Re: Innovative & Firewalls

[Steven Moody <smoody@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:51 PM 02/12/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Listserv Colleagues
>
>Our Library soon will be part of a Town WAN. All the members of the LAN will
>pass through a central firewall......Should we be concerned now that we
will be part of a larger town-wide network? Any comments would be appreciated.


At my previous position in a public library the town Information Technology
office put the whole town behind a firewall and the big problem to crop up
was in regard to the filter that was built in...the Sonicwall filter was a
business package filter (blocking access to "non-productive" entertainment
sites...I can't remember which ones now but the brush was a bit wide for
library needs) which the city augmented (without consulting anyone inside
the firewall besides the school board) with a list of "bad" words like sex
and words of that ilk and other more bizarre additions like "nintendo" and
"pokemon."  This word blocking is particularly repressive, as we would hit
the "Sonicwall" if we attempted searches for "Anne Sexton" or any other
search which contained any of the "bad" words.

Eventually, after months of haggling (they didn't want to let Innovative in
via FTP or HTTP or anything but modem), the Innovative server was
positioned outside the firewall.  Previously, we had been outside with no
protection for three years without incident.


 




*************************************************************
Steven Moody                         mailto:smoody@xxxxxxxxxx
Library Systems Coordinator          http://library.jfku.edu     
Robert M. Fisher Library             PHONE:      925-258-2398   
John F. Kennedy University           VOICE MAIL: 925-258-7598
12 Altarinda Road                    FAX:        925-254-8136
Orinda CA 94563-2603                 

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