Home Web Filtering

[IrritableTech]

More and more of us are running our own filtering and monitoring products in our schools whether we are with the local LEA/RBC or we've moved to a private provider. If you are anything like me you take your duty of filtering and monitoring the young people within your organisation seriously knowing that failure to do so can have serious repercussions in some cases.

 

As my children get older and access to devices in the home gets easier I've been thinking about how as a parent I keep my kids from straying too far into the nastier sections of the internet. My kids know if they see something they don't understand to see me or their Mum. They don't often have access when we're not around, but as our sofa has recently got bigger, and the smart phone screen are getting smaller (ok, it could be my eyes) it seems harder and harder to keep an eye on what they are doing.

 

I'm currently using OpenDNS on a Wifi SSID the kids have access to, but it doesn't allow much control because I don't have a fixed IP and don't have a 24/7 machine to run a client on. My daughters laptop runs K9, but it's a bit hit and miss and must be monitored on the device it's self. Our 2 kids are getting Hudl2's for Christmas, and they are already set up with the parental tools loaded on them by The Parent Zone to block some sites and so they can't use them in the middle of the night. But none of these put me in a position where I think I've done a good job.

 

I've just come across this new device on kickstarter and after a few emails back and forth with the developer, I'm going to give it a try (once it comes out). http://irte.eu/pP

 

But as a discussion topic - what do you do at home to help safeguard your own?

[hallb15]

At the moment, my children just want to play games so they are allowed to use my iPad with wi-fi off, only when myself or my wife are in the room. As they are getting older they are wanting their own tablet so I have been considering the best path to take.

 

The HomeHalo looks like a well thought out product and I'll definitely be backing it. Thanks @IrritableTech for posting it. I hope a few more edugeeks back it too...

[CyberDrac]

pfSense running Dansguardian on a Atom based machine with a couple of network cards and a CF card instead of a HDD

[Gaz]

pfSense running Dansguardian on a Atom based machine with a couple of network cards and a CF card instead of a HDD

 

Gosh it'll be like being at work trying to manage that.

[gavins38]

At the moment my two only have laptops so I rely on a FireFox web filter add-in, can't remember what it's called. Seems to work while they are young enough not to want to play around with the add-ins. I've got an Ubuntu fileserver on an old PC at home and I've been thinking about setting up some kind of web filter on that routing all network traffic through the server. DansGuardian has been one that's popped up in my searches. I understand that Untangle is a pretty good all-in-one gateway as is the Endian opensource software.

[IrritableTech]

pfSense running Dansguardian on a Atom based machine with a couple of network cards and a CF card instead of a HDD

 

Gosh it'll be like being at work trying to manage that.

 

That's the thing - I don't want to take work home with me, and I don't want my kids to think I am prying too much. @CyberDrac you have the type of solution I was considering but I want something my wife can use as well as me - the HomeHalo app will appeal to her.

[Jobos]

 

But as a discussion topic - what do you do at home to help safeguard your own?

 

Doesn't your ISP offer a filter? So far I've been impressed with the filter BT have and It's one of the reasons I'm sticking with them.

[IrritableTech]

Doesn't your ISP offer a filter? So far I've been impressed with the filter BT have and It's one of the reasons I'm sticking with them.

 

Yes they do, however it gives me no feedback what so ever. I'd prefer to be able to see some logs, as I do at school.

[GrumbleDook]

Now that project looks seriously interesting.

 

Wondering if I can get the beta pack as an early Christmas present?

[IrritableTech]

Now that project looks seriously interesting.

 

Wondering if I can get the beta pack as an early Christmas present?

 

That's the one I've gone for - although not as a present (unless you count it as a present to myself?). I asked a number of questions of the developer and got a comprehensive reply very quickly. Very impressed with the whole thing.

[GrumbleDook]

Wonder if he is aware of the PAS for this sort of service?

[MatthewL]

I am going to keep an eye on this, it's something I'm getting asked more and more, most of the time I used K9 but this is no use on tablets.

[jmak]

Has anyone got any experience of Draytek Global Viewhttp:// http://www.draytek.co.uk/information/our-technology/draytek-wcf ? It's a subscription service available to owners of their routers. The attraction for me is the user/device/group level policies.

 

Apart from the instinctive "I don't want a big corporate doing that for me" resistance to using BT's filtering, it's no use to me because it applies the same rules for all users. My wife works in the medical field and needs access to things for work that my kids definitely don't need to be aware of yet. But then if they wanted to, my kids could just access pretty much anything on their smartphones, so it still comes down to supervision and attempting to maintain a relationship where they talk to you enough to give you some idea of what they're doing and thinking about...

[dhicks]

More and more of us are running our own filtering and monitoring products in our schools whether we are with the local LEA/RBC or we've moved to a private provider.

 

The filtering settings that you have in your school strike me as the filtering settings that should be applied to pupil's browsing at home, that way any homework resources should be definatly viewable, and if there's any sites that do need unblocking, pupils actually have someone (the school's IT technician) they can go and ask. This could either be a feature implemented directly by the school's filtering system, or you could have a URL-checking system running inside the school that checked if each URL is unblocked.

[Oaktech]

I've installed the free Sophos UTM gateway for a couple of my friends who have slightly older kids, they've bought hardware like Intel NUC and a second hand acer veriton to run it on and it just sits there and does everything they want...

[bennz]

I've installed the free Sophos UTM gateway for a couple of my friends who have slightly older kids, they've bought hardware like Intel NUC and a second hand acer veriton to run it on and it just sits there and does everything they want...

 

Thanks for the above will be checking that out.

 

This is something I am thinking about now as my kids get older, Home Halo looks promising but that kick starter doesn't look like it will be successful.

[sted]

what about running the free version of smoothwall on some old box

[SHimmer45]

smoothwall express has a straight forward interface for blocking and allowing sites and time restrictions also gives you logging and the like as well.

runs on the most basic of hardware.

they have just released a new version as well.

[IrritableTech]

Thanks for the above will be checking that out.

 

This is something I am thinking about now as my kids get older, Home Halo looks promising but that kick starter doesn't look like it will be successful.

 

From the info I got yesterday the project will go ahead with or without kickstarter.

[machin05]

Has there been any indication on how much the yearly subscription for Home Halo will be?

[IrritableTech]

The website holds more details on after kickstarter pricing: Home Halo - Super Simple WiFi Security Presumably they'll be a yearly option, as well as monthly for those that don't buy a 'subsription free' model.

[machin05]

Cheers. £35 up front then £3 a month. Or a £129 one of payment and subscription for life. Quick sums suggest you would be paying for 2 and a half years before seeing the saving of "subscription free".

[Synkrox]

Forticlient is good and works without a Fortigate box.

Personally, I use Windows Family Safety on all laptops the kids use, I find its pretty good.

Bugbear for me is the flakiness of youtube safety mode and my kids obsession with minecraft videos means I cant really take it away from them, I just keep checking it's enabled.

[IrritableTech]

Cheers. £35 up front then £3 a month. Or a £129 one of payment and subscription for life. Quick sums suggest you would be paying for 2 and a half years before seeing the saving of "subscription free".

 

I presume you'd see a different saving if they offer a yearly subscription model too. You can go in on KS for £100 and get the subscription free model (or £75 and the beta).

[colly72]

+1 for the Sophos UTM home version. We use the full hardware appliance at my school as well and it's a fantastic bit of kit.