Support

K-12 Forums

Talk with other K-12 network administrators in your state.

Or see all states.

Categories

Vanilla 1.1.4 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.

This discussion has been inactive for longer than 30 days, and is thus closed.

Adult site blocking: URL variations

Bottom of Page

1 to 9 of 9

  1.  
    • CommentAuthorrawingat
    • CommentTimeAug 22nd 2007 edited
     permalink
    playboy.com is blocked

    www.playboy.com is not

    ??
    • CommentAuthorrawingat
    • CommentTimeAug 22nd 2007
     permalink
    more details..

    I enabled adult site blocking yesterday

    I tested playboy.com this morning and it was blocked. I then went to www.playboy.com and it was not blocked.

    after flushing my dns both are blocked.

    any ideas what might have caused this behavior ?
    • CommentAuthorjlwnetwork
    • CommentTimeAug 22nd 2007 edited
     permalink
    Since both were blocked *after* flushing ... apparently the offending URL and it's corresponding IP address was still somewhere in a local DNS cache(s).

    i.e. Prior to flushing, your network apparently wasn't actually performin an *external* DNS lookup, so OpenDNS (and St. Bernard) couldn't block it.
    • CommentAuthorrawingat
    • CommentTimeAug 22nd 2007
     permalink
    that's what I was thinking...and that leads me to believe that someone on the network went to www.playboy.com recently before I turned on adult site blocking so it was cached on my DNS server.
  5.  permalink
    Have you got teenagers? Try http://3634596099/ or just 3634596099

    Or 0xd8a38903 or lots of other ways of doing it like

    216.163.137.3

    Since OpenDNS allows letters and numbers in their shortcuts, I've tried using a shortcut to divert "3634596099" and 0xd8a3803 to other web sites (hoping it might catch all "variations"), but unfortunately they only work as shortcuts IF they don't resolve to a "existing real" domain first.

    For example... you can define 3634596098 as an Opendns shortcut and it will work (today anyway), but not 3634596099 (because it "exists").

    Sniff, sniff.

    I know it's not practical (if it did work) to set up all these sites as diverted shortcuts or blocked domains, but there must be a solution somewhere to keep kids from using actual IP addresses. I'll keep trying!

    Without a solution, if you allow google or other similar sites, it is too easy for kids to find out the "real" ip numbers. And most kids (or their friends) are smarter than we are.
    • CommentAuthormnordhoff
    • CommentTimeAug 24th 2007
     permalink
    Okay, this is like the fourth thread about this I've seen, and I just have to ask... What's the huge problem with teenagers having access to porn on the Internet?

    (Yes, I am a teenager. And I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything. I just don't understand the threat of Playboy.com and I'm curious about your reasoning.)
  7.  permalink
    @mnordhoff,

    You didn't say where you were in the 13-19 range. That's quite a spread and there is a lot of variation in what they can handle. (Curiosity can start a lot younger than 13 of course).

    However, I don't believe this forum is the proper place to discuss one's personal reasons for wanting to block adult sites. The existence of this forum category and the willingness of OpenDNS to make adult site blocking available speaks for itself.

    If you are really interested in the subject, a simple google search on "teenagers addicted to porn" returned 713,000 entries!

    As with all addictions, they start out small but continue to grow, and many times end with the destruction of whole families. The problem is not restricted just to our youth.

    PS: www.playboy.com was the initial subject of the thread which I did not start. That site is almost "clean" compared to what exists on the internet.
    • CommentAuthormnordhoff
    • CommentTimeAug 25th 2007 edited
     permalink
    [Update #3, 5 days after posting it: I feel like a jackass for writing so much about this subject in this forum. This forum is for talking about how way awesome OpenDNS is, not this. I've learned that even when I think I have a cool head, I may not be right. Maybe in the future, I'll write responses, but then not post them for a day, to make sure I've cooled down.

    I was going to erase this post, but since I got one "thanks" for it (maybe he just missed the "block user" button? ;) ), I'm going to leave it here but ask that you don't read it. Or at least not think too badly of me if you do. :) ]

    [Update #1: I just watched a mindless Saturday morning cartoon and ate some fried rice. Now I really don't care about this anymore. I still think it's pointless, unnecessary and stupid to try to stop teens from accessing porn. But I've relaxed a little about the "only people with serious issues could be harmed by porn" thing. I think someone would need to have at least some issues to become a "porn addict", and I think that blocking it as a preventative measure is like banning peanuts because some people are allergic to them, though in the case of porn it's not so easy to know if someone is "allergic".]

    [Update #2: I've changed my mind again. :) Censorship is harmful (insert exception), stopping teens from accessing porn and the attitudes that cause people to want to do that are harmful, and porn addiction is a non-issue. There. Now I'll shut up. Hopefully. :) ]

    Okay, this is the fourth time I've rewritten this post, and it's a jumble of different thoughts. :)

    Disclaimer: I don't have an opinion on whether BDSM or bestiality or other weird porn is harmful/more harmful than more normal porn (other than physical harm to the participants and mental harm to the other animals). I think it could go either way, but I doubt it's a significant difference. I'm not trying to argue about that stuff. I'm also not trying to argue about exposure of porn to really young kids.

    I think my position (pun?) is that anyone who is actually harmed by porn has serious issues anyway, and that the risk of becoming a porn addict is so low that it is not worth worrying about or trying to prevent. We don't carry tiger tranquilizers or verify water is clean before drinking it, do we?

    Wow, that was short. Especially for long-winded old me.

    Other comments:

    I hope that OpenDNS offers to help block porn because it's inappropriate to offices and stuff, not because they think it's dangerous.

    This wasn't your point at all, but I have to point out that the total number of Google results for a query is an utterly meaningless and exaggerated estimation. For example: There are an estimated 150,000 results for [teenagers addicted to socks], but I can't imagine there are more than 3 web pages actually about that (two of them are satire and one was written by a crackpot ;) ). Google also says there are 38 results for the exact phrase ["teenagers addicted to porn"] while it gives 13.

    I think this discussion is at least 1% not improper for this forum because so many people talk about using OpenDNS to protect their kiddies from teh evil porn menace.

    I haven't done any research, other than that I haven't been harmed by porn yet. I'm afraid that most web pages on the subject will be written by misleading or lying anti-porn fanatics. I was going to add something else to that sentence, but I just forgot what it was. I should go to sleep. My brain is really starting to shut down. Oh well. *post*
    Thankful People: dougielawson, hiddenlogik
  9.  permalink
    "I hope that OpenDNS offers to help block porn because it's inappropriate to offices and stuff, not because they think it's dangerous."

    That appears to be a very sensible argument. OpenDNS can enforce the NSFW (not suitable for work) policy.

    I don't have a problem I work at home all except eight days a year (4 * manager's meetings and 4 * team meetings). Give or take business trips.

1 to 9 of 9

  1.  

This discussion has been inactive for longer than 30 days, and is thus closed.