Difference between FHCs and Meetinghouse Internet?

[scion-p40]

When trying to login to http://new.familysearch.org I am blocked by the firewall. The regular familysearch.org site works fine as does the lds.org main site. Who is the right person to talk to in order to have new.familysearch.org whitelisted?

My experience using FHCs is that many useful genealogy websites are unavailable due to the firewall settings selected. Some specific example:
-access to http://www.cyndislist.com works, but linked pages are blocked
-state and county websites with data such as history, vital record ordering info, etc were blocked
-usgenweb.org was blocked (one FHC allowed access to that page, but not to the linked state pages)
- access to the LA County Library was blocked (they offer Heritage Quest online)

Some FHC directors are willing to contact the stake tech person to resolve this, but others are not. Even though I do not rely upon the FHC for family history research, productivity increases when a wide variety of tools are available. Those who rely upon the FHC for their family history research are, therefore, severely hampered in their research efforts due to certain firewall configurations.

[jdlessley]

My experience using FHCs is that many useful genealogy websites are unavailable due to the firewall settings selected.

There is only one filtering option for official family history centers. Perhaps you are describing a meetinghouse internet setup for unofficial workrooms that can have more restrictive filtering options. It is not possible to adjust any firewall settings at the local level since the firewall is managed at Church headquarters.

Some specific example:
-access to www.cyndislist.com works, but linked pages are blocked
-state and county websites with data such as history, vital record ordering info, etc were blocked
-usgenweb.org was blocked (one FHC allowed access to that page, but not to the linked state pages)
- access to the LA County Library was blocked (they offer Heritage Quest online)

When you say sites are blocked, what are the indications that the site is blocked? Is the site just not accessable or do you get a page the shows something like this?



Note the filtering option used to the right of the label "Access Level:". This will help identify the filtering used. Family history centers should be using "General Access" if the Church provided firewall is a Cisco ASA 5505. I have not looked at the filtering page recently for a Cisco PIX 501 to see what the blocking message looks like. I recall that there was no "Access Level:" line since there was only one filtering option before the ASA 5505 began to be used.

If you do not see a blocking message page then there are other issues causing the difficulty in accessing the sites.

I have not noted any site access problems in our FHC which uses the Cisco PIX 501. Nor have there been any reports to me of difficulties in accessing any geneological sites.

[russellhltn]

I have not looked at the filtering page recently for a Cisco PIX 501 to see what the blocking message looks like.

Unless I'm reading my URL string wrong, that's an attachment I uploaded - and it's from a PIX 501 installed for a FHC.

I think the ASA 5505 may have lacked the "Request a Change" link.

[aebrown]

Unless I'm reading my URL string wrong, that's an attachment I uploaded - and it's from a PIX 501 installed for a FHC.

I think the ASA 5505 may have lacked the "Request a Change" link.

Yes, you're right -- the block message for the PIX 501 definitely does mention the access level. That's the first place I ever saw the term "General Access". And the ASA's block message is indeed missing the Request a Change link.

[russellhltn]

The thread where this was all discussed can be found here.