Chat Rooms (Policy)

[Chuck Bearden]

On Tue, 24 Mar 1998, Mallika Pichumani wrote:

[snipped]
> all chat. It seems that filtering software prohibits chat based on URLs;
> though you can also ban the IRC ports themselves. But web-based chat is
> still an issue - unless you disable java, there seems to be no way to
> avoid this, unless you've got some strict firewall set up. Any ideas?

One could conceivably license filtering software and enable only the
chat category, which would take care of the Java- and non-Java-based
chats on the web, insofar as the vendor had identified chat sites.  
Telnet-based chat, however, could only be handled at a packet-filtering 
chokepoint like a router, firewall, or Socks proxy, and in each of 
these cases, it is up to the local library to discover what IP
addresses and ports need to be blocked and to modify the routing
tablbes or filtering rules.  And, if your router or firewall is owned 
or controlled by your ISP, you are relying on them to enter the rules 
that will correctly block traffic to the chat sites you have identified.  

While I'm sure it's possible, it doesn't seem to me a very realistic way 
of stopping telnet-based chats.

Chuck Bearden
Network Services Librarian
Houston Public Library
Houston, TX  77002
713/247-2264 (voice)
713/247-1182 (fax)
cbearden at hpl.lib.tx.us