Hi everyone,
I have been asked to help come up with a "content-managed" Internet
solution for a few dozen Hutterite colonies in southern Manitoba,
Canada, and also for colonies in the midwestern USA; a total of
perhaps 50 to 75 colonies in North America. The Internet use would be
to have access to email and to a specific, limited list of sites.

The currently desired solution is to have access (satellite or dial-up
may be the most feasible option for some more rural colonies) where
the colonies would specify the web sites to which they would want
access to, and the ISP would block access to all other sites. I do
understand this would severely limit the usefulness of the Internet,
but it's better than no Internet at all. :-)

I called two satellite ISP's (Xplorenet.com and GalaxyBroadband.ca)
and they told me they do not offer such a filtering service, so I
thought I'd ask on the PIClist if anyone knows or can come up with a
solution.

Some colonies are buying SonicWalls or FortiGate devices, and setting
up servers, but since most all of the colonies are looking for much
the same results, it seems worthwhile to seek an ISP or two who would
be willing to do this for us, rather than collectively buying all that
hardware. I googled bypassing the SonicWall, and then tried bypassing
a FortiGate device and was able to bypass it in some cases. It does
seem however, to be a useful device, but if we just use them to limit
access to a whitelist, then I think it would be overkill, especially
if we can find an ISP to filter for us.

One (remote?) possibility would be to look into becoming our own ISP,
or a "virtual" ISP, but I know little about it.

I am aware of software solutions as well - such as NetNanny, but the
concern with them is that they may be able to be bypassed with a Linux
boot CD.

If anyone has any suggestions, solutions or questions, I would very
much appreciate hearing them!

-- 
Best regards,
Patrick Murphy
James Valley Colony
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