Questions about our web filter software

When you visit a web site you generally type in some series of words that identify it. For example to reach this site you type "emeraldwebshield.com" into your browser. As described above the actual web server that stores the Emerald Web Shield site is not identified by that name but by a number.

This is where DNS comes into the picture. Your computer consults a DNS server to determine which IP number is associated with the name you typed into your browser. When that IP number is received your computer uses it to communicate with the server and download the website into your browser.

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When you try to visit a site on the Internet the site name must be looked up using DNS to find where the site is on the Internet. We compare the domain name you are trying to visit against our database of known sites. If it is an objectionable site we return a blocked site page. We never need to touch the actual page content, and do not slow down your web browsing.

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Actually our DNS based web filter is fully HIPAA compliant. Most proxy systems are not. A proxy must touch every page that you visit, sometimes even on your Intranet patient management systems. We never see ANY of the page content, only the names of the domains you visit. Since we never see the page content, we have NO access to patient information viewed while using our filtration service.

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No, our web filter software does not act as a proxy. A proxy is a computer connected to the Internet that downloads content requested by another computer and then forwards that content on to the computer that requested it.

Emerald Web Shield does not actually download content. The Web Shield acts like any other DNS server with the exception that it mediates each DNS request and avoids returning the addresses of objectionable or malicious sites. Essentially when visiting unblocked sites using Emerald Web Shield the web browsing process works exactly as it does when the Web Shield is not involved.

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Our web filter provides a custom blocked sites list that can be used to override the List Management System. If a site is not considered objectionable by Emerald Web Shield but you have a reason to block it anyway, simply add it to the custom block list.

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When our web filter blocks a site it returns a block page to your browser that displays the blocked website's link. On this page there is a button that can be used to submit that blocked site to us to be manually reviewed. If Emerald Web Shield blocks a website that you've visited before then you can use this feature to submit the site and explain why you don't feel it should be blocked.

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We do not have access to each page name that you visit. We can only tell the domain that you visit. And since we operate through DNS and not as a proxy we do not see each page that you visit.

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All computers on a network are identified by a number called an IP address. This includes all the servers that make up the Internet. The Domain Name System (DNS) is a standard that is used on networks to associate those numeric IP addresses with more meaningful and descriptive domain names. A network of DNS servers maintains a database of the IP addresses of all computers on the Internet and their associated domain names.

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