South West Internet - Community Broadband - Filtering & Firewall Policy

Filtering and Firewall Policy

We comply with the Internet Service Providers BCP (see below) on filtering and firewall use.

Firewall Restrictions

Port 25 - SMTP traffic (or outgoing email) is only allowed to exit the South West Internet CIC network, if it has originated from agreed sources. It is very common for computers that have been infected by viruses to send out masses of SPAM. This rule blocks all such problems. All customers will be supplied with the address of SMTP servers that they can use for this purpose. Any customer preferring to use their own SMTP server, should contact us, & we will make the necessary firewall changes.

Port 80 - HTTP traffic (or web requests) to web sites that have been reported to Internet Watch Foundation as containing illegal material are blocked. This is to prevent our customers from inadvertently accessing this material. It is expected that this particular firewall policy will become a statutory requirement in the future.

Bandwidth Caps

We do not operate bandwidth caps. We endeavour to supply broadband that is at least as fast as the speed that is paid for. I.E. Customers on a 2Mbps service should always have bandwidth speeds of at least 2Mbps. Due to network use, this may not always be possible. On the other hand it is very likely that customers will be able to receive broadband speeds that are faster than the bandwidth they have procured.
In order to share broadband to customers fairly, if a customer makes excessive use of the network, we will limit the bandwidth they are able to receive to the amount they have paid for. IE A heavy use customer procuring a 2Mbps service may be restricted to receiving no more than 2 Mbps service.

Firewall Upgrade 1st June 2011

Our main gateway firewall was replaced on 31st May 2011 & is now in operation. It has been programmed up with the same firewall rules as described above.
In addition the new firewall filters out incoming viruses and protects our network against hostile attacks. This will mean that customers should experience fewer viruses arriving in email. There is a possibility that bone fide services maybe affected by this more aggressive firewall appliance. Customers experiencing any unexpected service failures should inform us with details & we will investigate.

ISPA BCP

This section describes the rules defined by the ISP Trade Body - The Internet Service Provider Association, which SWI is a member of.

A Best Current Practice (BCP) document is a non mandatory recommendation representing what ISPA believes is best practice at the time of writing. Prescriptive language including words like 'should' and 'would' refer to members who are trying to comply with the BCP. Mandatory requirements are set out in the ISPA Code of Practice.

1. Definitions.

In this Best Current Practice Document:

"filtering traffic" means materially blocking, filtering, modifying the content of, degrading the quality of, diverting the traffic to a different destination, or otherwise altering the information in Internet traffic passing through its systems.
"bandwidth caps" means a limit or allowance on the amount of traffic a customer can pass over their connection before certain other restrictions may be applied, usually measured over a specified period of time.
The limit may cover all traffic types or may only be applied to a subset of traffic.For the avoidance of doubt, "Internet traffic" includes all communications carried over IP, including but not limited to HTTP, email, VoIP, "instant messaging", and "peer-to-peer".

2. Prohibitions.

An ISPA Member must not deliberately filter Internet traffic unless it makes available to its customers and users in a clear manner the nature of the filtering that takes place. The information provided must identify the form of filtering and the general criteria used to filter but need not provide a complete set of details, particularly where they are subject to change.

An ISPA Member must not deliberately operate bandwidth caps unless it makes available to its customers and users in a clear manner the nature of the caps that apply. The information provided must identify the general criteria used to calculate the customers bandwidth, but need not provide a complete set of details, particularly where they are subject to change. Where the filtering and/or bandwidth caps vary by customer package or otherwise, this should be indicated clearly.