Wadestown School

(IT FAQ) Internet Filtering

 

SchoolZone web filtering

SchoolZone supplies our Internet connection together with a filtering system that controls access to Internet material. There are two types of filtering:

  1. filtering of webpages based on category
  2. filtering of downloads based on their extension

Schoolzone authentication

What you can access depends on who you are. For example teachers may be able to access some material that is blocked for students. The SchoolZone server, before you can access anything from the Internet, asks you to authenticate, which means to enter your user-name and password.

Password box for SchoolZone

Filtering of webpages based on category

All websites are given one or more categories by SchoolZone. Whether you are allowed access to a website depends on which categories you are allowed to access. For example the category 'Pornography' is blocked for everybody, but the category 'Visual Search Engine', which is need for Google Images, has been unblocked for some teachers. Basically we start off with a default set of rules which are quite restrictive but these rules can be selectively relaxed by request.

Here's what you see if a website is blocked based on its category.

example of something blocked by category

Filtering of downloads based on their extension

In a similar way, whether you can download a file depends on the extension of the file and the rule for that extension that applies to you. For example Alan, the IT Manager, can download '.exe' files which are computer programs but this type is blocked for everyone else by default. Again, these rules can be individually customised by request.

Here's what you see if a website is blocked based on its extension.

Example of something blocked by extension

Requesting a change to the filtering rules

If you want to request a change to the Internet access rules then:

  1. first read the above information, then,
  2. fill in the request form and give it to Alan

Checking the filtering category

If you want to check how a site is categorised you can do that here.

  1. select the product 'McAfee SmartFilter 4.2 (XL-1)',
  2. and enter the URL.

How the filtering is applied

User settings, group settings and school-wide settings

You can specify category filtering rules at the school-wide level, at a group level and at the user level. As I understand it this works on an 'inherit and over-ride' basis. When you create a new user they inherit the category settings of their group then any changes you make to the user over-ride the settings they got from the group.

Exceptions

If this wasn't complicated enough there are also exceptions. The help states "A category which is ticked will be blocked. Categories in the 'Exceptions' area will be allowed if they are ticked." As an example I take that to mean 'visual search engines are blocked EXCEPT if they are designed for kids'.

Allowing and blocking websites school-wide

There is also an option to allow or block Internet domains for all of the school's computer users. These allow/block rules take precedence over the filtering rules described above. For example I can use this option to allow a website for everyone even when it is blocked for some or all computer users according to the filtering rules. These allow/block rules are used with whole domains (e.g. youtube.com) rather than particular webpages (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-MIDDfckw).

I don't tend to use this very much because I have found it to be error prone.

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