Proxy Servers and Content filtering

Today we talked about Proxy Servers and their uses. Most home computers will not have a proxy server due the cost factor. When using a proxy server the initial user may have to wait a few moments until the server finds the requested page and uploads it to the computer that has made the request. It will then put a copy of the page into it's memory and all subsequent requests for that page will load much quicker due to it being in the memory.

There are many different types of proxy's and the cost of having one run can be prohibitive.

We also talked about Content Filters and their uses.
Content filtering is the technique whereby content is blocked or allowed based on analysis of its content, rather than its source or other criteria. It is most widely used on the Internet to filter email and web access. When surfing the Web a content filter can be employed to filter out any information deemed unsuitable for the people using the computers.

Firewalls

Today we looked at 2 types of firewall. We looked at Comodo Firewall and Windows own firewall. I have a bit more understanding in the operation of a firewall and will when time allows have a go at a project I thought of. Opening and closing ports are also a good thing to know about if you wish to download something at a much faster pace. By opening and closing ports we can allow faster access or we can restrict access. We also found out that if we create a Virtual PC in our main one, we can run various different types of programmes without interfering with our main PC. (Does that make sense?). I will have a try at creating a Virtual PC when I get the time and see what else I can do.

Another Day and Firewall systems

Continued with our studying of Internet Safety and completed Assessment1 and Assessment 2. Both passes which I have attained 96% for assessment 1 and 84% for assessment 2. This shows that I have still some little way to go until I can be certain that I am proficient enough to say that I am 100% sure of Internet Safety. On a personal scale I know that I am doing all that I can to ensure (I hope) that I am safe and secure when surfing. The class has started to look at Firewalls and this will be our study next week. Again here there seems to be a large amount of information that I personally don't know and I am looking forwards to learning it all. It will be interesting to see and find out what a firewall actually does and what can be done to keep it up to date and secure.

Phishing/Antivirus Software.

Covered Phishing and it's hazards today and I have encountered it with one of my accounts. I have a bit of knowledge where this is concerned (not much) and I know first hand what it can do. It is worthwhile checking up on any type of suspicious emails before following their suggestions. We carried out a mock test on Internet safety and again it was quite interesting. It tested us on Viruses and spyware, also on copyright and various other things. we also did a comparison on a couple of Antivirus Software's that are available to download. We looked at AVG which is available at WWW.Grisoft.com and also looked at Avast which is available for download at WWW.Avast.com. It is quite hard to do a comparison of this type due to the fact that we cannot see it actually work without it coming into contact with a virus. The only way we can check them out is to see what others think about them and to look for feedback from different users. This has been a more interesting week and I think there is still more to come. See you next week (if you are there).