Let’s say you want to bring the good of the internet into your home… That’s easy you need a computer and internet service. Once things are hooked up you can search for the latest scores, buy a book, or meet people in your area concerned about the dangers of fracking. Unfortunately, without oversight your six year old can search for “playmates”, download in game content and meet people who are not who they say they are. So you try to be a good parent and put locks on the cabinet under the sink with your household cleaners, never drive without buckling up both your child and yourself, and of course demand that manufacturers put dead man switches on lawn mowers and power tools. You may even try to setup content filtering such as OpenDNS on your internet connection to keep the less tasteful and potentially dangerous parts of the internet out of your home. You even test your system and find obvious things are blocked but somehow Junior has found some inappropriate pictures what ever are you to do?

I get this question a LOT. Parents ask me how to keep their kids safe online while businesses ask how to keep malware and distractions like Facebook out. I try to sound flippant when answering but the truth is that the only sure way is to unplug from the internet. This answer is much too simplistic, you may argue and I there we agree. Many people want both the good things from the internet; email, Wikipedia, cloud storage… without any of the bad; phishing scams, malware, obtrusive and inappropriate ads. So why can’t the internet be redesigned to let only legitimate information through?

Well that’s a tough question and the real honest answer is that the internet was designed to be content neutral and it would be expensive and disruptive to redesign. But at a deeper level an uncensored internet is really what we want. The internet is a tool and a tool in the right hands can cure cancer or build a community just as the same tool in the wrong hands can wreak havoc on the environment or start a war. Specifically, by being content neutral the internet helps people connect and organize against authoritarian regimes or malfeasant companies just as it enables the spread of malware and ads for pharmaceuticals. Of course some of this is in the eye of the beholder so the internet can help you find the best price on the collected works of Mark Twain and also help Amazon undercut the prices of brick and mortar booksellers at the same time depending on your perspective.

I of course realize that many people cannot accept the fact that the internet works even though it allows the spread of dangerous content and in fact only works because it allows the spread of all content dangerous or not. [1] [2] [3] But for those of us dealing with the internet as it really is, we have to accept that much good comes with some bad. If you take nothing else away from this blog post I want you to understand that. You cannot have an internet that is perfectly free of dangerous content. Dangerous content will always find its way through and can only be ignored or deleted. So what’s to be done?

Set Expectations.

For parents I think it is a careful conversation about appropriate internet use that changes as kids grow. Things that are inappropriate for a 6 year old may be necessary research for a 13 year old. Also parental involvement may mean only using the internet while a parent or teacher is present when a kid is young and likely evolves to keeping an open mind and discussing topics that may be uncomfortable with adolescents.

Employers too need to have a conversation with employees. Internet needs vary with job ranging from jobs that require none to jobs that require frequent use of one or two websites or even complete access to everything available on the web. But an expectation needs to be set for nothing illegal and try to keep net access work related.

Reinforcing Expectations.

This is where content filtering can play a role. The job of content filtering is not to thwart a determined user but to remind them that you do have certain expectations and help prevent unintentional mistakes. Yours would not be the first tale of evaluating products online to fix a business problem which resulted in the accidental malware infection or search for school paper that resulted in exposure to adult themed material. MePush resells OpenDNS for Business and can help home users get started with free home accounts. We like OpenDNS because it is easy to deploy and the online Dashboard offers powerful configuration options for even the most computer-phobic user.

Remain Flexible

In my humble experience one thing sticks out as the number one reason content filtering fails and that filtering did not change as needs changed. Kids grow up and businesses change from internal business apps to cloud services and if you don’t update your filtering to reflect these changes users will be pushed to circumvent the filtering restriction exposing them to unwanted problems such as malware that they have not learned to deal with. OpenDNS gives users a link on the site blocked page where users can request that a site can be unblocked. Responding in a timely and thoughtful way to these requests helps you to stay flexible to client needs in the short term while periodic reviews of your content filtering setting including exception lists helps keep your filtering in tune with long term trends. Just remember that installing a content filtering solution is not a launch and forget fix to a long term issue but rather a tool to be wielded with care.

Conclusions

Content Filtering like the Internet is a tool. It can be used wisely or misused. Content Filtering does not work if you are expecting a magic bullet solution but when used in conjunction with expectation setting it can be rather effective.

A couple hours later I get an alert on my computer telling me I have a new event in my calendar, I checked it out on my Mac using iCal and on a whim pulled out my phone to see if the new event was on my phone, it wasn’t. Okay I’ll just go and refresh the calendar… Settings, Accounts Google, Sync… Nope still not there. Go to my Google Calendar nope not there either and there is no way to manually sync my subscribed calendars what? Turns out that Google syncs subscribed calendars every 4-6 days and gives you the user no control over when they sync your subscribed calendars. This is fine if I’m subscribed to say the calendar of Flyers games which really doesn’t change that often and it saves the Flyers and Google a lot of network traffic and thus server load which in the long analysis means money. It does not work so well for my business calendar which can change from hour to hour. The simple fix would be for Google to implement a calendar refresh hint option, so when you subscribe you get the choice to refresh the subscribed calendar monthly, weekly, daily or hourly. Go a head Google default to monthly and save network traffic for lame things like national holidays which hardly ever change.

But let’s think about this a bit more. What’s really happening is Google is  pushing me into their cloud. Not into The Cloud ie. the internet for all of us non-marketing speak types. Google in their push to get consumers to commit their data to the cloud doesn’t want them using their company’s cloud or Apple’s cloud but Google’s cloud exclusively. There’s a logic here, you are Google’s product and advertisers are their clients but if you the product split your time between Google’s Cloud, Facebook’s cloud and a corporate cloud then Google knows less about you and consequently you are less valuable to their clients. So Google has rejected a working system subscribe to a webcal feed on your phone and set on your phone to sync the feed hourly, daily or weekly as fit your usage and data plan; a system that Apple has embraced for their highly successful iPhones, iPods and iPads, for an overly complex system in hopes of increasing product value, that’s you remember.

What’s the end result? Google is hurting product value due to short term thinking. By making the Android too complex they fail to inspire brand loyalty. iPhones users rave about their phones but I rarely hear the same level of enthusiasm from Android users. So I think there are a couple of possibilities. First, people may tough it out but that’s not going to happen because this Android’s features are easy to use, so Google’s going to have to innovate, subsidize or go home. Second, those Android users may embrace the closed Apple ecosystem looking for a better user experience when their cellular contract is up and Google looses product. Third people may just walk away from the cloud. By being a less democratic world than the internet, Cloud’s like Google, Facebook and Apple’s iCloud get in the road so people don’t use them. People may even go so far as to abandon smart phones. Fourth, Google gets the pictures and fixes the problem. By offering a more open system than Apple, they could crush Apple in the mobile realm. Who wouldn’t pay to be free of iTunes? But this is going to mean long term thinking and compromising with their end users giving up short term lock-in for long term loyalty by building the features that users want; namely for the phone to just work.

Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau operates two offices and a lot of information is stored on individual PCs, leading to issues if information is needed and someone is not in the office or at their computer. They also didn’t have an adequate backup system.

Solution:

MePush installed a new Microsoft Exchange environment that was managed in the Cloud. The Cloud also provided adequate file sharing space, leading to much better collaboration. The team also installed a multi-system backup, both locally and in the Cloud.

Enhanced Management Services’ employees in Danville needed to be able to communicate efficiently and cost-effectively over the phone with employees working out of home offices in Maryland.

Solution:

MePush networked the two locations together so interoffice calls and routing could be achieved. MePush updated all of the hardware, but used the company’s existing Asterisk phone system, which is an Open Source PBX system that runs on a server. This saved the company money now, and also for future expansion.

Albright Foot Care Center manages three offices — in Lewisburg, Sunbury and Berwick — but they needed a central storage area and backup system for files and Electronic Medical Records.

Solution:

MePush’s team updated their system with new PCs, and set up a new server that could hold all Dragon voice recorded patient dictations, notes and records. The server also acts as a central storage and backup area, in addition to the Cloud. Physical firewalls were installed between servers to ensure security and in the case of emergency.

Reliance Hose Company #1 in Middleburg constructed a new building, across the parking lot from the firehouse. They needed the two buildings’ IT capabilities to run seamlessly with one another.

Solution:

MePush ran new cables to the new building, and then tested all of the wiring to make sure it would meet the fire company’s needs. The team also installed a new patch panel for DSL in the firehouse and installed a wireless link between the two, so they could run off of the same network. This point-to-point wireless system allowed the fire company to share files and reduce costs by not installing a second connection.

The office staff of Dr. Anuj Chopra, a Urologist, was having issues with computer viruses and a sluggish IT system, in general, due to old hardware and software.

Solution:

MePush swapped in a new server and transferred all files for the Doctor’s office. They also installed a new network and backups to ensure the safety and security of the office’s files. The Office is now back in service and operating much more efficiently than before – giving office staff peace of mind and a more pleasant work environment.

Darden Moore, a Financial Advisor, needed to have a reliable and secure wireless signal in his home office, which happens to be in a finished garage, separate from his home.

Solution:

MePush ran new cables to the garage office, and then tested all of the wiring to make sure it would meet the customer’s needs. The team also installed a new patch panel for DSL in the office and installed a wireless link between the two, so the home and office could run off of the same network. This point-to-point wireless system allowed Mr. Moore to share files and reduce costs by not installing a second connection.