Where do you want to go? Where do you not want to go?

What goes through your mind when you try to go to a website and the filter tells you it’s blocked? Do you get mad because some techno whiz-bang thing is trying to tell you what to do? Or are you relieved because the filter kept you from seeing something you don’t want to see? Somewhere in between? Just ask yourself one simple question: Do I really want to go to that site?

Say for example someone sends you a link to their family’s website, but when you try and go to it the block page comes up instead. Your friend’s website is on a Free Host, let’s say Angelfire. Free Host sites can be anything from church websites to a site on how to build a bomb. Since anyone can put their website on a Free Host, you never know what kinds of things you’ll see. The filter blocks those sites by default. Now let’s say you’re happy with your family not being subjected to those uncertainties, but you really want to see your friend’s website. No problem. There are a few ways to get there, depending on what kind of filter you have and what you want to do.

If you have a personal filter, then personalize it. Put the link your friend sent you in your Allow list. Double click the green light bulb. Click the Content Filter button on the left side of the window. Open the section called Website Lists. Just add that site into the Allowed Web Sites list. Now your filter will ‘allow’ you to go to your friend’s website, but still block all of the other sites of who knows what hosted on Angelfire.

With the password over-ride option, it’s even easier. You can do the obvious of simply entering your password to over-ride the filter and get to the site. But keep in mind the filter will ask you every time you go to that site. If you don’t want to be bothered with it, the next time you go out to the site and the over-ride window pops up, click the little check box right underneath the password. The site gets added automatically to your Allow list and you won’t get the window asking for your password anymore.

If you have a family filter, send us the link. We’ll add it to your allow list for you.

If you like the security of having someone review a site first and use the filter’s White List option, or allowing access only to approved sites, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll get the window that says your friend’s website hasn’t been reviewed yet. Still no problem. Send us the link - we’ll check it out for you and get it added into the database.

Getting back to the original question – what goes through your mind when the block page comes up? Do you think “Big Brother” and you can make your own decisions thank you very much? Do you roll your eyes and think “Oh, brother”? If the answer is yes to either of those, make some changes. If it’s just one site you want to see, add just that one site to your filter. Let’s say you go to sites that come up as “Misc” all the time (Miscellaneous sites are ones that constantly change and may have inappropriate content at times). Assuming you’re comfortable knowing you may occasionally run across some objectionable material, you just don’t want that block page coming up all the time, unblock the category. By the same token, if you don’t want your kids having that same latitude, don’t unblock “Misc” on their computer.

Do you breathe a sigh of relief when you see that block page because of what you might have just seen instead? Do your catch your breath because you were just reminded how unsafe the Internet really is? If you answered yes to either of those questions, don’t do a thing. You have your filter set just right.