Ranger - can you block webpage content?

[Tony_Mc]

Hi

 

I have a query from a someone I work with...

 

At his school they use Ranger and from what we understand ( I have smoothwall here and have never used ranger) Ranger blocks pages by what is in the title bar at the top (the blue bar) it does not block from content.

 

the question is, students are getting to Facebook through proxys - his school also uses Synetrix but has used up all the 200 blocking pages he has allocated.

 

Any ideas on blocking proxys or a way to get Ranger to see what the students are doing..

 

excuse my ignorance but I don't know much about Ranger.

 

Thanks

 

Tony

[rh91uk]

Ranger does something called "Title Checking" - which is what you were reffering to.

 

It does not block webpage content, unfortunatley. We have Securus which will do it for us if it feels it's inappropriate.

 

*ps. we are moving from Ranger in the next few weeks to Vanilla and taking the Plunge ... me and ranger = fallen out!!!*

[john]

Ranger isn't as such anything but vanilla, its just a classroom control program not a network level, when discussing vanilla and non-vanilla you tend to associate vanilla with basic 2003 and xp and non-vanilla as items such as RM CC3 where there is a level of managment on top of every thing on the system.

[FN-GM]

Are we walking about Ranger Remote Control or Ranger For Networks here?

[rh91uk]

That's what I'm thinking about. I'm talking about Ranger for Networks - which certainly is a lot more than Classroom control!

[strawberry]

the basic answer is no, it cant.

[pagelad]

Could you use something like the openDNS schools DNS system to block sites?

 

Comes for the best price i find.. free

 

OpenDNS > Solutions > K-12 School

[AngryITGuy]

Sounds to me like this is a problem with Ranger for Networks and not Ranger Remote Control.

 

As richard has rightly pointed out Ranger closes illegal windows by reading the contents of its title.

 

@Tony_Mc your friend could try and get Ranger to close all windows that have the word 'Proxy' anywhere in the title.

 

Alternativley the tedious method would be to add the IE Title of all proxy sites the students have been accessing into Ranger although I think with this particular method he will be fighting a loosing battle.

 

Hope this helps.

[Tony_Mc]

Thanks for your support guys.

 

A friend of mine suggested that we build a box with Debian on it, very minimal install, install Squid and then use Dans Guardian. bypass Ranger completly.

 

Tony