Filtered by WebSENSE (was: Staff Web Sites)

[John Kupersmith]

Many thanks to Jean Heriot and Shirl Kennedy for pointing out
recently that my personal web site < http://www.jkup.net > was 
being filtered by the WebSENSE software under the category "Sex 2".
This certainly came as a surprise, since the site consists mainly
of articles on libraries, web design, technostress, and other topics,
a resume, landscape photos, etc.  In my opinion, it qualifies as 
"Sex Zero"; some might rate it lower.

I sent an inquiry through the WebSENSE "Suggest a Site" page
and within a couple of hours, had a reply indicating:

 "Your inability to reach the site requested was due to 
  a virtual hosting arrangement.  The site you requested 
  is hosted on the same IP address as another site in our 
  database that contains categorizable material. ... Now that
  we know the requested site is hosted on a shared IP address,
  WebSENSE will treat requests for it as special cases. Please
  allow 48 hours for the changes to be included in the database
  updates."

As it turned out, within about six hours my site was no longer 
"categorized" for blocking.  When I re-checked a few days later, 
it was again classified as "Sex 2"; another e-mail to WebSENSE 
resulted in it being unblocked again. 

Was I pleased to find that my site was blocked? - No.

Was I pleased with the speed and quality of WebSENSE's initial 
response? - Yes.  Will be even more pleased if my site stays 
unblocked this time! 

Does their technical explanation make sense? - Yes, my site uses
redirection from a domain hosting service < http://www.mydomain.com >
which I'm sure hosts all kinds of material.  

I'm not qualified to comment on WebSENSE in detail, and am not 
endorsing it or any other product.  For what it's worth, though, 
our library system has used Cyber Patrol since April 1998; it 
does not block my site, and our patrons have not complained about 
inappropriate blocking or asked us to block or unblock any other 
sites.  For details on our policy, procedures, and Cyber Patrol 
settings, see < http://www.washoe.lib.nv.us/staff/#Public >

--jk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  John Kupersmith                                   jkup at jkup.net 
  Internet Services Librarian                 http://www.jkup.net
  Washoe County Library System        http://www.washoe.lib.nv.us
  Reno, Nevada
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Not speaking for WCLS in this message~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~