Common reasons for blocked web sites.

The primary responsibility for your online safety is always YOU (remember "stop, look, and think before you click"). But, the company's web filter is designed to HELP in this fight. As such, we have the web filter configured to block four main categories of web sites:

• Known malicious web sites
• Inappropriate content (adult, hate, illegal activities, etc.)
• Productivity drains (online gaming, leisure activities, cat videos, etc.)
• Advertisements

Problems usually arise when we have a customer that operates on the fringe of one of these categories. In those cases, we have to put in an exception for the customer's web site.

The other big problem tends to be advertisements. While most people are happy to not see them (or see less of them), Google and other search providers still manage to weave them into the search results in such a way that they aren't totally blocked. While some advertisements might be beneficial, there is often no approval process before an ad gets placed on an advertisement network.

Consequently, Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other sites could be sending you ads to a site designed to look legitimate (or like the "real" web site) but is actually a site spreading drive-by malware (malware where you all you have to do is visit the website and the malware silently installs in the background without even requiring administrative priveledges). Since it's impossible to tell whether ads are legitimate or not, and ads are of limited benefit (nothing stops you from going directly to the site via its web address), we categorically block them.