Squid: Banned sites auto-update
Dear all I would like to set up a service which will automatically update the Squid proxy server's banned sites list. It would work using Concurrent Version System (CVS). Once a day, it would: - Get the current version of the banned sites list and update Squid. - Add any new sites which the school has added to their version of the list to the current version. - Remove any sites which the school has taken off their version of the list from the current version. This would offer all those taking part in the service "herd immunity". For example, suppose http://www.some.provider.net/~someone/hotstuff/ pops up and goes round one school. The Squid administrator would add that site to the banned list to prevent it being accessed any more. The next day, every other Squid server using the service would know about it too. I suggest this would be a great improvement on the existing clumsy filtering technologies which sometimes block access to acceptable sites (see: http://www.peacefire.org for story). Is there already a project like this up in the UK? Which schools using Squid would like to volunteer their facilities to help develop this? Would a pound a week per subscriber (for example) to cover hosting costs be an acceptable price to pay for accesss to this service? Please do all let me know. Best wishes Phil
On Tue, 20 Mar 2001, Phil Jones wrote:
Dear all I would like to set up a service which will automatically update the Squid proxy server's banned sites list. It would work using Concurrent Version System (CVS). Once a day, it would: <snip> Is there already a project like this up in the UK? Which schools using Squid would like to volunteer their facilities to help develop this? Would a pound a week per subscriber (for example) to cover hosting costs be an acceptable price to pay for accesss to this service? Please do all let me know.
There is already such a project: see www.squidguard.org AFAIK, it works in a similar way. Michael
Dear all
I would like to set up a service which will automatically update the Squid proxy server's banned sites list. It would work using Concurrent Version System (CVS). Once a day, it would:
- Get the current version of the banned sites list and update Squid. - Add any new sites which the school has added to their version of the list to the current version. - Remove any sites which the school has taken off their version of the list from the current version.
It would probably be best to do this using the "redirect_program" option. Similar to squidguard. It should be possible to do this without needing to restart squid, which can take quite a time on a big cache. You can also do this more often than once a day. Maybe even as DNS style distributed database.
This would offer all those taking part in the service "herd immunity". For example, suppose http://www.some.provider.net/~someone/hotstuff/ pops up and goes round one school. The Squid administrator would add that site to the banned list to prevent it being accessed any more. The next day, every other Squid server using the service would know about it too.
I suggest this would be a great improvement on the existing clumsy filtering technologies which sometimes block access to acceptable sites (see: http://www.peacefire.org for story).
Blocking sites isn't the hard bit. The hard big is getting a "clean" list. Rather than one contaminated with all sorts of strange political adgendas. -- Mark Evans St. Peter's CofE High School Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109 Fax: +44 1392 204763
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Is there already a project like this up in the UK? Which schools using Squid would like to volunteer their facilities to help develop this? Would a pound a week per subscriber (for example) to cover hosting costs be an acceptable price to pay for accesss to this service? Please do all let me know.
Ho hum. We use http://www.hklc.com/squidblock/ for free. This uses a mix of URLs and free text. We're also on a number of mailing lists for schools which pop up occasional dodgy sites. As for unblocking, we use our own unblock list based on our experience. The problem is that different schools at different levels have different needs.We are a sixth form college. We block geocities, angelfire and zoom on principle which keeps the list down. We unblock sites like the Access Developers site on geocities. Other sites may not need this. We need to have access to "lads" magazines e.g. maxim and fhm for media work. Other schools with a younger age range would block these. This is a "free" mailing list. (My thanks to all who give up their time and server space) If we want banned sites, why not send them round. We find the best source of banned sites is looking at the tail of the access log over lunch and break. This e-mail is intended for the addressee shown. It contains information that is confidential and protected from disclosure. Any review, dissemination or use of this transmission or its contents by persons or unauthorized employees of the intended organisations is strictly prohibited. The contents of this email do not necessarily represent the views or policies of East Norfolk Sixth Form College, it's employees or students.
participants (4)
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John McCabe -
Mark Evans -
Michael Brown -
Phil Jones