Can anyone recommend internet monitoring/filtering software that is Linux compatible? Specifically with COSMIC Atomic? Filtering has to be more than an ad blocker. It must be very strict. It has to restrict/filter all adult content, dating, social media, gambling etc… I’d appreciate anyone who can point me in the right direction.
I worked for a cyber security company that provided the type of filtering you are describing. That took a team of people and a lot of software to maintain a database that classified each website. That database was publish once an hour with changes.
The company had a feed of domain name registrations that it used as one of it’s inputs into the classification engine.
I’d be interested to know if there is an open source version of such a database.
Well you have a few different options if you want a firewall replacement with filtering/monitoring on linux: Two options I know of are Portmaster and open snitch…you can add custom filters/blocking to both. Can’t say how well they will work with cosmic (tried Portmaster with kde and gnome), and have not tried open snitch on atomic…but it may work…keep in mind these would be with rpm-ostree installations and would replace firewalld.
If you are just looking for website filtering on the browser- for firefox you can try the ublock origin extension and add additional custom filter lists to it.
If anyone is looking for open source filter lists, check this out:
Cheers.
Does any of your suggestions handle this that the OP requires?
is it for a young kid or something similar?
that kind of filters are better applied to the entire network, not just on the machine
each router offers certain filters per hours, per ip, there are options depending on your network and your equipment
other times you will need a software solution but i have not heard of any on linux, i used decades ago one for windows with somewhat decent results, that did not stopped gambling sites, only adult content, i dont know of any tool on fedora repos doing that, but opendns should help too, at least with the adult content sites
Yes, its for a child that I want to gift a laptop to. Doesn’t seem like there are any Linux options. He might be stuck with Windows.
all my suggestions are os independent, the software solutions, a smart kid will find a forum and ask how to remove he software solutions, it is easier to attack the network
I would go for DNS Filtering or local firewall enforcement..
Probably cloudflare families blocks adult content, gambling domains at network level.
It claims to block malware and adult contents, no statement on gambling.
The 1.1.1.1 stuff is based on their gateway blocking technology that is the type of produce I worked with in the past.
1.1.1.1 has a lot of content that some governments want censored! So don’t use 1.1.1.1 !!
1.1.1.3 (as your link tells me) is the adult and malware blocking site - and looks to be a good option. How comprehensive is it? Well it was launched on April 1st, so your guess is as good as mine.
As Barry points out, gambling block would be essential too. Online gambling has become a massive problem - but not everyone is inclined towards it.
EDIT: I checked and 1.1.1.3, Cloudflare for Families allows gambling sites.
You are best using a router that can rewrite dns queries somehow, essentially forcing the dns server of choice. And you want to force something akin to OpenDNS or ControlD with all the filtration options enabled. I did this for my son and it worked fairly well. Keep in mind, if the little one discovers VPNs, its game over. You will need to lock down Firefox & NetworkManager on the laptop. Former sucks, latter not bad at all.
I still use Mikrotik routers and switches and ControlD now. Did this all back when OpenDNS (paid offering back then) was the only truly usable option. I would hope there are more offerings, but my kid is out of college now, no longer need much aside from malware and ad filtration.