What is ‘Content Filtering’?
Your normal web filter such as Cyber Patrol, squidGuard, Net Nanny, etc, has a very large list of bad sites. If you try to go to these sites you will get blocked. I.e. your web access is filtered by web address.
The web is a fast changing place and even large web search engines such as Google or Altavista or Yahoo don’t even know of half of it. This makes filtering by web address (URL) difficult as sites change and new ones come up all the time. It is impossible to have comprehensive filtering using just URLs. What is needed is something to check every page you (or your children) ever access for ‘bad’ subjects such as drugs, profanities, hate, pornography, etc, and disallow it if it’s not suitable. This is called ‘Content Filtering’.
This is why you need DansGuardian as it makes the web a cleaner, safer, place for you and your children.
As a side effect, DansGuardian also helps maintain freedom of speech by moving the censoring to the choice of the individual rather than imposing a specific ideal on the whole world.
What is the IPCop firewall?
IPCop Firewall is a Linux firewall distribution geared towards home and SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) users. The IPCop interface is very user-friendly and task-based. IPCop offers the critical functionality of an expensive network appliance using stock, or even obsolete, hardware and OpenSource Software.
OLD PC + IPCOP = Secure Internet Appliance
IPCop lets you take an old PC and convert it into an appliance that will.
1. Secure your home network from the internet.
2. Improve the performance of web browsers (by keeping frequently used information)
All this functionality can be managed from a simple to use web interface, even updates and patches can be installed using a web browser.
Remember IPCop works with most home networks and small office networks, dial up modems, cable modems, ADSL, Leased lines and ISDN. It also lets several PCs share connections to the internet. If you have an always on connection to can even use IPCop to protect your web and email servers. IPCop also has remote management meaning you can securely update and reconfigure your IPCop firewall from anywhere with an internet connection!
Putting it all together:
Using both these tools you can use an old PC as a single gateway point though which all your web traffic is filtered and blocked for your entire network.
Here is a basic overview on the installation: (Please refer to related websites for more detailed instructions)
- Download and burn the IPCop ISO to a CD
- Boot from CD and follow install instructions *** Warning: This will erase all existing data from the hard disk ***
- Login to command line prompt, using user: root and password specified during install
- Run “setup” and configure the network settings
- Configure for your network for RED+GREEN
- Download http://transact.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/firewalladdons/addons-2.3-CLI-b2.tar.gz to your PC
- Using WinSCP (PORT 222), login to the IPCop and copy the addons-2.3-CLI-b2.tar.gz file to the IPCop root directory
- Run following commands:
- cd /
- tar zxvf addons-2.3-CLI-b2.tar.gz
- cd addons
- ./setup -i
- Download http://internode.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/firewalladdons/Copplus-2.2-GUI-b3.tar.gz to your PC
- Goto the IPCop administration web page usually http://youripcopIP:81/
- In the system section of your IPCop interface goto AddOns
- Refresh the browser and the Add Ons tab should be on the far right
- Then at the bottom of the Add Ons page, browse to the “Install new addon” and upload Copplus-2.2-GUI-b3.tar.gz to the IP Cop box
- The “Content Filter” option will then appear in the Services section
- Open the AddOns Updates panel and install any Cop+ Updates using the download – browse to – and upload process
- Configure the filter as desired
Extra addons:
- Update Accelerator: http://update-accelerator.advproxy.net/download/ipcop-updatexlrator-2.0.0.tar.gz
- Advanced Proxy: http://www.advproxy.net/download/ipcop-advproxy-2.1.9.tar.gz
Related Websites: