Smooth wall

ok lets make something clear...

IM NOT PLANING ON HACKING THEM OR ANYBODY WHO USES IT !!!

I just want some knowledge on what its all about. It just sounds really complicated to me and I want some info for better understandment. Again, I don't plan on DDOS'ing or something like that. I just want to know What it does and why people use it.

We have the Smooth-Wall firewall at our College. It blocks us from sites such as You-Tube and Facebook and potentially dangerous ones too.