System and method for an internet filter

A system and method for updating a filtering system (110) which controls access to a website/page between a local area network (LAN) (100) and an Internet (104). The LAN (100) includes an Internet gateway system (105) coupled to a workstation (102) and configured to receive a URL request. The system controls access to the website/page associated with the URL based on one or more categories that are associated with the URL. The Internet gateway system (105) can determine the category that is associated with the URL by referencing a master database (204) or requesting the category from a database factory (112). The database factory (112) can receive URLs from multiple Internet gateway systems (105). The database factory (112) determines whether the identifier was previously categori