an account or pager, etc.  This is nice
for hands on admin. who like to know what is going on with their equipment.
It can also be monitored by most retail monitors (Enterprise Monitor).
* You can set up bypass usernames and passwords to allow faculty members to
get by the filter in some cases, but you can still allow them only a
certain level of access (i.e. they can visit a site for research purposes,
but they still cannot get to anything like Playboy, etc.)
* If you encounter a site which you think should not be blocked, you have
two options open to you.  First, you can remove the site from your block
list on your filter.  While this is possible, the interface is a bit
clunky. The easier route is to send X-Stop an email and have them evaluate
the site. They typically review it within 24 hours and will issue an "all
clear" to their block list and update your filter.

Gripes:
* The monitoring leaves a lot to be desired.  Here at Camas, we have an NT
domain structure enabled, which means that everyone uses logins and
passwords to access the network, and by extension, the internet.  Even
though this is the case, the R2000 can only log by IP address only, not by
username.  This downfall can be tackled two ways, however.  X-stop has a
proxy server plug-in that will log usernames, or you can monitor usage
through a different device (such as a Caching or Proxy server) and cross
reference the logs.
* <insert First Amendment rant here>
* The filter needs a fair bit of configuration to work the way it is
supposed to.  For example, it blocks by keywords on searches.  For example,
if you search on Yahoo! for a term that contains a red flagged word, sex
for example, the filter will block your search.
* Sites are blocked by IP address rather than by FQDN.  This has some queer
effects on other domains that should not be blocked.  In the age of virtual
hosting, many different sites may be hosted on the same server.  If one of
these sites ends up being blocked, all of the sites hosted from this server
will be blocked as well if they have not been issued the "all clear".  If
you encounter any of these, however, you can have them unblocked using the
procedure I outlined above.
========================================================================
We are using a filter for our K-8 school district.  I don't know which
one,as it was put on by the Tech department, but as a user I do see the
effects.  There have been a number of very legitimate web sites I have
wanted to access, and couldn't get in to -- for example, the other day I
did a search on "German Traditional Dress or Costume" and found most of the
sites blocked.  Fortunately, I keep my own web browser on my personal
computer, and it does not go through the school filter.  So I am able to
use my own terminal to research areas that are closed to students.  I will
often research and download information on request (after scanning and
approving it, of course.)  I know filters of some type are necessary -- but
they can also be a real pain!
--
Mary J. Soucie
Youth Services Consultant
Heritage Trail Library System
405 Earl Road
Shorewood IL 60431
815-729-3345 x110
815-725-0930 Fax
mailto:mjsoucie@htls.lib.il.us
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