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We've been using this device for a few years. Whilst it is very good it does as you say have some drawbacks. Depending on the version and how you control your network, it is possible to have different categories available for Groups. Problem is as you say many sites are not categorised and some have the wrong or perhaps different category to what you think it should. The other problem with things like this is that many sites are both Entertainment and other things like News. These though can be added by Group manually. We control it through IT Support and every now and then we make ourselves unpopular, but hey what's new. We had the grand idea of considering these things by committee, but it never happens. Quick actions seem to work and we manage to block things like Facebook etc on the basis that if they don't use it they don't miss it. Regards George Russell Bexley College >>> Wallace Simbanegavi <[log in to unmask]> 25/09/2008 15:20 >>> Dear all We recently commissioned a proxy device called Bloxx which is much more granular and flexible in controlling Internet access. Its also more effective in dealing with proxy avoidance sites. The proxy device can be configured to allow access by AD user, group, PC, time period etc. However there is always a downside to having an effective content filtering system in an educational institution. We are now inundated with daily requests to allow access to sites classified as Alcohol and tobacco, Entertainment, Media streaming, sex education, social networking etc which have generally been prohibited, students and staff say they need access for research purposes. We are mainly a sixth form College dealing with minors although there are some FE students. The initial configuration was based on giving access to commonly used sites such as webmail, online educational materials, newspapers, sports, wikis, etc then open up any other specific sites as and when required. I would like to know how other similar institutions deal with this issue of Internet access control. Is it an IT Support responsibility? Is it a free for all? If not which site categories do you normally block access to? My team is getting very unpopular because users think we are imposing unnecessary restrictions on them yet it's a policy decision. Proxy devices use known categories yet new unclassified sites come up every day, these require someone to decide whether they are appropriate or not then classify them. At the moment this decision rests with IT Support although we request teachers and tutors to log request on behalf of their students, this is something I have strong reservations about. Who will be ultimately responsible if a user commits a serious crime using the College's Internet access? Please help Regards Wallace Simbanegavi IT & Telecoms Support Manager Richmond upon Thames College Egerton Road Twickenham TW2 7SJ Tel: 02086078391 Mob: 07903421341 Email has been scanned for viruses by Altman Technologies' email management service - www.altman.co.uk/emailsystems______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for viruses by the Email Protection Agency For more information please visit http://www.epagency.net ______________________________________________________________________ _ Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail. This e-mail may contain information which is confidential, legally privileged and/or copyright protected. It is intended for the addressee only. If you receive this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from your computer. We take reasonable precautions to ensure our Emails are virus free. However, we cannot take responsibility for any virus transmitted by us and recommend that you subject any incoming Email to your own virus checking procedures. http://www.bexley.ac.uk