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Serving Western North Carolina since 1990 |
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PCC @ your Service |
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The Internet contains both good things and bad things just a mouse click away. It is our responsibility to ensure that the Internet is used wisely and for the good of our families and businesses and not for evil. Web Content Filtering is one tool that we can use to help shoulder that responsibility.
The idea behind Web Content Filtering is to let the good parts of the Internet through while filtering out the bad. Everyone needs this. Even someone who would never intentionally visit a bad site on the Internet might misspell or mistype an Internet address. Some of the worse sites are spelled very closely to some well-known good sites. Children doing school research on our government can very easily type in the wrong address and be directed to pornographic site.
Web Content Filtering can be accomplished through a hardware device that sits between your computer and the network, or it can be accomplished through software installed on every computer. Home users and small businesses may choose the software route while schools and large businesses may choose the hardware route.
Some of the more popular software options include AFAFilter, We-Blocker, Netnanny, and CyberSitter. These programs install on your computers and monitor the |
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“Be Careful Little Eyes What You See” |
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Volume 3, Issue 3, July 22, 2005 |
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sites you attempt to go to. You will need a separate copy of each program for each computer you wish to protect. These programs work by comparing the site you wish to go to with a list of known bad sites. Some of these programs have options that allow or disallow different types of web sites. (Pornography, Racial Sites, Bomb-Making Sites, etc.) Some may allow different levels of access depending on the age of the computer user. Others have a policy of “If it’s not good for a 7 year old, then it’s not good for a 70 year old.”
Some of the more popular hardware options include SonicWall, SmoothWall, WebSense, and SurfControl. Some of these hardware options are actually optional components to a firewall system. Others may be software that you install on a dedicated proxy server. In either case, the products sit between your network and the Internet. Administration and control of these products is then accomplished at one place instead of on each individual PC. Like the software options, these devices use a list of known bad web sites to block access. These lists are usually automatically updated by the vendor at preset times.
If it is your responsibility to provide Internet access to either your family or your business, it is also your responsibility to provide Web Content Filtering. Just like a hammer can be used to build houses or to break windows, the Internet can be used for good or it can be used for evil. You have the responsibility to ensure that the tools you provide your family or your business are used appropriately. |
