How can I get my site off internet filter blacklists?

March 18, 2005 6:54 AM

I have a website that I maintain for my middle school soccer team. It has the usual stuff: practice schedules, game schedules, rosters, stats, etc. Sometimes I will post fun things related to soccer on the site. For some reason, the site is being blocked by internet filtering software at the school, the public library, and even in some homes. What can I do to get my site unblocked by filtering software?
posted by BobJordan to technology (5 comments total)

Is it possible somewhere on the site you discuss balls?
posted by bondcliff at 7:12 AM on March 18, 2005

The short answer is "you can't". Most of those filtering packages are renowned for being completely arbitrary and inaccurate in their listings (sometimes because they have an agenda, and sometimes because they (correctly) realize that little Johnny getting to porn through their product is a lot more damaging to their business than people not getting to your soccer team website).

Home users are relatively easy to deal with: tell them to configure their (defective) software to specifically allow your website. Libraries are a bit harder for kids, but adults can request unfiltered Internet access there. Schools might consider whitelisting you given the circumstances.

One thing that might be worth investigating is moving to another hosting provider. Some filtering software will block a whole hosting provider (or at least one shared webserver) on the basis of one hosted website there. Where are you hosted now?

Do you know what filtering software is blocking your users?
posted by mendel at 7:39 AM on March 18, 2005

Now that is just strange. I think I may have found your site via Google (does it start with a P?) and I could find nothing on there which might trigger the filters. I did see the word "Wizards" but that is a stretch and it looks recent anyway. Perhaps it is just the wrong site. I would ask the school IT guys to look into it for you, they probably have logs of everything that got filtered out and why.
posted by caddis at 7:43 AM on March 18, 2005

Why do you think it is being blocked by filters? Might it just be a DNS issue?
posted by pwb503 at 12:52 PM on March 18, 2005

It does start with a "P". The site is hosted on my account at DreamHost. I suppose it is possible that I am being blocked because of another site on the same box. Aside from that, I have no idea why anone would block access to it.

The public library system is using something called SAM. The person I emailed said there should not be a problem getting the block removed next week when the right guy returns next week. I tried the school system's IT folks, and they removed the block with an explanation of "it does that sometimes". Preliminary reports say it works on the school system's domain, but not on the school's network domain.

I checked a few of the filtering software companies today that allow you to query their database and appeal, but my site was not restricted by those companies.
posted by BobJordan at 4:57 PM on March 18, 2005