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Hey everyone,
I am interested in working on creating an internet filter, and give it out for free. The point of the filter will be to be as cheap (hopefully free), painless, hard-to-hack, multi platform, multi browser, and flexible as possible.
I know there are many filters out there already, and there might be some that have all or some the above qualities. As the problem may have already been solved I would like suggestions of different filters that people use, and their reviews of them.
Specifically, I would like to know
a) If the filtering is done server-side, client-side, router software, or in-browser
b) Which OS it works on
c) Accuracy (if it’s a black list), meaning- does it sometimes let things through? Or block pages known to be clean?
d) How easy is to circumvent the filter? Can a kid disable the filter or use a proxy? Would it take a computer genius to break it?
e) How much magmas nefesh (pain) does it give the end user? Is it possible for a regular worker to use it?
I personally have only heard of a couple of solutions, the most popular one nowadays (at least in Jewish press coverage) is WebChaver. I feel that it’s really insufficient because a) it’s not a filter; people get tempted and multiple people use one computer b) it costs money and (many, many) people are either too cheap or too unwilling to pay for something they’ve never tried.
Separately, any suggestions or advice of what type of filter would be good or no good for the masses is greatly appreciated.
(For all that may complain; I do think that this thread should be separate from the other one)
Tonight there is a meeting in Rabbi Chezkel Roths Shule in Boro Park allowing men to bring their devices, ( Phones or laptops) and get hooked on to various filters free of charge!
The off switch. Works wonders. Some have suggested it might be too strict, but hey, why not err on the side of caution.
dont waste your time.
ANYONE especially kids can disable a filter, there are anonymous internet proxies out there (They are usually used by people in countries like China who block political sites) that will overide any filter
Make sure the computer is in a place where all activity is visible to everyone else. If noone else around, it may not be used. Make sure last person to use, powers down, completely. Always require password when turning on, coming back from standby or hibernation mode. Passwords that require the input of several people will ensure computer is never used alone.
E-Nativ is literally the best filter,at least for us. Customer service is 100% courteous and efficient, and I have not had a single problem since I got this computer/filter with anything improper making an appearance,b”h!!My kids can type up papers or play (filtered)games, and I don’t have to worry about a thing.I feel lucky to have such a great filter,b”h.
I think my k9 filter has a virus. It has been very reliable for years but now it has blocked everything from the Internet except you tube and gmail! Even when I put a time block on and added YouTube to the block list, it is still allowing those two sites all the time. And no, my kids did not do it. It is so strange.
the problem is that filters are highly impractical for many business users. There is no way to know what you will need to access in advance. Even the adblocker which I use has to be disabled for individual webpages on a regular basis. I wish you luck though and would love to see what you come up with.
you mean the windows admin password? what a joke.
We have K9 installed on our computer at home. It’s free to use and the way we have it setup is that my wife has her own personal email account only she knows the password for and we use that email for the filter so if you request a password reset the request is sent to her email (obviously only she has the password for the filter itself).
The filter blocks bad sites in general, with like 3 levels of increasingly strict blocking, and you can personalize it to block other sites that it doesn’t automatically block (I think you might be able to allow certain sites too but not sure). You can also block the internet entirely for certain parts of the day. So the way we do it is that to use the internet at all my wife needs to put in the password for regular surfing and then she would need to enter the password a second time to view a site that is normally blocked.
When you enter in the password you can choose a time limit on it of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15, 30, or an hour. You can also log in to see a list of when the password has been entered as well as any site exceptions viewed and when. If you clear out the list then it shows the last time the list was erased. Once you have the software installed on your computer I think it works on all browsers (we use microsoft internet explorer and mozilla firefox and it for sure works on them). Also, if you are running your machine on windows and you create another user profile the K9 will still block on there. One big setback though is that if somebody puts on the password and you put the machine to sleep before the time limit expires, when you wake it back up it will still be available. If you shut the computer off completely then when you restart it the password needs to be put on again.
While it’s not perfect (no filter is) it works pretty well, especially if you employ some of the extra customizations I’ve mentioned. Keep in mind – this is all for a desktop or laptop. If you are using an iphone or Ipad you can download the K9 browser but there are a LOT of ways to get around it on these devices – namely just downloading the app of some other browser. Also while you can disable the youtube app or the default safari browser app, the app store itself has a lot of pritzus available on it. We had one of these devices for a while but ended up getting it out of the house because of these setbacks and also the kids were getting way to addicted to it (our 2 year old was starting to figure out how to use as well as we could for finding pictures and his games on there… a little scary). So for now we just have a laptop with the above mentioned K9 setup.
I’m thinking of also signing up for another free service called Covenant Eyes which complies a list of all questionable sites viewed on a computer (maybe all sites in general, not sure) and will email it to a list of people you choose. That way even if you find a way to get around the filter, whatever you end up looking at will be sent to somebody you know. I’m thinking that this in addition to the K9 will create a pretty good combination that will be pretty hard to get around should temptation knock. The best solution is obviously to just get the internet out of the house completely, and b’ezrat Hashem we’ll work ourselves up to that eventually.
Hope this all helps.
I have Kaspersky, it does a phenomenal job. It has plenty of controls to create a a filter, plus it allows you to black or white list general websites, which was great for me. Also, it seems to learn or adapt and it blocks a specific site when logged in with a specific account which was circumventing the filter.
K-9 is probably the easiest filter to circumvent – a simple google search will tell your kid all he needs to know.
jbaldy22- If K9 is installed correctly it’s impossible to get around it without wiping your hard drive or installing a new OS. I tried every trick out there.
K9 is the best by far, blocks proxies etc
Thats pretty funny. Google it. I have circumvented it myself many times to fix computers that had some bad viruses. Its really very simple.
Moderators can you delete this thread please! You don’t want people to learn how to circumvent filters through yeshivaworld!
All a waste of time and energy. Anyone can get around any filter in any environment known to date. Don’t assume this is only said for computer experts or IT guys. The yetzer Harah is the smartest one around – and last I checked he was pretty active …
K9 – 20 seconds
Kaspersky – 60 seconds
……………..
Regardless, if you have WiFi on your pc/smartphone (and who doesn’t), NOTHING is reliable. A Smartphone backup/reset, or a simple dummy proof virtual machine is all it takes. There is nothing to combat this plague in existence – outside of divorcing technology. Accept it.
YekusielShmidt
Totally untrue. Getting rid of K9 is not that easy and 99.9% of the info online for uninstalling K9 doesn’t work.
jbaldy22
I googled it and none of them work and all proxy avoidance is blocked (if you set up your k9 to block proxy avoidance) so if you properly set up your k9 you cant get past it. Stop spreading baloney.
WIY
really? Afraid to educate you on this forum.
I never said that I used a proxy to circumvent it. Again google is your friend and I prefer not to publish my methods on the site lest the less scrupulous decide to take advantage. Lets just say if u have access to safe mode it aint too hard.
It seems that the folks at K-9 also know how to use Google.
What are the opinions out there about Nativ?
Never attempted to circumvent Nativ before – if someone who has it wants to invite me over I can try.
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