[K12OSN] Way to block spyware with content filter?

Adam Melancon adammelancon at gmail.com
Thu Feb 17 15:35:31 UTC 2005


I think it's a great idea.  
There are also sites that make custom hosts files to block bad sites
for windows that include all the advertising companies, along with
spyware sites.
Here is a sample hosts file that is filled with goodies.
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt
It comes from this article.
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Also you could possibly include some sites or regular expressions from
"adblock" lists that are used in firefox's adblock extension.
http://gauret.free.fr/adshare/adshare.php

Here is their list, and you can even tweak it before downloading the file.
http://gauret.free.fr/adshare/adshare.php?action=show


Thanks for sparking a great idea Jimmy!

On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 10:27:42 -0500, Jimmy Schwankl
<schwankl at chatham.k12.nc.us> wrote:
> Hey y'all,
> 
> I had this idea.  I don't know if it would work, but I don't know why
> it wouldn't.  And if it does, it could eliminate a lot of the time you
> have to spend removing ad/spyware.
> 
> Spybot Search and Destroy has an immunize feature that when activated
> says it is blocking some number of bad websites silently in IE.
> 
> My idea was to look through the spybot files to see if  I could find
> this blacklist.  Then add those URL's to our content filter's
> blacklist.  That way everyone in the school district is "immunized"
> without a tech having to install Spybot S+D on every Windows PC.  I
> keep blowing the Linux horn, but we still have a lot of Windows
> machines.
> 
> I'm not in charge of the content filter, so I can't test this. The guy
> who is in charge thought it should work, but hasn't had time to put in
> the list I sent him.
> 
> If anyone wants to give it a try, the lists are available here:
> 
> http://www8.chatham.k12.nc.us/schwankl/blacklists/index.html
> 
> The Company URL list may block some sites just because they use
> tracking cookies.  You may want to remove those (like excite.com) The
> Product URL list is probably more specifically dialers, hijackers, and
> adware/spyware.
> 
> What do people think?  Will it work?
> 
> Peace,
> Jimmy Schwankl
> Chatham County Schools
> 
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-- 
Adam Melancon
Work: http://www.vermilion.lib.la.us
Personal: http://www.melancon.org




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