Hi All,

I am the system admin for a local non profit group. We have one Suse machine that I set up in a public lobby for general surfing, E-mail, etc.

We were informed by our laywer that because we recieve Federal grant money and are open 24/7 to the general public that our machine needs a content filter.

So far I have found Squid, Squid guard and Dan's guardian all of which filter by proxy. A proxy type solutions is not going to work. The kids will simply change the browser settings and besides I do not really want to deploy a dedicated proxy server for one public surfing machine.

What I would like to findis a standalone app that will filter by list or URL or keyword or whatever. In fact if I could even find an updateable hosts file I would use that and call it good enough.

Any ideas??

Jim

How to block content, parental controls:
"A parent's guide to Linux Web filtering"
Parental controls
DansGuardian - True Web Content Filtering for All
HOWTO Parental Control, Content Filtering, Surfing Anon - MozillaZine Forums
Safe and Clean Web Surfing
Adblock G. Filter
Firefox Extensions - Privacy And Security
Quick HOWTO: Controlling Web Access With Squid

ProCon is a content filter for the Firefox browser, based on BlockXXX (by Tom Christensen). ProCon filters any type of web pages, but if left on default it limits itself to filter pages containing explicit content automatically, based on the text. ProCon can also censure any single word, and create a WhiteList.


Setting Firefox up on a Public Computer
If you are using Firefox as the browser you can disable the menus so users cannot access them.
removing things in context menus
Locking Mozilla Firefox Settings
The simplest way would be to set Firefox up as a Kiosk browser.
There is even an extension for Firefox:
Kiosk Browser [Symbio Technologies] - All Releases
Displays the browser in a locked-down kiosk view. Can be used for various applications such as Internet cafes, schools and libraries.
If you are using KDE in Linux as the desktop there is also a way to set it up in Kiosk mode.
KDE Kiosk Mode HOWTO

I just tried Procon and to it is a bit on the squirrelly side to say the least. The rest are all Squid/Dan's solutions.

Can you run Squid on the same machine you are surfing from? In other words would I need a dedicated Linux box as a proxy server or can I do it all on one?

Jim

Anyone??

Does Squid and Dan's need to run on a seperate machine or can it run on the same machine I want to filter??

Thanks,

Jimi_l

A proxy type solutions is not going to work. The kids will simply change the browser settings
Simple. Next to restricting access to configuration etc, etc with Kiosk-mode as Craigevil already pointed out using iptables to deny any outbound traffic on other than the proxy port with the credentials of the proxy process should be easy.


besides I do not really want to deploy a dedicated proxy server for one public surfing machine.
As long as the box has minimal specs to run proxy and apps I see no problem running all on one box.


Anyone??
As you can clearly see LQ is an independant and entirely volunteer-driven community. So sometimes it does take an indeterminable period of time to get a question answered. If your expectations of free (as in beer) support aren't here met or if you run out of patience please consider (temporarily) hiring a local Linux guru.

??

I waited two days to follow up.

Jim

I waited two days to follow up.
You lucky bast. (No use comparing really, but some of *my* questions remain unanswered to this day, so.)

Your right there. Looking back I see now that most all of your replies are arguementative, self-righteous, unhelpful or all three.

Nice of you to serve up the same canned reply you reserve for those who actually complain.

Have a day,

Jim

Looking back I see now that most all of your replies are arguementative, self-righteous, unhelpful or all three.
ROTFL!