Net Nanny

[plonq]

Some day I'd like to see the algorithm that our corporate firewall uses to allow or block web sites.  Today I was attempting to visit a page called, "VB6's File System Objects.  Article from Visual Developer Magazine."  I had a valid reason for wanting to visit this page, but when I clicked on the link I was met by the familiar white screen with red text informing me that I was attempting to visit a page with objectionable content.  I called up Google cache of the page to get the information that I needed, and to my surprise the entire page is a dry tutorial on how to use VB6's File System Objects.

<sigh> I can see how some people might find that page objectionable (such as those who spell Microsoft with a $ in the middle), but come on...

Comments

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, block micro$oft!

Where I used to work they even blocked sites like Windows updates...

I mean... wouldn't they /want/ you to have a secure PC?
Especially after one time the whole national network for the company had to be shut down because mostr of the servers and desktops had caught virus that were executing DoS attacks on the routers?

[tzisorey.livejournal.com]

I know a tech who did that. He'd download the updates, put them on an internal server, and deployed thrm through netlogon scripts. Something to do with having 200+ computers all trying to download the updates individually annoyed him.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

They didn't do it like that here
However you can use a transparent proxy to mirror the windowsupdate site and have all the individual computers download from your proxy instead of MS.

[tzisorey.livejournal.com]

He preferred to do it this way, because it meant he could prevent updates going to individual PCs until he'd tested them against their (very badly written, but 100% necessary - his words) industry specific software. Granted, he probably could've used group policy to turn off automatic updates, but I don't know why he didn't do that.

[plonq.livejournal.com]

I don't know if Windows update is blocked - I've never tried it at work. I know that they have auto-updated disabled, though. They push out the updates in regular hotfixes during the night. I think I may have to restart my machine once every four months or so due to an update, the rest quietly slide in without incident.

[tzisorey.livejournal.com]

Never used NetNanny, but if there's a setting that uses a Deny-By-Default logic, which would be most effective at blocking "objectionable content", then that could've been the problem.

[plonq.livejournal.com]

When I say "Net Nanny" I am using it as a generic term. I don't know what they are running to filter the internet, but its rules seem to change at random. There are sites that it probably should be blocking, but it's not. There are other sites that it blocks for no good reason. Finally there are things that it blocks on some days, and not on others. I've had it block Google searches for seemingly innocuous things on one day, and then allow the same search the next. It used to allow fark.com through, then it started blocking it, and now it allows it through again.

The net filters are nothing if not capricious.

[tzisorey.livejournal.com]

Yeah, figured it might've been meant generically.

Sounds keyword based. But who knows. I've always had the luxury in my sites of being the one in charge of such things, so I know what the rules are based on.