URL Filter

[The_Unbeliever]

Who makes use of URL Filter on their networks?

Been using it for a month now, and it works quite well...

I like the use of it to block ads/trackers and the such which just chomps precious bandwidth... a few K saved here and there translates into a larger amount end of the month.

Regards

Libs

 

[Asha'man X]

I've used it on Smoothwall, where I find it to be useful and it does the job more or less. The ability to have it autoupdate blacklists is a nice feature.

The only downside is that it is a static filter, so it can't weigh new webpages like Dansguardian or a commercial product can. That can be problematic in a school where kids are trying their hardest to get into Facebook and other sites, I've seen it happen at my old high school.

 

[werner]

we use it successfully at my work, for about 8 months now. using shalla blacklist, and some key regular expressions.

i found that relaxing the filter between lunchtimes and teatimes and prior to work starting has meant most people get the message and also dont try bypass it so aggressively anymore...they just wait till lunchtime to do their facebok **** etc..

 

[The_Unbeliever]

we use it successfully at my work, for about 8 months now. using shalla blacklist, and some key regular expressions.

i found that relaxing the filter between lunchtimes and teatimes and prior to work starting has meant most people get the message and also dont try bypass it so aggressively anymore...they just wait till lunchtime to do their facebok **** etc..

Ja, I've put in some rules which unblocks Facebook during lunch time. People are more productive and happier knowing they can get their facebook fix, and not sit all day long on facebook.

Also, having a constrained time period for facebook means they have to focus on what they want to do, and not wander around on facebook.

For those of you who want to know how to impose time-based constraints on URL Filter, here's how :

After asking a question (and getting a reply) I tried out URL Filter, and added the following lines to the file

/var/smoothwall/urlfilter/timeconst

Thanks to Thomas for the pointer!

outside,,,,,,,on,12,30,13,30,192.168.50.1/24,socialnet,block,on,block facebook sunday
outside,on,,,,,,,12,30,13,30,192.168.50.1/24,socialnet,block,on,block facebook monday
outside,,on,,,,,,12,30,13,30,192.168.50.1/24,socialnet,block,on,block facebook tuesday
outside,,,on,,,,,12,30,13,30,192.168.50.1/24,socialnet,block,on,block facebook wednesday
outside,,,,on,,,,12,30,13,30,192.168.50.1/24,socialnet,block,on,block facebook thursday
outside,,,,,on,,,12,30,13,30,192.168.50.1/24,socialnet,block,on,block facebook friday
outside,,,,,,on,,12,30,13,30,192.168.50.1/24,socialnet,block,on,block facebook sabbath

And it works beautiful. The way it was intended to work. <insert evil smiley here>