Filter Software for the School District.

Installation and Setup

iWayPatrol is a proxy based filter.  It runs on the gateway or as network hardware box.  In either case the proxy-filter is usually located in the computer room.

Each workstation browser is adjusted to point to filter proxy server.  There is no software or lists added or maintained at the individual workstation.

Router and/or firewall rules are used to assure that the user can not access the Internet through a remote proxy or some other means. 

Installation is done either by loading the filter software on to the current computer from a CD or by installation of a turnkey hardware box.

Current blocking lists for Web Filtering or Netnews Blocking are downloaded via FTP by iTECH on a weekly or daily basis.  The District administrator is not directly involved in the maintenance of the current list.  500 to 1000 new sites are added weekly..  

 

Operations

Once the software has been installed, local filter parameters are set.  These include label filter settings and content filter parameters.

A user attempting to access a blocked web site is given a notice that the site is blocked.  The use the back arrow to return to the previous screen to redirect their query. 

Multiple blocking methods are used.  A typical week at one non-urban school district resulted in an average of one block per workstation per day.  The blocking breakdown was as follows:

•   2% Inappropriate queries on a search engine

• 92% List Blocks

•   4% Content Blocks

•   1% RSACi and SafeSurf Labels

•   1% No Reverse DNS entry.

NetNews is also filtered by iWayPatrol.  There are thousands of News Groups on the Internet.  These large, topic oriented discussion groups are provided by your local ISP.  The iTECH News Filter permits access to News Groups whose primary function is wholesome.  About 15% of the News Groups focus on sex and many are highly graphic.  The News Filter makes those bad groups inaccessible.

Local backup can be performed to maintain the local parameter and local blocking lists.  Adding additional sites to block; deleting sites from the blocking list; adding News groups; deleting news groups; maintaining local blocking and filtering lists are all easily maintained through a series of administrative browser screens by the IS manager.

In the Advanced and Large School Versions of iWayPatrol, there is a  level of Building Internet Administrators (BIA) in addition to the District administrator.  There is a menu of administrative tools to maintain the BIAs. Each BIA has access to a menu of tools to maintain the student accounts.