sidewinder Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 (edited) Just to let everyone know, since the move to vbulletin, the forums are now blocked by the West berks Lea with websense, which may be the case with other lea's too. So unless they agree to unblock it on the admin network I probably wont be around here anymore. Posting this from my phone so excuse the huge paragraphs! Edited May 18, 2011 by ZeroHour
sidewinder Posted January 7, 2008 Author Posted January 7, 2008 Right I might have been a bit over dramatic before I was just severely pissed off It seems anything with vBulletin is automatically blocked with websense The stupid thing is that the new forum worked for half hour or so this morning, then was suddenly blocked Support call to the LEA was of no help at all...they just say its correctly categorised as a forum - despite me telling them its worked fine for the last 18 months when it was on the old software (phpbb?) Maybe our LEA is more strict than others...hopefully no-one else has this problem with the forum change I now have to use a virtual machine with an admin IP address (since we have an ISA server with a single external address which is a curriculum one) but at least I can get on
Geoff Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 ZeroHour might be able to do some funky url rewriting/redirect to avoid the filter for you. However I'd like to point out that your LEA support is brain damaged if it thinks that a blanket block on all forums is a good idea. 1
russdev Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 We will work on it while at bett to see if can get it unblocked. Russ
6Foot2 Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 (edited) Still accessible here through HGfl [Hertfordshire Grid for Learning] Edited January 7, 2008 by 6Foot2 Place Title On Reply [Not Included Originally]
localzuk Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Do you not have the ability to get individual sites unblocked?
jcollings Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Right I might have been a bit over dramatic before I was just severely pissed off It seems anything with vBulletin is automatically blocked with websense The stupid thing is that the new forum worked for half hour or so this morning, then was suddenly blocked Support call to the LEA was of no help at all...they just say its correctly categorised as a forum - despite me telling them its worked fine for the last 18 months when it was on the old software (phpbb?) Maybe our LEA is more strict than others...hopefully no-one else has this problem with the forum change I now have to use a virtual machine with an admin IP address (since we have an ISA server with a single external address which is a curriculum one) but at least I can get on Do you not have the facility to have an IP address unfiltered? We have 2 IP's that have no filtering whatsoever for myself and my senior tech?
GrumbleDook Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Don't worry ... we now have trouble downloading items from the SSAT, Teachernet.gov.uk and Becta sites as a number of links were put up using tinyurl .. now catagorised as a Proxy Anonymiser. 1
sidewinder Posted January 7, 2008 Author Posted January 7, 2008 Do you not have the ability to get individual sites unblocked? Apparantly not, we just get a reply back saying its blocked as part of our policy. It used to be possible but since they upgraded the filter and support system (and perhaps staff?) its almost a waste of time even asking them, whatever reason you give, they won't unblock a single site jcollings - sort of, we can have categories such as forums and software downloads allowed on certain addresses, but nowhere near unfiltered access
tom_newton Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 I suppose if you find someone who knows about the internal meanderings of web filters, this one would be easy to work around... i'm 99% sure websense use the same anti-forum jiggerypokery as we do.... see you at BETT
ZeroHour Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 I will look into writing a rewrite rule to get around the forum naming as well as chat naming issues.
Grommit Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Apparantly not, we just get a reply back saying its blocked as part of our policy. It used to be possible but since they upgraded the filter and support system (and perhaps staff?) its almost a waste of time even asking them, whatever reason you give, they won't unblock a single site jcollings - sort of, we can have categories such as forums and software downloads allowed on certain addresses, but nowhere near unfiltered access Sorry mate... but phone them up say that Edugeek is a work related tool..and TELL them to add the site to the local allow list ... This will still allow the LEA to keep to policy...and you'll have access to a Technician Tool
sidewinder Posted January 7, 2008 Author Posted January 7, 2008 Sorry mate... but phone them up say that Edugeek is a work related tool..and TELL them to add the site to the local allow list ... This will still allow the LEA to keep to policy...and you'll have access to a Technician Tool Believe me, Ive tried (not with edugeek but other IT forums I used), but they refuse to categorise by sensible criteria like that, its a blanket ban on all forums whatever their content Asked them just now about giving us a staff policy that would be unrestricted apart from adult material etc, but they say they cant do it. I know for a fact they at least used to be able to, because they used to have a copy of their policies available for download, and there was an optional one that allowed everything ZeroHour - nice one, thanks. I know a lot of forums would just say 'tough' so I appreciate you trying to help greatly
GrumbleDook Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Do they block the RM Communities? Technet? Apple Discussion Boards? As a registered Educational Supplier of advice and consultancy (check the Becta lists folks) we can request that they do not block us and allow others. PM me and I will give them a ring tomorrow from BETT.
GrumbleDook Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 I know it may seem strange being aggressive in one post and defensive in another ... but ... looking at it from an LA / RBC point of view they have to take every reasonable care to prevent schools from doing something stupid and allowing access to unfiltered sites. Most of us are in privileged positions where we can say *no* to teachers and management who demand unfiltered access, but a scary number of schools in the East Midlands region have site level filtering (everyone at the same level) and it is not adequately high enough. Many of us have internal filtering of one fashion or another but for something like this then you almost *have* to cater for the lowest common denominator unless a school can show you otherwise.
Geoff Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 I know it may seem strange being aggressive in one post and defensive in another ... but ... looking at it from an LA / RBC point of view they have to take every reasonable care to prevent schools from doing something stupid and allowing access to unfiltered sites. Are you sure about that? I don't know about you but our LEA contract has a 'get of jail' clause that washes the LEA/RBC hands of any responsibility of what's accessed via the Internet connection they provide.
GrumbleDook Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Are you sure about that? I don't know about you but our LEA contract has a 'get of jail' clause that washes the LEA/RBC hands of any responsibility of what's accessed via the Internet connection they provide. Not if they want to keep their Becta Accreditation ... it just doesn't wash anymore that sort of clause. Govt guidelines (as in you agree to do as you are told and we will continue to fund you) say that e-safety is a big thing! An LA that does not follow this through will get grief. An RBC that passes the buck is on dodgy ground. This is especially true of LAs that top slice a *large* amount of money to ensure that good levels of filtering are possible.
SimpleSi Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 This isn't a technical problem - its an admin issue. You might need to escalate the issue through your headteacher but unless your SLA agreements says you have to take whatever the LEA give you then you should be able to get it sorted but it might take some time - get the organ grinders to talk to each other I don't believe that "faking" what this place appears to be is a good idea - a bit like a gamekeeper doing a bit of poaching on someone elses patch regards Simon
sidewinder Posted January 7, 2008 Author Posted January 7, 2008 Well my manager has requested it also and I will have a look tomorrow morning and see what they have said Grumbledook I will PM you the name if it isnt resolved, if you want to go ahead with contacting them anyway
crc-ict Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Situation is the same on Websense with West Sussex Grid for Learning. Exactly the same - worked for about half an hour this morning, then blocked. Also, old forums worked fine. You can indeed have unfiltered IPs, (well, 'Technician' filter which allows useful stuff but still keeps the more 'exotic' stuff at bay) which works fine if you only work in one school and have your own PC. I work in nine, and have to grab whatever computer I can!
richard.thomas Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 I started getting a funky "Bad gateway" error and got the Netsweeper page when I tried this morning, but I had been on the forums for quite abit before this kicked in. We don't have any special IP that's unfiltered or a way of bypassing the LEA filter as far as I'm aware
russdev Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 @Richard Can you pm us your rbc that would be useful. Russ
pete Posted January 8, 2008 Posted January 8, 2008 Not if they want to keep their Becta Accreditation ... it just doesn't wash anymore that sort of clause. Govt guidelines (as in you agree to do as you are told and we will continue to fund you) say that e-safety is a big thing! An LA that does not follow this through will get grief. An RBC that passes the buck is on dodgy ground. This is especially true of LAs that top slice a *large* amount of money to ensure that good levels of filtering are possible. Though if you decide to not use their filtering (for whatever reason) they will ask you to sign a (FUD encrusted) disclaimer absolving them of responsibility.
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