Blocking NewStudyHall

[jaminben]

Hi,

 

Anyone managed to block:

 

sites.google.com/site/newstudyhall/games

 

We've added it to our block list but its still getting through... I guess because we allow Google.

 

Thanks

 

Ben

[hawc]

They have a V2 to overcome blocks at https://sites.google.com/site/new2studyhall/

[jaminben]

Should have said we're using Smoothwall.

[Oaktech]

we are blocking it as a blacklisted URL in the chrome GPO, and also we've black listed all access to sites.google.com. So far no-one has found a legitimate use for it!

[GeekyPete]

What categories are you blocking? Should NewStudyHall be in one of those? You can submit feedback about block lists on the Smoothwall website if it needs to be in a different category. I have only ever had to block it on a SmartCache site. I just set up a deny rule with a Wildcarded *newstudyhall*.

[GeekyPete]

They have a V2 to overcome blocks at https://sites.google.com/site/new2studyhall/

 

Thanks for this. They used to have https://sites.google.com/site/new1studyhall/ but they must have changed it. Looks like I'll be adding *new*studyhall* to the blocked list.

[jaminben]

I have only ever had to block it on a SmartCache site. I just set up a deny rule with a Wildcarded *newstudyhall*.

 

Can you explain what you mean by SmartCache site? We allow our students to use google.sites.

[OB1]

Should have said we're using Smoothwall.

 

It's a https site, so if you're not decrypting and inspecting secure traffic you'll want to block the sites.google.com domain as a whole.

Also, you may want to check your policy ordering. Higher rules take precedence.

When you say you Allow google, do you mean you explicitly have this in an allow policy?

If so, this is a bad idea.

[BKGarry]

We have a new view on game sites here, and it is quite controversial.

 

We don't block them when they find them, our SLT and even the head have said that it is a classroom management and behavioural procedure policy to stop students playing games. By not going around blocking every website that crops up we save technical time, and the students are no longer wasting time looking for new games sites.

 

Some teachers found it hard at first, but it is now fully part of our Consequence system in school and gets treated the same as other classroom behaviour

[jaminben]

We have a Custom Category Group called 'Google Drive' which contains:

 

 

google.com
ssl.gstatic.com
googleapis.com
googleusercontent.com

 

Is this wrong or not recommended?

 

How do we inspect and decrypt secure traffic which I then guess would allow us to stop sites like 'newstudyhall'.

[JJonas]

newstudyhall has a twitter account they use to announce updates.

[GeekyPete]

Can you explain what you mean by SmartCache site? We allow our students to use google.sites.

 

SmartCache is an alternative product to Smoothwall. It's an older product now and is no longer available to buy. I mentioned it as I'm not sure if smoothwall handles wildcards in the same way.

[nile_c]

It's relatively straightforward to set up HTTPS inspection. However, you'll need to make considerations such as how the CA certificate will be distributed, what you'll do with byod devices, whether you'll be emailing users first, etc.

 

You can view a short video here: 3 - Smoothwall - HTTPS Filtering - YouTube

 

Also check out our knowledgebase accessed via the support portal.

 

As @OB1 and @Oaktech have mentioned, you can block the sites.google.com domain in the meantime.

[jaminben]

Ok, thanks for that... we'll take a look at HTTPs inspection as we can't block sites.google.com (its used by students/staff).