NSW DET: School Internet filter not fail-proof

McAfee's AV vendor approach to web filtering is just not as good as the Blue Coat Proxy Secure web gateway's web filter with continuous updates by the WebPulse community watch cloud and the real-time Web content rating.

Perspective.

I love how people believe they need to shield other's away from content they don't think said student/person should be exposed to.

If the person/student in question wishes to expose themselevs to it, not only is that their choice and free will to do so, but it is normally followed up by irritation at finding their path blocked, then tracking down an alternative route.

Always has been like this for everyone since as far as I can recall. Be it the internet, smoking, alcohol, adult mags etc.
So sure, go right ahead and criticise an institution, person, software or what have you for the apparent lapses that let information through. Just remember that it is only really the norm that this happens.
Build a better wall and the determined will find a bigger sledge hammer, or an alternate path. Always will in all aspects of life.

Greater Perspective

While I implore your craving for social justice and the right to choose what is best for yourself, DET have a duty of care while EVERY student uses it's system(s) to access the internet.

To put it simply, DET are legally liable if they are not seen to be doing all they can to filter out this content. What a kid does at home is not DET problem, however what they do on the DET supplied laptops is.

This day and age, we not only have to wrap our kids up in cotton wool, but also be culturally sensitive to the person sitting next to us who may also be watching our screen.

Bring back DOS, no problems back then except for 640KB RAM. You can't even open a picture!! (ok, maybe ASCII pr0n)

No sales pitches please in the comments..

regarding the comment from Anonymous - "McAfee's AV vendor approach to web filtering is just not as good as the Blue Coat Proxy Secure web gateway's web filter with continuous updates by the WebPulse community watch cloud and the real-time Web content rating."

thanks for the worthless sales orientated comment from BlueCoat or their resellers. BlueCoat isn't a perfect webfilter, and no system is. There are too many sites where it is no black or white whether a site is inappropriate....there is a lot of grey areas, like youtube for example. There are some great educational videos on youtube, and some videos that are highly inappropriate.

Anyway how about we pass on the sales pitch and look at this article for what it is - a ridiculous over reaction. Wow - a student accessed a chatsite with inappropriate language..I'm sure they have never been exposed to that before.

Conroy, are you listening?

This is a perfect example of why Conroy's self-righteous crusade to candy-coat the internet is doomed to being an expensive and ineffective failure at very best. It tries to walk a fine line between "appropriate" and "unwanted" content, using a vague set of guidelines and the personal judgement of a few ACMA employees, evaluating a resource that grows much faster than the department can process it. It will inevitibly over- AND under-block content, and it will make Australia's filtering regime the laughing-stock of the world.

At least the Department of Education can review and un-block sites as they see fit - no Australian citizen will have this ability under Conroy's harebrained scheme.

The Missus

Oh no, I wasn't complaining about the fact that for legal reasons and duty of care the school needs to do their bit. ( that is best left for another time and bit of soap box grand standing ) But simply that people shouldn't be so surprised that filters or the like fail. Especially mad hating on someone or some group.

(I.E Outrage " Oh noes! You havent' done enough on your end to stop this kid, who oddly enough we have no actual links with but will use in our argument, from looking at something we the wowser brigade find offensive! Or at least we do for other peoepl! Ourselves...err not so much but that's beside the point....etc")

Just that failure for these things is enevitable. One can counter it all they like with bigger and better, or worse depending on your view point, but accept that it will occur, be prepared and deal with it and be moving on.

Fabricated outrage can only work if we allow it. *shrugs*

Gah! My apologies for the typos in the previous post.

Lenovo IdeaPad S10e and the filter

The Students at my school got our laptops today, the main problem is that at home some people are filtered whilst others aren't, i myself am filtered and angry as hell. I cannot even verify that some Itunes files that i have bought

Learn something new everyday.

Nothing is fool proof.

At least by putting in these new restrictions the students who will put in time to finding an alternate route will be still educating themselves in the process of computers. Expanding their IT knowledge.
I say go for it, everything learnt is just a gain, plus it makes a challenge for thouse who think, as teenagers do, they know everything.

Why are certain sites blocked under the category of "Educations/Reference"?
And Bing.com.au is also blocked as "DET staff only"
Sounds like the DET seem to favour Google over Microsoft.

there not worth it!

they have spent all this money on these laptops.they block 90% of all sites,and even when you get home an hookup to your wirless at home it still blocks everything.kids are alot smarter then what you all think,people will still hack into it.

its the kids free will to look at whatever they wont to.yous unbloke msn,facebook,myspace,twitter and hose social networking sites,there alot better for the kids.

NSW DET work with a large whitelist, it is not a question of what is blocked, it is a question of what they are allowed to access on state funded netbooks...

If they buy their own netbooks they can look at whatever they like...

The guy complaining about his iTunes is a classic, must surely be a troll? rofl!

Clean slate

What's to stop the student, who has one of the netbooks in question from reinstalling windows?

lenovo laptops - they r not worth it

hey, yer the department of education & training shud unblock MSN, facebook and myspace etc..... because its relly boring when u r at home and u connect it up to the home network and everything is still blocked :-(( and it gets really borig when the kids have nothing to do in their spare/free time..

I have recently started using the blogengine.net and I having some problems here? in your blog you stated that we need to enable write permissions on the App_Data folder...unfortunately I don't understand how to enable it.
Regards,
<a href="http://www.commercialjuicers.org/tomato-juicer.html">tomato juicer</a>

It's obviously hackable

I recieved the lenovo laptops this year (2009) and even though we've only had them a couple of months I already know how to hack them and gain control of the administrator (i know it works but i don't want to do becacuse theres really no point since i us my home pc). But these computers were not a bad idea, there not necessary but i do use them for work and i think im learning more even though 60% of students are actually playing games, but the students who learnt before the laptops are learning now and the ones who play games are usually the ones who weren't doing anything anyway. But the internet blocking systeem is pretty shit espically when they block sites with information on what your LEARNING they've blocked way to much and not made the laptops as hackprof as they could've.
SINCERLY
Anonymous

Protection

The laptops come with lots of protection, the bios is locked down, there is the internet filter. You cannot install ny applications on the laptop. All EXE's are blocked and cannot be opened although i know a way around that. Most of the hard disk is blocked off, although i know a way of accessing it aswell. They can be tracked anywhere in the world, shutdown and immobilised anywhere in the world using satelitte tracking. And using computrace they can make the laptop kaput be deleting some critical windows system files, this cannot be undone and when the laptop is found and returned they must reformat the laptop and install windows again. So yeah they are very protected but there are some proxy servers that allow a way around the blocking filter system but most of them are blocked now. There are ways of opening applications (EXE's) and of accessing the hard drive completly but apart from that they are pretty crap and very over protected. JC.

I am a year 12 student and have just recieved a lenovo mini laptop. While they are great for general purposes such as using microsoft word and reseach, I believe the internet filter on these computer is a little extreme. I need to be able to log onto my hotmail account to recieve emails for work, school and other students and i can't even do that!
I only came across this site by trying to find a proxy to get onto my email account so that i can contact other students and reply to important emails.
I understand the need to block certain sites however i think that certain communication sites should be allowed so that students may keep incontact with one another.
In the end isn't it that student's problem if they choose to spend their evenings and class time on gaming site or facebook, the only thing teachers can really do is encourage the students.
Why must the students who use the internet on these computer wisely be punished because of the who don't?

The poster above me is obviously lying about being in year 12. Only students in year 10 and below are recieving these netbooks, which are a waste of taxpayer money.

I think it's funny how people complain about things being locked down on them when they shouldn't even be recieving them. And none of the people commenting on reinstalling Windows actually know how locked down the computer is. You can't touch the BIOS to change the boot order, you can't reformat since the child doesn't have admin rights.

These net books are definitely not as good as they sounded at first. I was involved in the initial trials and i can honestly say that the DET have gone power crazy since then. Even some of the educational sites which are crucial to our assignments are blocked! Not to mention that some of the software isn't even installed properly. I was the 21'st person in all of NSW to recieve mine. I still cant use most of the Adobe software. Not to mention that you cant do anything about it because of all of the blocking and restrictions. I am usually a good student but even i have seen my grades drop since recieving these laptops. It makes it so easy to get distracted. Why did we need these useless things anyways?

i am in year currently in year 9 and i received my laptop on thursday, it is a good laptop only that at home i have no access to any sites at all, not even sites that im supposed to be on for school assignments and homework, why did we get laptops in the first place if we really cant even use the web on them. i think that the restrictions are so stupid not just cause i want to be able to talk to my friends but because i cant even do any school work on it, so it pretty well useless

I am not so worried about the internet restrictions. Yes, they are a little extreme and yes it is frustrating that every single link you click on is blocked but I am more annoyed about the fact that I can't rename my computer. My family have a lord of the rings theme for all our computers and mine at the moment only has this stupid little number for a name. I would like to call it Merry/Meriadoc but I can't because I'm not the 'system administrator' or something like that.

Im in year 11 and i dont personaly have one of the laptops, but it should be possible to remove the hard drive and replace it with one already loaded with an os of your choosing. When the time for the termly image reset comes along just switch it back. .... just a idea

previous post is right but you cant do that there is a sticker over the harddrive opening and if its even scratched the computer gets taken off you
(btw im in year 9 ) the computers are terrible and everyone in my year has already hacked through the blocks and watches youtube through most classes)

I'm Rick James! Gimmie them tubes!

Also apparently there is a way to use exe. files but no-one will tell me how and only a few people kow

gay det blocks so many useful sites. stupid det won't let us install programs, but there is a secret folder where you paste you portable app/game. i got vice city :D

i am in year 11
i recived my laptop in year 9
after the 1st year of the laptop all my year's laptops started to break , the laptop was chiping away.
i think the laptops are a bad idea

Hi, I've received this years Lenovo Edge 11 laptop (2011) and I can say that I definitely don't enjoy having the web filter there. The rest of it is rather quite nice, a great suit of programs to use but it is a huge shame that you can't add your own 3rd party programs (mainly due to the high ammount of people who crack their software illegaly etc etc.). While it would be nice to be able to browse the net without a filter there's always going to be some bible-thumper/stupid-child/general-moron/parents-without-brains who are going to blame the DET immediately if something goes wrong so they obviously need to make the internet "idiot proof" while they're trying to use the school laptops. The laptops in general aren't that useful I've asked some of the older students at my school and they say it's not that important and are generally dead weight (You could pretty much be bringing 1.5kg extra of just a single period , approx 45 minutes at my school) and that doesn't sound that nice. And really giving away laptops? This is nothing but a huge publicity stunt that will blow government funding, most of this we can already do it at home and I don't see where a 1:1 ratio of students to computers would be needed. Sure it's nice to have a $500 laptop with a net value of $0 but it's really nothing more than a VERY VERY expensive notepad (only to the taxpayers of course)

how do you unblock facebook on the think pad edge mini laptop with NSW det secuirty

(To Ryan) you can't unless you find a proxy server. Most of which are blocked.

I have recieved the 2011 notebook, and am not impressed. Not only are most internet sites blocked, but recently I discovered they have blocked google images too. Whether it is a glitch, or is just affecting me and another classmate, I find this extremely frustrating as I often need images for assignments and homework and so on.
Also, the computers simply lack quality. Within the first few days my computer stopped hibernating, and shuts down randomly. I often recieve error messages about my windows 'not being genuine'. I can't try and fix any issues because I am not administrator. The tech guy at my school knows very little and can't help me, so I'm stuck with a faulty device.
Sam.

Hi Guys,
The laptops are heavily locked down, there are tamper evident stickers, there is an RFID chip installed, the NSW police/DET can track the device, It's DET policy, you have no say in that!
Voters can have a say by voting out that government who are wasting their dollars on this project.
My preference would have been for the allocated funds to have been spent on improving the communications backbones internal to the schools so that existing systems can work better without the bottlenecks caused by outdated wiring systems.
I am a teacher, I support a school network, I have to put up with repairing or replacing equipment damaged by students who think it funny to remove cables or power leads, etc. I also see students waste their time in class listening to music, being distracted by movies, and not always doing what has been asked of them. You may not believe me, but I try to make my subjects interesting but most are switched off learning. They are more interested in socialising or games playing.
I am not saying everyone is in the same category as I have pictured above but honestly how many of you that have complained actually follow instructions at school.
The laptops are just a tool to assist your learning. They come with software worth a few thousand dollars if you were to purchase it commercially, you get it at no charge. Office 2010 and adobe CS5 are just two great products to help you document and present your school work, onenote is fairly good at allowing you to collect all material associated with a specific task or project.
If the internet is lacking due to blocks, so what, most dedicated teachers will try and get you the resources that you need to complete the required work and generally there are alternative sites available for the tasks that you are being asked to complete.

The laptop charter that was issued to all students, you read it, agreed to the terms, your parents signed for the computers. Generally the laptops are yours to use, but you should be following the instructions set out in the charter. However most of you are in breach of the charter - Read the charter that was completed when your parents collected the laptop.
Here is an extract of part of that charter "• ensure that personal use is kept to a minimum and internet and online communication services is generally used for genuine curriculum and educational activities. Use of unauthorised programs and intentionally downloading unauthorised software, graphics or music that is not associated with learning, is not permitted. "
Someone mentioned something about student choice earlier, stop your whining - you have a choice - keep the laptop, use the software thats installed and comes with the pc or give it back - you have that option. You dont have to keep it.

Regards
Malcolm

Hi all,
I receieved my DET laptop in 2010 and have discovered several problems.
Sure, the laptops are great if we want to take notes in class, create multimedia presentations or take pictures but due to the many blockages, the laptops are basically a word processor.
Firstly, the DET Email on the computers only works at school which can be a hassle for students like myself who need to email homework and assignments to teachers from home.
Secondly, as the comments above state, many of the internet sites are blocked. I was researching binary stars on my laptop the other day on the internet. I clicked on the NASA website (for which my teacher recommended) to find out more information only to find that it was blocked because it contained "innapropriate content".
Thirdly, the laptop are a distraction in classes. I am a straight A student but often find my self browsing the web (limited websites though) when I'm supposed to be doing a research task or writing notesto my friends on Word.
Finally, the laptops themselves weigh about 1.5kg. That's 1.5kg of extra weight that you carry around all day even though you may not use the laptops. The teachers are supposed to tell us when we wil but we are never informed.
All in all, they are a HUGE waste of money. It would've probably been better to upgrade to existing laptops/computers/technology which stay at school.

hi every pissed off student,teacher and/or parent reading this
these laptops are a piece of junk and are a complete waste of taxpayers money but i am not going to rant on like most of you have om going to help you all reading this i was working to help create a program like ''ultrasurf'' but one that hides your ip adress and it has been finished it is called tor browser and is a free download all you have to do is download it on your computer and install in safe mode (to get to safe mode w networking remove your battery then turn device back on then up arrow twice and then enter)the in safe mode you can run application but while in safe mode there is no sound so no youtube also no flash player so no games but there is facebook myspace and all those websites you always wanted like the websites the last 30 comments ''wanted''
sincerely marcus preston

ITT: butthurt teenagers and DET fanboys.

Yeah, I've hacked my laptop a few times then used it commonly in front of teachers so that they report me. Why? Just to show that the DET has not only failed in securing their 'Digital Revolution' but just to show my own knowledge in the realms of hacking. I haven't really considered fixing up the new additions to their security due to my brand new Alienware computer shadowing the DET craptop and leaving it in dust. Realistically, you have two options:

> rip the thing apart and screw around with the hardware. You can remove the tracker if you want.

> buy a better PC/laptop and do what you please.

The laptops are unreliable, mine craps itself everytime i open word or excel, aswell as the security I can easily get onto youtube and other sites. Its not even hacking just a good friend that have relatives in tafe or a teacher. Easy

I THINK THAT THERE SHOULDNT BE BLOCKED SITES BECAUSE PEOPLE CAN GET FRISTRATED NOT BEING ABLE TO DO ANYTHING, BECAUSE IF YOU KEEP BLOCKING SITES PEOPLE WILL KEEP GETTING ANGRY AND KEEP TRYING TO FIND WAYS TO KEEP GETTING THROUGH THE SYSTEM, SO PLEASE UNBLOCK WEBSITES

Stupid Laptops i cant do sheet on them, i cant even run .exe's!

MAkes me wanna kill someone 0.o

Frucking Hell whose frucking genius idea was it to block cool maths because it is educational its the only thing we are allowed to do in the liabry or in our spare time. This government needs to get a F**king life!!!!!!!!! F**k Julia Gizzard Fruck Tony Babbot Fruck the greens get a true blue Aussie to run this country

had to spell the F word wrong coz this site wont let me say F**k what the F**k is up with society today

You can still get on Google Translate here:
http://translate.google.com.au/#

Well, in their attempt to block Gmail, they've blocked DET email today as well, since DET email is using Gmail's domain.

God damn it, at least give us some sort of lease. Students can and will bypass the blocks if they must. Some people only have their laptops to access the internet, and with the whitelist being integrated I have no idea how some people can do simple assignments without using bypasses due to the incompenten DET blocks.

^(to Lorna) ^ ahh so its not only me!!! THanks to the dumbasses ive got zero for an assignment for not emailing it via DET! Relick-a-dickulous!!!

The laptops look good. But everything is blocked. Even google translate is blocked, if anyone knows how to unblock it, help would be nice (: I just recived mine about 4 weeks ago and they suck, no decent proxy server can help and there is 2 ways i know how to make yourself an admin, either get new hardrive or pretty much restet the computers, delete the account they made you and make your own, or find out a teachers DET and make a log on account using their name and then the domai as DET. Or gov can help us all by unblocking everything :)

I visited many web sites however the audio quality for audio songs existing at this web site is in fact wonderful.

you should really unblock facebook or at least msn because there has been plenty of time where i need to talk to a friend about a school assignment/homework and cant talk to them

I think the DET Blueclient is Faulting, I Commonly Find Myself (at home, not at school) On Youtube and Google Images, which are Blocked Sites at home for my school, This Happens Randomly and After a little Bit the Whole Things Collaspes and i can't use the Internet until i restart the laptop, anyone know what is happening