Students crave free Wi-Fi, but upon logging in they will discover that most of their favorite websites are not accessible.
Citrus College Technology and Computer Services uses a firewall to monitor and decide what sites are available to students via Wi-Fi.
Chief information services officer, Linda Welz, who was unavailable for an in-person interview, said in an email that the firewall consists of hardware and software that protects the college technology environment from outside dangers such as viruses and malware.
“The Firewall monitors the network traffic based on the purpose of the traffic,” Welz said. “Citrus uses a Firewall appliance, a hardware and software, with an annual fee of $6,832.”
There are five categories of risk the manufacturer of the Firewall has classified.
“Level 5 is blocked as it includes the highest level of risk such as peer to peer traffic, file storage with no vulnerability checking provided and other types of high risk uses,” Welz said.
Individual sites can be unblocked only if it is a valid instructional case made to be accessed.
These sites will become unprotected from the risk and “must be mitigated with additional protections for the systems that will be allowed to access the unblocked site.”
Welz was unable to give the exact number of sites that the firewall blocks because it is based on the protocol each site uses.
Protocol are a set of communication rules that the computer follows in order for other computers to communicate with each other. Each computer uses different protocols. Different protocols include Hypertext Transfer Protocol, File Transfer Protocl or Point-to-point Protocol, better known as HTTP, FTP and PPP.
An example of what is considered a level 5 risk would be a dropbox because its protocol allows peer to peer sharing. This immediately triggers a level 5 warning.
“The dropbox is designated as a level 5 risk so any site that uses the dropbox protocol will be blocked,” Welz said. “These protocols and their related sites are blocked because they are determined to be high risk for viruses, malware and other threats and are based on a history of having exhibited significant threats in the past.”
Alexa, a website that provides analytical insights and provides data regarding the success of each website, provides a list of the top 500 sites on the web organized by country, globally or by categories such as art, business or sports.
Using campus computers or Wi-Fi, one can test and view the top 500 sites by country in the United States.
A few of the most popular websites that qualify as blocked includes Pinterest, Tumblr, Hulu, Imgur, Dropbox, Soundcloud and Twitch.
Similar sites to the blocked sites such as Pandora, Netflix, Gfycat and Pornhub are not blocked and are accessible through the use of the Citrus Wi-Fi.
Liberal Arts major Isaac Robles said he had heard some websites were blocked because they are not used for school work.
Robles said the blocked websites are frustrating, especially for a student who has long gaps between classes. “It is inhibiting that I’m not able to check social media or listen to music between classes,” Robles said. “Sound Cloud takes too much bandwidth or slows down the internet.”
Students form other colleges such as Mt. San Antonio College, Cal Poly Pomona and Chaffey College do not experience such strict restrictions or protocols on their internet.
Cal Poly Pomona student Marlon Rodriguez said their school allows them to access any websites, including Dropbox, Tumblr, Pinterest and so on.
Amanda Chapman, a student from Chaffey College also said that they are able to access Hulu, Tumblr, Pinterest and other websites that are banned at Citrus College. “All the websites work here, I use them on my phone.” Chapman said “but I know Perez Hilton website is blocked.”
“I use the Wi-Fi for researching for reports, homework and papers so I’ve only been on school-related websites there,” Philip George Ramsey, a nursing student from Mt. Sac said. “I’ve never had a problem with any websites being blocked.”
Citrus Psychology major Allison Stephens said it is pointless how some websites that are blocked are not as bad as the ones that are accessible. “Unbanning those websites would be irrelevant and would not change the campus dynamics,” she said.
Lifting the restrictions on websites that are banned will allow students to access their presentations through Dropbox. Group projects, notes and other materials will be shared with other students with ease. There will be less frustrations and no awkward silences while students or teachers try to access a certain website that is not blocked at Citrus College.
