[school-core] Intro to CensorNet

["Tim Lloyd" <tim@intrago.co.uk>]

Hi Guys,

Intrago Ltd recently joined SchoolForge after the release of our CensorNet
software for controlling and monitoring Internet use in the classroom. The
project was conceived by an ICT Coordinator here in the UK after being
frustrated with the likes of CyberGuard and shocked at the expense of things
like Websense and I-Gear.

The main requirements were obviously that it had to do some sort of content
filtering (keyword, phrase, file extension, mime type, url), you had to be
able to suspend access for a pupil, there had to be different groups of
access rights to allow for staff Internet access, you had to be able to
control machines as well as users and all of this had to be easy to use! It
also had to install transparently on a Windows network and interact with
whatever user database existed.

After about 6 months of development we installed the first CensorNet
appliance (December 2001) in a secondary school (300 machines/1500 pupils)
here in the UK. We took part in the BETT2002 education show in London -
incidentally, we are doing this again in January 2003 so if anyone wants a
virtual presence please drop me a mail - and also The Education Show later
on in the year. By July 2002 we have 10 major schools and colleges using
CensorNet and have released countless updates and improvements.

In July we released CensorNet to the public - although it has always been
open source - it was never very easy to set up and configure. Previously we
had always sent an engineer on site to install it. By developing a GUI
installation using Newt (similar to Smoothwall) we have made it so simple
you can have it up and running within half an hour. This includes being able
to probe the entire LAN for workstations and automatically importing users
from an NT PDC or Windows 2000 Active Directory. We support these simply
because 90% of all schools here in the UK have a Windows based network.

We made an ISO image available to download, so all the user has to do is
burn it to CD, and then boot it on the machine they want to convert to a
CensorNet server and voila.

Since the release we have had hundreds of downloads worldwide and offers to
help contribute to development. A company in Spain has already translated
the Web interface and documentation to Spanish and we are hoping others will
follow suit. In addition, we know of active CensorNet servers in the US,
Dubai, Spain, Australia, UK and Canada and probably many more we don't know
about.

At present we are working on a long term project to develop a lightweight
image recognition engine (LIFE) capable of running on a local LAN to help
reduce the amount of porn reaching classrooms. This is in the early stages
and we hope to tie up a relationship with a university here in the UK very
soon. We also have plans to extend CensorNet to mail servers for the
combined scanning of keywords, spam and viruses.

Well, I think I have rambled enough now. I like what Schoolforge is doing
and I hope that Intrago and CensorNet can play a useful and active part.

Best wishes,

Tim

--
Tim Lloyd
Intrago Ltd
e: tim@intrago.co.uk <mailto:tim@intrago.co.uk>
t: +44 (0) 1454 227309 / f: +44 (0) 1454 228820
s: PO BOX 2000, Yate, Bristol, BS37 1DS.
http://www.intrago.co.uk

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