Sky Broadband Shield - Manage Exceptions

[ClareL12]

Hi all,

Sorry if this is a stupid question and/or has been asked previously.

I have recently been having problems with the Sky Broadband Shield, in terms of using the "Manage Exceptions" option. For example, if I have the "PG" settings and have a website as an exception, that website will only partially load (if at all), the same goes for if I have the "13" settings and have websites as managed exceptions, such websites will partially load (if at all) - and even the websites that are loading aren't usable. For example, Facebook will load, but the vast majority of, if not all, the images on the page will not load, videos will not load etc. Other websites may only load a blank page with a few hyperlinks.

Does anybody know if this is a common problem or am I doing something wrong? 

Thanks a lot!

[jamesn123]

@ClareL12 

Is it possible that the sites you are using are pulling in content from other domains that do not fall under the main one you have added an exception for and therefore do not load?

[ClareL12]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I wouldn't have thought that was the reason, it's happened with just about every website I have added to the managed exceptions - either the page won't load at all, bar a few links (like an old HTML page), or all of the thumbnails will be blank where an image or video should be. Can't understand it.

Thanks again.

[ClareL12]

Tried it with a few different new websites this afternoon, same issue every time. I could believe it to be a content issue if it were the same site, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Has anybody any ideas? I'm not the best with computer issues, admittedly, any help is greatly appreciated. We always use the shield for the parental controls, but, obviously, not being able to use websites is far from ideal.

[ClareL12]

Does anybody else have any idea what the problem could be?

[ClareL12]

There is nobody that has any ideas? Nobody has come across this kind of issue in the past? Doesn't sound like something similar to a problem anybody else has ever encountered?

One of the main reasons I went with Sky Broadband was the concept of the protection to keep things safe for my family - we have children at home who will be using the Internet more frequently as they grow and we don't want them to access inappropriate material.

It's not as though I'm talking about obscure websites! The likes of Facebook, Twitter, TikTok are all unusable when using the settings, as well as many mainstream shopping websites, that's just for starters, they are either correctly blocked through the shield, and, when added to an exception list, will not load any of the content. I can't believe there aren't others with the same issue - unless it is a problem on my end. 

[Chrisee]

@ClareL12 the Broadband Shield is a pretty primative tool and issues are not uncommon. Social networking sites in particular are complex beasts that generate pages on the fly so the filter may allow the frame to load but barf on the content as @jamesn123 suggested. 

Sky had a much more flexible parental control app Broadband Buddy but that is being withdrawn and we are told its replacement wont be around for a while.  Not that helps you but I dont think you will be able to get the exceptions to work as you want unfortunately. 

[ClareL12]

Thanks for the reply.

I appreciate what @jamesn123 said in their response, trouble is that all of the websites I am trying to use won't load at all - it's not like certain aspects are blocked. They're not hindered, they are completely unusable, it's pointless - they might as well still be blocked!

@Chrisee

Do you know of an alternative to the shield that would be more useful for my situation? 

Also, have you known of other users having similar problems to mine of this ilk? I was afraid it was a mistake of my own doing.

Thanks again for all the help. Sorry if I come across badly, it's just so frustrating - as I have said, the main selling point of Sky Broadband was the idea of the protection for as and when the kids got older and to keep them safe online. Just trying to do the right things and can't seem to get there.

[Chrisee]

Sorry my kids are more likely to apply filters to my browsing these days than the other way round😀. Coincidentally I raised the lack of a decent parental control app with Sky yeterday and got the slightly shame faced response I posted. The Buddy was good as it worked at a device level and was easy to control..

You can buy a range of apps to install  on kids mobile devices you can find reviews of some for phones herehttps://uk.pcmag.com/parental-control-monitoring/79219/the-best-parental-control-apps-for-your-phone

Many internet security  suites have add ons to control,access but again they are device based. You can buy routers with built-in parental protection but unfortunately all I have found are incompatable with Sky's slightly weird authentication system.

Sorry I cant be more helpful.

[ClareL12]

@Chrisee 

You have been helpful, it's not your fault! Sounds like a phone call to Sky would be a waste of time.

I've had a look at the device based parental controls before and I don't think they'd be a great deal of help, wanted something that would be uniform over all of WiFi.

Don't get me wrong, the Internet is a fantastic tool and I want my kids to be able to use it for the good, I'm not trying to block out everything, I'd just like to have control of which websites they want to go on to check out myself first- that's where the exceptions tool would have been ideal. Just trying to keep them safe, I suppose.

[Skull+Treaty]

@ClareL12 

Have you had a look at Next DNS at all. may help in some area's that you're looking into.

[ClareL12]

@Skull+Treaty

Hi. Never heard of it. Would it have the ability the filter specific websites? Sorry, not too clued up.

[Skull+Treaty]

@ClareL12 

Taken from the site:

Protect your kids and control what they can access online, and when.

Block all websites containing porn, violence, piracy and more.

Enforce SafeSearch — filter explicit results on all search engines, including images and videos.

Enforce YouTube Restricted Mode — filter mature videos on YouTube and other websites.

Block specific websites, apps and games — Facebook, Tinder, Fortnite and many more.

With Recreation Time, only allow access to some websites, apps or games during specific times each day.

[ClareL12]

@Skull+Treaty  @Apologies for the late reply

Looked into that, seems to be completely what I was expecting the Broadband Shield to be. My only concern is the safety and/or security of it, is it to be trusted?

Immensely frustrating that a program such as that does exactly what the Broadband Shield is advertised to do, but, quite frankly, doesn't. The only option seems to be to use an external method when what has been promised isn't up to standard. What is the difference in the two, is it just, as @Chrisee alluded to, basic and primative?

[TimmyBGood]

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@ClareL12 wrote:

My only concern is the safety and/or security of it, is it to be trusted?

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A DNS resolver doesn't actually see any content traffic: it just returns an IP address when sent a URL.

Given that this can be logged, browsing habits can certainly be extracted from that information and linked to a particular subscription (although NextDNS say they don't do this unless the subscriber asks for that option)