New Filter (June 2010)

[Arcath]

gems.rubyforge.org seems to break the filter horribly, it spends ages scanning it and then seems to start the process again a few times before coming up with a good old squid error.

 

It seems to scan and think "yes he can view this" but wont then load the actual page, I dont actually want to browse the site iteself, i want to install some gems on a virtual machine, but the "gem install" command simply fetches the .gem files over http. I could install gems under the old Smart Filter as gems.rubyforge was obviously on the whitelist.

 

Whilst i cant install gems i thought it would be a good move to clone my git repo onto the local machine, it now transpirers that that wont work either. Using the HTTP location for the repo just fails because netsweeper seems to want to scan everysingle file before i can pull it, which of course returns a html page instead of .rb file. The git repo im trying to use is http://github.com/Arcath/rWallpaper

 

This new filter does seem to work rather well, i am assuming that git hub isnt on the whitelist but i can still brwose the site with a little delay for pages i havent visted yet. But for things that run over http its murder and just prevents them from working, and because they arent blocked i dont get the unblock request form (not that id put my password any where near a un secured connection anyway)

Edited June 8, 2010 by Arcath
more info

[soveryapt]

That's note quite how it works. If you get pulled up for some reason for its always the schools fault. Regardless of if you are using an in-house filter, or your RBCs. RBCs wipe their hands clean of anything being their fault in that contract you signed....

 

Oh I realise that, I meant do they still block the additional nasties and we just whitelist pages to override their rules, or by taking on board the filtering ourselves, do we have to then start adding the nasties ourselves and maintaining the other filters.

[Geoff]

Oh I realise that, I meant do they still block the additional nasties and we just whitelist pages to override their rules, or by taking on board the filtering ourselves, do we have to then start adding the nasties ourselves and maintaining the other filters.

 

Well in Lancashire you would still be subject to some filtering even if you 'opt out' (something you can only do on the 'Admin' network side). The type of thing that's filtered is basic illegal stuff though. However there is an argument against even this. Because (at least in Lancashire) no one at the LEA/RBC ever checks the logs, you would never catch anyone trying to do something exceptionally naughty. You may now madly wave your 'duty of care' flag about.

[AWicher]

Well we seemed to have a better internet filtering just b4 when the proxy servers where falling over (CLEO), i don't know if the Netsweeper was offline temporarily

 

I don't want to be negative about a new system. I of all people know new things don't always go to plan right away and i "could" see lots of benefits (Without knowing actually what this netsweeper will offer in any detail) of it, its just annoying me as its taking me more time to do my job.

 

As for the scanning, yesterday was the worst, several links where just endlessly "scanning page" without actually doing anything, or after 20min timing out.

 

I JUST WANT INFO ABOUT THE SYSTEM!!! especially how the filtering from school will work. Will there be a limit on what we can unblock?

[SimpleSi]

On my very first search (apart from last weeks test) on 1st day back

(top result on google for "calendar snooze")

 

The netsweeper msg came up first and then I got this

 

The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.

 

Tried it in IE7 - NED box says URL can't be retrieved

 

reported to Westfield

 

regards

 

Simon

[Arcath]

Some of the categorys appear to be wrong, tried to get on our company website, apparently our site is a Proxy Anonymizer, which i find hard to belive seeing as we use Site @ School for it and all the re-writing i have done personally. To prove that its concidered safe by netsweeper if you go to .co.uk instead of .com it scans then loads fine.

 

I am also having problems with the scanner on our sub domains, our Support portal (which is a rails app) is slowed down dramatically by the Scanner.

[Ric_]

@Arcath: Have you logged all these incidents with Westfield?

[SimpleSi]

Just reported another site not working (WRIST 2010) and Westfield acknowledge a globale problem exists.

 

regards

 

Simon

[soveryapt]

HA! Our Admin network wasn't able to access the Internet for a couple of hours today as "NetSweeper for Business" wanted a login and password, something that Westfield hadn't apparently done, but they eventually sorted it! lol ..

[SimpleSi]

Got an email saying my wrist site has been unblocked but just suffering general PPP with internet access at the moment

 

Simon

[Geoff]

ack, still not going well then. :/

[SimpleSi]

Back in today after a day off (both schools on INSET ) to find that PPP continues.

 

Edugeek/Google searches very very slow or giving errors (can't find BBC News from a google search!)

 

Rang Westfield - they say others are reporting it as well.

 

Teachers at this school said it was bad yesterday as well

 

Simon

 

(But of course the service status page says everythings fine )

[ChrisH]

I just caught it saying that one of the servers was in the middle of shutting down. That didn't go down to well with the class doing Achieve tests when they all got kicked out.

[AWicher]

Call logged! We will see!

[SimpleSi]

Well, been a very very bad day at black rock

No internet to any of my schools since 11am

 

Posted via phone

[dgsmith]

Same here Simon. Internet all week here has been appauling. We haven't got our fibre yet (next week) and our internet is via a mast. That failed on Saturday so we had no internet Monday morning. Rest of the week have been county wide issues - today has been a nightmare. I can't express how utterly frustrated we are although I won't go into it too much as this topic is about the filtering and not if the internet is functional for Lancs or not!

 

Looking forward to the ability to locally unblock websites though, however we would be much happier to just have a STABLE INTERNET CONNECTION.. EVEN FOR ONE DAY??? ONE DAY!

[soveryapt]

Been the same with me and what's worse, theres no edge or 3G at my school so I've been stuck on VERY slow tinterweb until getting home to the comfort that is virgin .. lol .. of sorts ..

 

I spoke with CLEO and Westfield are having big trouble with the new filter apparently .. joys .. BUT I HAVE AN EXAM ON MONDAY THAT NEEDS THE INTERNET FOR A FUNCTIONAL SKILLS PAPER!! Gah ..

[dgsmith]

Internet is back now - just logged in to our locally hosted exchange server from home. I sincerely hope a justified and thorough explanation is in the process of being written by CLEO/WF (for the problems this week, not just today)..

[SimpleSi]

I sincerely hope a justified and thorough explanation is in the process of being written by CLEO/WF

 

You must be new around here

 

There seems to be a corporate mindset to only reveal technical information when they have to - and usually not timely and usually by the most indirect information route known to mankind - The Portal

 

It would trivial and very cheap to maintain a separate externally hosted information service that we could all access via our mobiles but since we have no SLAs (well we do but you try and find them ) and especially no SLAs with financial penalties involved (the only ones that really work) we are whistling in the dark.

 

/RANT

 

regards

Simon

[LukeC]

When i spoke to westfeild centre today they said that they were having big problems with the firewall, dont know if it was all down to this, would be interseting to know what was actually wrong... I guess they havent resumed their normal service as i can't access the westfeild website. Lets hope its more reliable next week.

[dgsmith]

 

You must be new around here

 

There seems to be a corporate mindset to only reveal technical information when they have to - and usually not timely and usually by the most indirect information route known to mankind - The Portal

 

I've been around long enough (here and in Lancs) to know how things work I've never known it as bad this week as it has been for us (a combination of the en-masse issues and our own local mast problems which affected us in the first half the week).

 

I said thorough which need not be "long winded" but merely just to the point and no beating about the bush (yes, I know it's a long shot and I have only made that opinion clear on here, so likely will make no difference ).

 

The only consolation for us is that, as far as we're still aware, our fibre install is due to be finalised and connected next week which will at least raise moral somewhat after this very trying week..

[SimpleSi]

They generally use the words firewall/dns/proxy/filter interchangably as just replacement word for "big problem somewhere"

 

Bit like myself when talking to headteachers actually

 

Simon

[dgsmith]

Hey, I am letting off steam - it's been a very testing week! At least if I think they may do something positive (say something meaningful) it makes me feel better

[SimpleSi]

Deciided to check the Portal to see if any info on the outages - doesn't work

[SimpleSi]

Rang iit in - they know about it