[K12OSN] blacklists -- paid vs. free

[richard ingalls]

My first Linux project was to get my school district
properly "filtered".  The commercial filter they were
using was unacceptable.  I pulled it off the network
and built a squid/SquidGuard/DansGuardian box.  I
found an easy to use webmin module for DansGuardian
(DG) and use it to administer the filter.  I never
touch squid or squidGuard, but SG updates it's lists
every night automagically!  I use DG to customize the
"phraselists" and it seems to work very well!  Out
cost? 0$!

You can't beat FREE!  And it works beautifully!

--- Mark Sarria <mes4294 at lausd.k12.ca.us> wrote:

> This is a good question and it happens to tie in
> with the comparison I am
> performing. Our district purchased Websense
> Enterprise, and I have Squid
> running SquidGuard locally in my school.
> I don't have full control of Websense so it might
> not be a far comparison.
> Our procedure for adding website to our blacklist is
> to call the district
> office ITD and have them add it to the Websense
> blacklist.
> 
> My squid server updates its black list every night.
> The past few weeks I
> have been testing for filtering. In my testing I
> found that Websense blocked
> more sites than my squidguard filter. It was able to
> block sites in the
> google sponsored links section. In order to block
> those sites using my
> squidguard server, I had to add them to my
> blacklist. This could perhaps
> mean that the district hired someone or is paying
> Websense to create a
> custom filter rule for the district. Since all 2000
> plus high schools use
> the same filters.
> Don't confuse the fact that squidguard does not do
> proper filtering, in deed
> it does. There were a few sites that squidguard did
> block that websense did
> not and squidguard does a pretty good job of
> blocking adware and spyware,
> were websense does nothing to protect us from that.
> 
> To answer your question, it will depend on how much
> administration you are
> will to do or in your case charge for. You will
> always have to add your own
> site to the blacklist regardless of solution you
> choose, paid blacklist or
> free blacklist.
> 
> --mark 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: k12osn-bounces at redhat.com
> [mailto:k12osn-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf
> Of Rob Owens
> Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 8:37 AM
> To: k12osn at redhat.com
> Subject: [K12OSN] blacklists -- paid vs. free 
> 
> I'm setting up a content filter and was wondering
> what
> everybody's opinions were on the free blacklists
> available on the web vs the ones you can buy from
> various companies.  I don't have experience using
> either.  This particular setup is for a company that
> has money to spend, but if the free lists are just
> as
> good as the paid ones, then I'll have the company
> spend their money elsewhere.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> -Rob
> 
> 
> 		
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