GoConnect's Web Content Filtering (WCF) facilities enable you to protect your network and your users from web content according to your preferences. There are many reasons for doing this, for example:

As GoConnect WCF is performed by your router - your point of entry to the Internet - it is far more difficult to circumvent than software solutions installed on each client/PC and applies to guest PCs too (laptops etc.). Blocking/filtering can be selective for certain users or groups too, so that, for example, managers can have less filtering imposed than other users and time schedules can apply these content filtering for specific time periods only.

Typical initial costs

£235 + vat including business class Wireless Router and one-off setup fee.

On-going costs £5.95 (or £7.95* managed) per month paid by standing order.

Ring NOW to order and protect your business, your staff or your family!

To order or enquire, please email Matthew at: globalview @ goconnect. org .uk

Internet Control in the Home

Whilst the Internet can be hugely beneficial to any home, both for adults and children, there is also the opportunity for it to become distractive, over-consuming as well as risky. For children, a common use of control control is to block inappropriate content, such as web sites with sexual, violent or other adult-oriented content. That's the inappropriate content, but even age-appropriate content can be undesirable. Facebook might be great for your teens, and CBeebies for your younger children, but not if they are supposed to be doing something else. Many parents want to control access to the Internet, for example allowing access to acceptable web sites for specified times of day only. For your adult users in the home, you may want to block access to sites which have a high probability of being infected with malware. You may also wish to block your own computers from sending emails in case of trojan/zombie infection. There are infinite combinations of content filtering and firewalling you might want to impose in your home.

Staff Internet Abuse - A real cost to your business

The Internet provides your business with an effective, useful and often essential facility. Your staff can use it to find quick answers, liaise with customers, send and receive emails and many other productive tasks. Unfortunately, the Internet also provides the opportunity for misuse. GoConnect products can help you restrict, control and monitor staff Internet usage.

Staff using your Internet facility for time-wasteful activities are costing you. Even more importantly these activities can put your businesses computers and network at risk. A recent survey of 10,000 employees indicated that 44% admitted to spending time on the Internet for personal use, for up to 2.1 hours per day.

Most staff are responsible and prudent with their Internet use and we always recommend a suitable AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) to be in place so that staff or any users of your systems know what they are and aren't permitted to use the computers for. This AUP can be reinforced by GoConnect routers which can block specific content (either at certain times only or all times) and also block potentially harmful file/code types from being installed by rogue web sites. There are some staff who will make severe abuse of the Internet facilities - spending literally hours on personal matters or social networking sites.

Top 5 Personal Internet Uses for Employees

• Personal Email: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc.
• Instant Messaging: MSN, AOL, Yahoo etc.
• Social Networking: Facebook, MySpace etc.
• Buying: Using Amazon, Ebay etc.
• Multimedia : YouTube, iPlayer etc.

It's easy to let a 'quick visit' become a prolonged stay without realising and losing track of time. All of the above activities can be immensely time consuming and addictive. What doesn't quite make the list but could be even more serious in its consequences is adult or illegal material being accessed in the workplace, as well as the higher likelyhood that such sites are infected with malware which will then get onto your business network. There is also the potential to 'innocently' download software and install it on local PCs, unwittingly introducing spyware or trojans onto your network.

Introducing GoConnect Web Content Filtering

GoConnect Web Filtering allows you to block web content in three main ways:

• By matching keyword / specific sites
• By web site category (Subject to Subscription)
• By digital content type
• IP Filtering (Actually part of the firewall, along with many other security features.)

Features 1,3 and 4 above are included with the router. Feature 2 is included but requires an annual subscription to the external server which keeps a real-time constantly updated database of web sites. More details of that later.

1. Keyword Matching

In Keyword Matching you can specify a list of either banned (blacklist)) or permitted sites (white list). The GoConnect method is 'object' oriented, which means that you create lists of keywords or sites, can then group them and then apply them into specific user groups or time periods

Using a blacklist, all sites would be accessible by your users except those that match the keywords you specify. This would be useful, for example where there are specific sites known to be causing disruption or time wasting in your organisation such as social networking or webmail. The example below would allow access to all sites except the ones listed:

A whitelist, on the other hand, is much more restrictive on what your users can access as it blocks all web sites by default and then only allows access to web sites which match your keywords. This is useful when you really want to lock down your Internet access to only allow very specific web site access. The example below would block access to all web sites except those listed:

The URL blacklist and whitelist feature is included as standard on all supported GoConnect routers.

2. Web Site Category (GoConnect GlobalView)

GoConnect's GlobalView allows you to select specific categories of web site which your router will allow access to. For example, an office may wish to block access to social networking or other company-time wasting sites or a home user might want to block adult sites from their children

GlobalView covers 64 separate categories which you can select as blocked or permitted. Every time one of your users attempts to access a site, the router's automatically queries the central GlobalView server to ascertain its classification. This takes only milliseconds. If a site is blocked by GlobalView, according to the categories you have selected, instead of the requested web page, a warning message is displayed to the user (you can customise the message).

* - planned to be supported in future firmware ** -Assumes router on site and on line, and remote configuration, Otherwise £65 + Milage for site visit

3. Digital Content Type

GoConnect's Content filtering allows you to specify particular data types or web content to be blocked by the router. The vigor is pre-set with many different content types or protocols. You can select any or all of them for blocking. There are infinite combinations but some examples of commonly blocked content are:

• Block download of executable (EXE) or compressed (ZIP) files to reduce the chance or virus infection or installation of untested software.
• Block Peer-to-Peer (P2P) software such as BitTorrent, to avoid users using vast amounts of your bandwidth or engaging in media piracy.
• Block HTTP/FTP upload or webmail to prevent theft/espionage of your company data
• At Home, block Instant Messaging protocols to prevent your children from unsupervised chat with strangers.
• Block SMTP from all devices other than your mail server to stop Trojan Zombies

For detailed list on the protocols and content type which can be blocked, Click Here.

4. IP Filtering

This is a more technically complex method. All data sent across the Internet is sent as a 'data packet' between devices (for example between your PC and a web site) Each device has its own IP address (such as '194.194.123.18'). In addition, each data packet can be one of several data types (TCP, UDP, ICMP etc.) and may also have additional information such as TCP port numbers. Don't worry if this all sounds a bit complicated; the useful factor here is that these packets can be distinguished and therefore rules can be set up on the router to block or pass packets which match parameters you choose.

Examples of useful IP filters might be to block incoming mail from all but known mail servers, or to allow access to your internal web server from all addresses except known remote locations. IP Filters can be nested so that a chain of filters can all be tied together and data passed only if one of, or all of the rule criteria are met. As we said, it's a technically complex feature but immensely powerful.

Note : Although we include IP filtering here, most users actually consider that to be part of the main firewall features as it's not filtering 'by content' as such.