Frequently Asked Questions

Filtered Service works with every dial-up access, broadband access (such as cable, DSL, ISDN, and satellite), and networks.

1. E-mail Questions

Does FilteredService filter e-mail?
No. FilteredService filters outgoing requests to the Internet, not incoming e-mails.

What happens if I get a pornographic e-mail?
Some porn sites will "spam" the Internet periodically and entice people to click on a link to their website. With FilteredService, you may still receive these e-mails. However, should you click on the link, FilteredService would step in at that point and stop you from visiting any website on our list of blocked sites. If you do get to a pornographic site from an e-mail, you should immediately report this new site to our customer service.

2. Filtering Questions

What criteria do you use when blocking a site?
FilteredService only blocks those sites with pornographic or recreational nudity, sexually explicit language, or criminal activity. Criminal activity includes, but is not necessarily limited to, hate speech, wagering, drug promotion, illegal weapons construction/modification/sales, and crime instructions.

Is every bad site blocked?
No true filter stops 100% of the targeted sites. Independent testing estimates 90% to 99% of the targeted sites are blocked at any given time. This percentage fluctuates as new sites go up every day.

The actual percentage is very difficult to obtain. Independent tests have placed us anywhere from 90% to 99%. By far the best number to credibly claim is the one from the InfoPeople Project, which was done by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services. Public librarians tested nine companies, including X-Stop, N2H2, CyberPatrol and Websense. Their report was issued in May of 2001. On Should Block FilteredService received a rating of 92%. By comparison, N2H2 received 100% (their issue has always been overblocking), Websense received 92%, and CyberPatrol received 77%. Other tests have placed us higher, but the methods in most tests are so far from scientific, that it is difficult to get accurate numbers. The reality is that the accuracy changes every hour of every day. One other test that we did, just to see how we stacked up against our competitors, was to obtain a third-party list of porn sites. We took 100 unique domains and IP addresses that we had recently added to our database and built a webpage of links for these 100 sites, downloaded other filters, and started clicking. We were genuinely surprised by the results.

The sites were not new or obscure sites. Most were regular dot-com sites with names like xxxitch.com and virginbeach.com.

What do I do if someone finds a site that should be blocked, but is not?
Should you or one of your users encounter a bad site while online with FilteredService, contact our customer service and we will manually review it.

I submitted a site to be blocked, but it is still not blocked. Why not?
Your block request could be denied for one of several reasons.

First, it may not fit our criteria for blocking. Specifically, if it does not contain nudity or criminal activity, it probably does not meet our criteria.

Second, you may have submitted a site without the specific page or directory. For example, if the offensive site is on GeoCities or AOL's personal sites, we must have the whole URL, not just "geocities.com" or "aol.com". Please copy the entire URL and resubmit the site.

Third, you may have received an offensive e-mail and reported your e-mail provider for blocking. We do not block e-mail providers, such as Hotmail or Yahoo!, even though people may use these sites to send you offensive e-mail. Were you to click on the link in the offensive e-mail, our filter would then check to see if that site is a blocked site. To report problematic e-mail, contact your e-mail provider.

Fourth, it may have been added to our database, but you are still seeing it in your cache. Clear your cache. In Internet Explorer, go to "Tools", then "Internet Options". Under the section labeled "Temporary Internet Files" click "Delete Files". ( Click here for screen shot.)
In Netscape, go to "Edit" and select "Preferences". Click on "Advanced", then "Cache". Click on both boxes marked "Clear Memory Cache" and "Clear Disk Cache". ( Click here for screen shot.)
Actual paths and labels may vary from version to version. You may always use the "Help" function in your browser for further assistance.

The blocked site window popped up, but when I closed that window, the offensive website continued to load. Why is this?
The blocked site window was not blocking the URL you were accessing. It was blocking other elements on the page, such as banner ads, images, or other information received from a third-party URL. In this case, report the offensive URL that was accessible to our customer service.

What do I do if I believe a site is wrongly blocked?
If a site is blocked that you believe should be accessible, please contact our customer service and we will manually review it. If you are an administrator of a network of filtered computers, you may also override the filtering with your password to immediately view the site.

FilteredService tells me a site is not blocked, yet I still cannot access it. What's going on?
If you cannot access a site, but did not get the pop-up window stating, "You Have Attempted To Access A Restricted Site", then the problem is NOT related to the filter, unless you have disabled the Blocked Page Dialog (right click the S4F icon in the system tray, select "S4F Options", then "Display").

If you cannot get on the Internet at all, the problem may be with your ISP. You may wish to uninstall the filter while you diagnose other problems, then reinstall the filter once you are successfully back online.

Does the service allow for an administrative override?
Yes. The account administrator may type in a password to temporarily bypass the filter. When you receive the blocked screen, simply click the down-arrows and enter the override password.

3. Technical Questions

How does the filtering work?
In short, the FilteredService software installs on your computer, which then directs all website requests to our filtering servers to see if the website is on our list of blocked sites. If the site is on our list, your website request is denied. If the site is not on our list, your request is sent out to the Internet for normal processing.

Will the filtering slow down my Internet access?
Not perceptibly. The filtering process takes less than half a second, so you should not notice any difference in your Internet speed. If you do see a significant lag, you should check the technical FAQ for troubleshooting tips.

How do I uninstall the filter?
Right-click the S4F icon in the system tray, select "S4F Options", then "Maintenance". Click on the box marked "Uninstall S4F". You must know your user name, log-in password, and administrative password. For assistance, you may call 207.439.5588.

4. Miscellaneous Questions

Do you filter newsgroups? (NNTP Usenet)
Yes. Newsgroups are NOT traditional news mediums such as NBC, CBS, and CNN. Newsgroups are better described as a worldwide bulletin board. While newsgroups are being used less and less by the average users, some people still use newsgroups, especially for research. Many filtered ISPs and filtering products overlook newsgroups. FilteredService allows access to mainstream newsgroups, while blocking access to newsgroups that are primarily built on pornography and illegal content.

Will users be able to play multi-player games or use ICQ?
Yes. Internet connections that do not use a browser, such as multi-player games or ICQ, are not routed through our servers. This means you may have safe web access and still enjoy other online activities.

Will the filtering disturb website development?
Typically, no. FilteredService does filter FTP protocol, but does not conflict with FrontPage, Dream Weaver or other uploading/publishing tools. As long as your website is not blocked, you should not have any problems. The only known conflict comes when a host resolves the same IP to numerous URLs and one of the URLs is a blocked site.

For example, some free hosting services will resolve your website to the same IP as another porn site. When this happens, you have three courses of action. First, you can switch hosts. Second, you can insist that your host not use your website on the same IP as a porn site. Third, you can use your password override each time you need to upload.

Can I still use Instant Chat software?
Yes. We also recognize that when used responsibly, Instant Messaging programs such as ICQ and AOL's Instant Messenger are very useful. In addition, by utilizing the built in functions that come with these programs along with some common sense, they can be very safe.