DansGuardian

DansGuardian
DansGuardian
Dansguardian.png
Developer(s) Daniel Barron
Stable release 2.10.1.1 / June 5, 2009; 2 years ago (2009-06-05)
Operating system Unix-like
Type Content-control software
License GPLv2 or proprietary license
Website dansguardian.org
An example of the default DansGuardian blocking message.

DansGuardian, written by SmoothWall Ltd and others, is content-control software: software designed to control which websites users can access. It also includes virus filtering and usage monitoring features. DansGuardian must be installed on a Unix or GNU/Linux computer, such as a server computer; its filtering extends to all computers in an organization, including Windows and Macintosh computers. DansGuardian is used by schools, businesses, value-added Internet service providers, and others.[1]

Contents

Features

Virus filtering

DansGuardian can use ClamAV to scan for, and block, viruses, in the files that users download.

Usage monitoring

DansGuardian saves log files showing who has visited which webpage. These files can be reviewed manually or with the help of log analysis software.

Open source

DansGuardian is one of the few widely used content control systems that makes its source code available, thus avoiding some of the criticisms associated with content control system proxies being "black box" systems.

Technical details

DansGuardian is distributed under the GPLv2 free software license, and written using the C++ programming language. It primarily runs in GNU/Linux and other Unixes. It is entirely command line and web-based, and meant to be used in conjunction with a web proxy such as Squid. The Ubuntu Christian Edition GNU/Linux distribution includes a graphical user interface (GUI) tool for configuring DansGuardian, but the tool does not work as well as the configuration tools included with SmoothWall Guardian, and other web filters. Although there is a graphical user interface available for Ubuntu, called WebContentControl, which installs and configures DansGuardian, FireHol and TinyProxy easily.[2]

Legal details

In the United States, DansGuardian satisfies the requirements of Children's Internet Protection Act.

Proprietary versions

Two proprietary versions of DansGuardian exist; SmoothGuardian is a module for SmoothWall Limited Firewalls, and SmoothWall Network Guardian is a stand-alone product.[3] The SmoothWall implementation of DansGuardian represents a Becta certified web filtering system.[4]

Forks

There is now a fork of Dansguardian Project called MinD. Its name is a recursive acronym for MinD is not Dansguardian. The "Toy" version of MinD is a fork of Dansguardian Project version 2.10.1.1 with some improvements.

See also

Portal-puzzle.svg Free software portal

References

  1. ^ "Who Uses DansGuardian?"
  2. ^ WebContentControl Website
  3. ^ SmoothWall Limited
  4. ^ Becta Accredited Suppliers

External links


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