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Croydon [UK] libraries' internet filth filters ban council's own website

September 8, 2008 - 9:27am — Blake

D'Oh!: The 267 new replacement computers were also meant to solve a seedier problem - that of some people using its old PCs to access internet child porn.
So when the computers finally arrived, expectations were high - but there was one snag. To begin with users couldn't even access a range of innocuous websites - including the council's own - because of its highly sensitive internet filter, which is being rolled out at the same time.

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September 8, 2008 - 11:15am — DeathByAnts

Sounds about right

It sounds like either their IT staff is completely and utterly incompetent or are completely powerless to change anything.

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September 8, 2008 - 12:08pm — opaqueentity

Utterly incompetent sounds about right

Any piece of firewall software should be easily editable.
You can add exceptions (such as newspapers), or simply allow everything in that category. It does partially come down to the categories used by the provider, if they had a category for newspapers for example one of the current problems wouldn't occur.
But really this is something that once major issues have been realised (and a list of majorly used sites that are being blocked is made), can be sorted in a few minutes.

I've had problems with sites categorised by our firewall as 'advocacy websites'. Yes the ACLU is bad and shouldn't be viewed by anyone!

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