Overview of how our web filter software works

Emerald Web Shield is a web filter software product that blocks objectionable or otherwise undesirable content while browsing the World Wide Web. The Emerald Web Shield is not a firewall but it complements any secure firewall by providing web content filtration.

While browsing the web it is very easy to inadvertently visit a site with objectionable or even harmful content.  You may discover a link to such a site in an unsolicited email message (spam) or on a seemingly innocent site.  Such a link may appear to lead to a harmless site (ex. "www.mydomain.com/puppies") but when clicked on it will use a redirector to immediately forward the browser from the first destination to yet another page.

Often websites that use this redirection tactic will contain porn content and/or will attempt to install adware, spyware, or other malicious programs on the computer.  Because these sites are malicious and can be harmful in any number of ways the best preventive measure is to avoid visiting such sites at all!  We crawl the web actively seeking porn sites to filter.  We consider porn sites filtering to be one of the most important features of our service.

Some examples of the kinds of objectionable or harmful websites that our web filter service is designed to block include pornographic sites, sites designed to facilitate phishing scams (i.e. sites that appear to be from legitimate companies asking you to enter personal information), and sites known to secretly install malicious software on your computer when you visit them.

New sites with objectionable and harmful content are published on a daily basis.  Many of the links to these sites are obscure and rarely indicate the content they contain.  And because of the frequent use of web redirectors you can never count on being in total control of your browser.

Our web filter software eliminates the threat of known-malicious websites altogether by preventing your browser from even visiting them.  Our real-time List Management system is actively maintained and updated with new sites.  When your browser is intentionally or inadvertently directed to a harmful site that is catalogued in our List Management system.  Our web filter software effortlessly blocks the site from being downloaded to your computer.

Our Emerald Shield webbot system is constantly crawling the web looking for more porn sites.  We find an average of over 10,000 new porn sites per month to block for our customers. 

Read more about company web filter benefits.

Read more about how  school web filters help protect children online.

• Very easy setup (no installation required on client machines)
• You can be setup and filtering in less than an hour
• Override the Emerald Web Shield's List Management system with customizable lists for blocked and allowed domains
• Works as a DNS server, not a proxy server
•   How our web filter works

• Takes advantage of the .NET framework for superior reliability and security
• Communicates with Emerald's network in real-time for up to date protection
• EmeraldShield webbot crawls thousands of pages per day to find and filter porn sites.  We find and filter over 10,000 new porn sites per week!

Allowed Web Filter Categories

The following are the list of categories that you can choose to block or allow.

Alternative Lifestyle - Gay, Lesbian, Nudist Colony, etc. No nudity may be expressed on the site. Talk about these alternative lifestyles only.

Arts - Museums, art galleries, artist sites, photographers (artistic / tasteful nude allowed).

Auctions - Sites that allow auction / bidding on items from their site.

Blogs - Sites that either offer blogging services, or personal pages for individuals or families.

Business - Sites that are run by a business. They may or may not be trying to sell something. If they are trying to sell something online they will also be put in the shopping category.

Chat - Sites that contain a chat area, or who are primarily dedicated to online chat or online discussion forums.

Computers - Computer related sites. May discuss computer software, programming, how to repair them, etc. Computer companies will also be listed here. Sites that offer downloads of products will also be listed in the downloads category.

Dating and Personals - Online dating guides and matchmaking services.

Downloads - If there is any type of application available for download from a site it will be in this category. Sites that specialize in downloads (like download.com) are in this category. Sites that offer downloadable music are also in this category.

Education and Reference - Schools, universities, and sites that are primarily dedicated to research for schools. Online homework help sites are included in this category.

Entertainment - Sites that include information about the entertainment industry, or are for personal entertainment. Movies, television, and magazines are included here. Joke sites and other online gaming sites may be included here. Games are also included in the game category.

Finance and Investment - Any site that offers stock trading, investment advice, or online banking.

Free Hosting - Companies that allow free webpage hosting. If they have a canonical name for their free hosting only that is entered.

Games - Gaming sites, and gaming related activities sites. Gambling related sites are not included here. Casino and other online betting are in the blacklist for gambling. Poker and other gambling games (that do not allow betting) may be included here.

Health - Health related sites that are legal in nature. Hospitals, and medical related sites like legitimate pharmacies (Eckerds, CVS, etc). Online pill sites are classified in the blacklist for illegal activities.

Home - Home decorating, appliances and things that are purchased for homes. Real estate for homes is also in this category.

Job Search - Resume posting, and job hunting sites.

Kids and Teen - Sites appropriate for children and teens. Some teen online help sites are included (these may include sexual related discussion on a teen level Teen411.com ).

Lingerie - Sites that sell or promote lingerie. No graphic photos allowed.

News - Sites for news agencies and outlets. This includes press release sites.

Recreation - Recreational activities (Canoeing, hiking, boating, sailing, skating, weightlifting). Includes both outdoor and indoor recreation. Sports is in a separate category.

Redirectors - Sites with the primary purpose to redirect you to another site. This may be to hide the identity of the destination site. Tinyurl.com is an example.

Regional - City, state, country, military, or government sites.

Religion - Religious discussion sites, and sites for churches. No hate or pro violent religious sites allowed.

Science - Science and discussions of science related information. Biology, DNA, and science related companies (Science labs).

Sex Education - Sexual education and addition sites. No graphic adult material allowed. Masturbation and other sexual related topics may be included if presented in an educational manner.

Shopping - Sites that offer something for sale on their site.

Society - Clubs, organizations for causes (non profits), social issues like politics.

Sports - College, amateur, professional, and Olympic sporting events and activities. Sporting equipment sites are also included here. Locations that primary offer sporting activities are included (bowling alleys, gyms, etc).

Weapon Related - Weapon related sites for guns and knives that are not illegal. Gun clubs, hunting, legal weapon sales, etc.

Webmail - Sites that offer webmail from their domain.

World - Domains here may be in some categories above if they have an English speaking page. No graphic sites are in this category. If a domain contains no English it will be classified here.

Blocked Web Filter Categories

The following is a list of categories that are always blocked.  You may override ride these individually through the configuration tool.  But you may not enable any of these categories to be allowed as a whole. 

 Adult - Sites that discuss adult topics, phone sex, adult chat rooms. Nudity may be included, but not graphic sexual content. Hate, advocating of violence, Satanism and other subversive groups are included. Domains that sell adult novelty items (vibrators, and sex toys), or adult videos.

Alcohol and Tobacco - Sites that sell alcohol or tobacco, or discuss how to make alcohol and mix beverages.

Error or Blank - Domains that either do not resolve to a valid server, or are misconfigured.

Gambling - Online gambling, bookmaking, sports betting, dog tracks, horse race betting. Sites that host gambling events (like the Kentucky Derby) but do not allow online betting are not included.

Hacking and Warez - Sites that discuss or distribute tools for hacking, cracking, attacking, or phreaking systems. Any site that contains keys, serial numbers, or cracked downloads for pirated programs.

Illegal Activities - Illegal online pharmacies (prescription free purchasing), how to modify weapons, bomb making, phishing, credit card fraud, illegal drugs and drug manufacturing, or recreational drug usage.

Parked Domains - Domains that are parked. These include companies who hold domains and pay people for their usage, they lack any content and are usually only used to redirect users.

Spam - Domains we have flagged from our spam traps.

XXX - Graphic adult material. Pornographic sites, and sites that sell pornographic material.