Filtering Levels

Discussions about Internet service providers (ISPs), the Meetinghouse Firewall, wired and wireless networking, usage, management, and support of Meetinghouse Internet
bartj
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Filtering Levels

#1

Post by bartj »

Thank you for providing feedback related to the new filtering policies. I’ll share what I can with you related to the moderate and strict policies:

1 – It is expected that all Church “owned” domains/URLs should work in the meetinghouse under all policies. If you select one of the more restrictive policies and find a Church domain/URL is not working please let us know. That said there may be external links within a Church domain/URL that if selected may be blocked. You can report these through the feedback tool in TM and we will review each request to determine if it should remain blocked or be unblocked.

2 – The new filtering policies are really meant to free up resources (bandwidth). The primary purpose wasn’t to block questionable sites, it was to reduce non-Church usage on the network, hopefully freeing it up for Church use. If you don’t have struggles with bandwidth these new policies may not be for you.

3 – Both the restrictive and moderate policies block Google Play Store and iTunes. These are some of the biggest network “hogs” in the meetinghouse. Blocking these services will also block LDS app installs or updates, but generally data syncs within the apps should still work.

4 – The primary way we filter is by categories such as gambling, pornography, violence, etc. The moderate policy inherits everything included in the base (managed) policy but blocks approximately twice as many content categories. The strict policy inherits the managed and moderate filtering policies but blocks about twice as many categories as the moderate. Examples of the additional categories blocked in the new policies are:

Moderate: Blocks all sites included in the Managed policy but also blocks:
• app store (iTunes and Google. Play Store) downloads and updates (Important - Church-related apps cannot be downloaded or updated with this policy, but the apps are functional if previously downloaded.)
• examples of additional content categories blocked in the moderate policy are “Classifieds”, “Sports”, “Music”, and more.

Strict: Blocks all sites included in the Moderate policy, described above, but also blocks:
• examples of additional content categories blocked in the moderate policy are “Blogs”, “Entertainment”, “Shopping and Auctions”, and more.

If you decide to move to one of the new policies, we hope you will provide feedback regarding sites that should be blocked or those you feel should be unblocked. This will help us continue to refine and improve the policies.
russellhltn
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Re: Filtering Levels

#2

Post by russellhltn »

Moderator note: This was in response to asking about the difference between Moderate and Strict policy. I broke this off from the 'Whitelist" thread as it should have it's own thread for visibility.
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Hagothsen
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Re: Filtering Levels

#3

Post by Hagothsen »

In preliminary testing, I've found that ancestry.com and skype.com can both be accessed in strict mode, but without their CSS. I suspect they're actually blocked and its just cache HTML. The Facebook, YouTube and Skype apps work in strict mode. When I get time I'll do a more exhaustive test.
russellhltn
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Re: Filtering Levels

#4

Post by russellhltn »

Hagothsen wrote:In preliminary testing, I've found that ancestry.com and skype.com can both be accessed in strict mode, but without their CSS. I suspect they're actually blocked and its just cache HTML. The Facebook, YouTube and Skype apps work in strict mode. When I get time I'll do a more exhaustive test.
One question I have is how much time does it take for a new filtering level to be effective? Remember, these are managed in the cloud. It may take time for the updated settings to find its way to the firewall. I don't think this is an issue for general use, but could affect test results.
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Hagothsen
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Re: Filtering Levels

#5

Post by Hagothsen »

In our stake center ~ 5 mins.
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johnshaw
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Re: Filtering Levels

#6

Post by johnshaw »

What are the use cases that people see to set the stricter policies in practice? I get the theory, but I'm never going to set them differently (or at least that will be my SME to the SP that we don't).

Are there really clerks/B/SP out there running through the building asking people to get off their phones because they can't do official church work on the network? Is that a real thing? - Quick Turn off Wireless so I can transmit MLS to Salt Lake - (the imagine cry of the clerk in the heads/minds of the IT staff at CHQ/COB)??
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.”
― Thomas Paine, Common Sense
russellhltn
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Re: Filtering Levels

#7

Post by russellhltn »

johnshaw wrote:Are there really clerks/B/SP out there running through the building asking people to get off their phones because they can't do official church work on the network? Is that a real thing? - Quick Turn off Wireless so I can transmit MLS to Salt Lake - (the imagine cry of the clerk in the heads/minds of the IT staff at CHQ/COB)??
No, but I have a building where the clerk has given up trying to do any transactions while members are in the building.

If you have enough bandwidth, then don't bother with any changes. But if a building is stuck with a slow internet connection, then this is a tool for making it usable. Yes, it would be nice to upgrade the connection. But in some cases, it just can't be done. Or, at least no one has figured out how. We've already called the providers and gotten turned down. Anyone who says different is welcome to try. I'd love to get a better connection.
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Hagothsen
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Re: Filtering Levels

#8

Post by Hagothsen »

We've got a legitimate 100Mb down (measured at the cable modem) and things still grind to a crawl on Sundays and Wednesday nights when we've got one ward's youth activities, stake interviews, family history instruction, and two institute classes.

I LOVE the idea of restricting Twitter feeds, app updates, and video streams from everywhere except lds.org. DO IT AT HOME PEOPLE!!!
lajackson
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Re: Filtering Levels

#9

Post by lajackson »

johnshaw wrote:Are there really clerks/B/SP out there running through the building asking people to get off their phones because they can't do official church work on the network? Is that a real thing? - Quick Turn off Wireless so I can transmit MLS to Salt Lake - (the imagine cry of the clerk in the heads/minds of the IT staff at CHQ/COB)??
No. Currently from our problem meetinghouse they text me on Sunday and I shut off the WiFi for 5-10 minutes. We will probably do some experimenting with the filtering levels to see if that allows us to keep the WiFi up.
russellhltn
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Re: Filtering Levels

#10

Post by russellhltn »

Hagothsen wrote:DO IT AT HOME PEOPLE!!!
I suspect the underlying problem is that many members don't have WiFi at home (or haven't set their phone up to use it). The phones treat WiFi as free/unlimited service - so when the members walk though the door, the phones all try to download updates and other things they'd never do on the mobile data plan.
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