Internet Content Filtering: MOREnet Hosted

MOREnet manages the hardware and software. Your Web-based traffic is routed to the MOREnet server to be filtered. Your organization has access to a Web-based interface that gives you complete control over your organization's filtering configuration.

Members who elect to run the service through a non-MOREnet router should contact MOREnet Technical Support to determine if the existing router will be compatible with the service.

The service runs on the MOREnet network. Upon activation, the organization's router(s) is configured to direct all Web (port 80) traffic to the Internet Content Filtering server. Members then manage their own filtering profiles.

A router upgrade may be necessary before Internet Content Filtering can be implemented.

WARNING: Due to the filtering solution's use of IP addresses, organizations running Network Address Translation (NAT) on their network may have limited functionality based on the network design and use of private to public IP addressing. Please contact MOREnet Technical Support at 1-800-509-6673 for information on how the Internet content filtering service will work with your network design. Additional information on networks running NAT is available at Internet Content Filtering Technical Information.

Technical Implementation

Hardware is installed in both the St. Louis and Kansas City hub facilities to ensure optimal performance. MOREnet will monitor the performance and will add additional equipment as necessary.

Site computers will be directed to the filtering equipment by the site router. If an outage occurs, the service is designed to "fail open," meaning that all filtering will be removed and all web traffic will be unfiltered.

Internet Content Filtering will introduce a few milliseconds to the transaction time for each site accessed. This additional time should not be noticeable for users.

Delegated Administration

One network "super administrator" may delegate certain administrative tasks "downstream" to other administrators within the network.

Reporting

MOREnet will automatically log all Internet requests from subscribers of the Internet Content Filtering service. The log can be used for reporting on sites that were accessed or requested. However, because of the impact on the network, the number of reports will be limited. Activity logs are kept for two weeks.

For more information, see MOREnet-hosted Internet Content Filtering Reporting Options.

Maintenance Window

MOREnet has a regularly scheduled maintenance window every weekend. The maintenance window begins at midnight on Saturday and last for twelve hours until noon on Sunday, unless otherwise announced. Actual outages or delays are usually a shorter time period within this window. Maintenance of the Internet Filtering service will only be scheduled during this time.

Notifications regarding maintenance, unexpected outages and identified filtering issues are sent to the icf-mnethost discussion list. All filter administrators are automatically subscribed to the icf-mnethost list during the initial set up of the organization’s filtering service. If there are other support staff in the organization who need to be on this list, please submit a request for the addition to MOREnet Technical Support at techsupp@more.net.

Support Hours

MOREnet will provide support from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Friday for all Internet Content Filtering members. For members with after-hours SLAs, MOREnet will provide support in the event of an outage for the hours they have specified on their SLAs. If MOREnet staff cannot answer a member’s question, MOREnet has access to the vendor’s technicians 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Network Address Translation (NAT)

The functionality of the MOREnet-managed Internet Content Filtering solution will depend to some extent on the local configuration of the member’s workstations. Following are the possible configurations for local area networks (LANs).

Every workstation on the LAN has a static public IP address

Locations with this configuration will be able to establish different blocking requirements for each individual workstation and can remove filtering from a given workstation when needed.

The LAN has a one-to-one Network Address Translation (NAT)

Locations with this configuration will be able to establish different blocking requirements for each individual workstation and can remove filtering from a given workstation when needed. However, individual workstation requirements will have to be re-established each time a workstation logs onto the Internet since a public IP will not be assigned to a specific workstation. Data cannot be captured by workstation.

The LAN has a one-to-many Network Address Translation (NAT)

Locations with this configuration can have only one set of requirements for all workstations. Removing filtering from one workstation would result in opening the Internet up for all workstations. Data cannot be captured by workstation.

NOTE: Some locations with a one-to-many NAT may have LAN software that allows them to reserve a specific group of public IP addresses to a user type, such as teachers. In this case the user type can have different requirements than all other users. However, there can only be as many different requirements as the defined user types, and removing a filter for one member of the user type will remove it for all workstations of the user type.

Training

MOREnet will provide classroom instructions and Internet-based training for the administration of the Internet Content Filtering product. Members should have an administrator complete the training prior to using the Internet Content Filtering service.

Instructor-led Training

See MOREnet's Training Schedule to view any upcoming instructor-led ICF training opportunities.

Web-based Training

Recordings of Internet Content Filtering training are now available. To view a recording, click the links below.

Internet Content Filtering, Part 1, run time 50:08

Internet Content Filtering, Part 2, run time 1:31:08

Training Materials

Training materials are available in their native PowerPoint format from MOREnet's FTP site. Users must download these files to their local machines to use them. Do not open these files from your browser. To use a browser to download a file from the FTP site, right click the link and (in Internet Explorer) choose Save Target As or (in Netscape) choose Save Link Target As.

Note: The exercises included in this presentation are for reference only. Do not attempt to complete the exercises on any production system.

Internet Content Filtering Introduction (PPT file; 4 MB)