School Filtering Advice Needed - Moving to Open DNS from Websense

[emyllis]

Well then:
i'm writing from a school in the West Midlands that currently uses websense to provide filtered internet...
There are in my mind many things wrong with it, and I'd like to look at alternatives -
namely the possibility of Open DNS as a more flexible option.

Having looked at the messages here, I'd be interested in knowing -
a) In general what's websense though of and
b) Would Open DNS be a good alternative to websense?

Any insight would be gratefully appreciated;

Thanks

[FN-GM]

Whats up with Websense?

Im sure others will be able to explain better but i dont think its a good alternative to websense. You are best getting something commercial, such as smoothwall. You will probably find gaps in the filtering with openDNS as the community categorizes the sites.

[emyllis]

I find it quite restrictive in its approach - e.g. today the most innocuous websites on ASD (Autism) were banned, when there's nothing that is remotely "worth" banning on. The net effect is that a lot of staff are fed up with the poor filtering and over zealous filtering. Is that just the way we're set up or is that a feature of websene?

[Michael]

Filtering is a key component in any educational establishment. Many LAs provide and manage filtering for schools, which makes financial sense as every school needs it anyway.

No filtering system is perfect, but I suppose it really depends what you feel is wrong or bad about Websense?

Although OpenDNS is good (as it's free) for the general public, there are chargeable editions for schools/businesses. OpenDNS is really good for parents with young children and I regularly setup OpenDNS for them whilst setting up a wireless network (for example). Configuring it at router level is the easiest option! Although there are testimonials, I do think you pay for what you get when it comes to filtering.

[tom_newton]

OpenDNS is a bit too easy to circumvent IME.
Websense is the market leader - and not for no reason. It's a good product, though you have probably seen a bad side of it - nothing is as good at LA level as it is locally. I would suggest trying a few products before you decide.

[m8ttysmith]

I work for a company who provide ICT Support to several schools and we implement a product called untangle. Its a brilliant product and integrates really well with Active directory. It doesnt just do Filtering either, it has a firewall, spam blocker, anti virus blocker and VPN.... etc
There is a free version of it you can try but we bought the full Education Pro version for around £600... Here is the URL Web Filter - Protect Your School's Network | Untangle.com

Thanks
Matty

[plexer]

hmm $100 a month for the pro product and support is based on us times.

Ben

[john]

I can highly recommend Smoothwall to you over Websense, its much more flexible and graunular and educationally aware than WebSense and better value for money Im a happy user of 3 years of Smoothwall and its great its been 3years of simple sailing