Unblock one page in Facebook

[Zammo]

Hi all

 

We have had a few requests to unblock very specific pages on facebook, i.e https://www.facebook.com/DofESouthEast.

 

I tried adding it as a whitelisted URL, but pictures etc do not load. I don't want to allow through anything that can then be used to access facebook content in other ways. Basically I want to say "This URL and content it calls is fine"

 

Can this be done on a smoothwall UTM? We have facebook blocked for all standard staff and teachers using the built in facebook category

 

Thanks

 

Martin

[howartp]

I tried adding it as a whitelisted URL .... Basically I want to say "This URL and content it calls is fine"

This was my understanding of whitelisting, but I've never tried it in practice...

[Steve21]

It'll whitelist that page, but like with too many sites nowadays as all images/CSS/JS etc are stored on one huge cache server it's either open or closed (without individual file whitelisting) normally at least

 

Had same problems with a few sites :s

 

Steve

[stickman]

Your problem arises because the content will be stored elsewhere, not on https://www.facebook.com/DofESouthEast. The images might be on https://images.facebook.com and video on https://video.facebook.com etc (those are made up examples).

 

One of the images for example is this URL;

 

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/s526x395/11222454_1167143923316437_1604493210796409018_n.jpg?oh=4a1ab55f1cc6662f2ce2a01679887ba2&oe=5785417B

 

If you unblocked https://*.fbcdn.net/* you would have then all content hosted within that domain unblocked but should keep the existing facebook page blocks in place. I'm guessing fbcdn is short for Facebook Content Delivery Network and I'd assume all of their content is stored there (or at least the vast majority).

 

Don't forget to test!

[stickman]

Your problem arises because the content will be stored elsewhere, not on https://www.facebook.com/DofESouthEast. The images might be on https://images.facebook.com and video on https://video.facebook.com etc (those are made up examples).

 

One of the images for example is this URL;

 

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/s526x395/11222454_1167143923316437_1604493210796409018_n.jpg?oh=4a1ab55f1cc6662f2ce2a01679887ba2&oe=5785417B

 

If you unblocked https://*.fbcdn.net/* you would have then all content hosted within that domain unblocked but should keep the existing facebook page blocks in place. I'm guessing fbcdn is short for Facebook Content Delivery Network and I'd assume all of their content is stored there (or at least the vast majority).

 

Don't forget to test!

 

This might not be a suitable workaround as it could allow people to access facebook content directly if they knew the URL of the individual item. So even though they cannot visit https://www.facebook.com/games they could potentially access a video on that page by going directly to the appropriate https://*.fbcdn.net/* URL.

[enjay]

Your problem arises because the content will be stored elsewhere, not on https://www.facebook.com/DofESouthEast. The images might be on https://images.facebook.com and video on https://video.facebook.com etc (those are made up examples).

 

That's where the fun really starts. I blocked a file-sharing site recently which I needed to block in order to stop the Little Darlings using VPNs on their mobiles then connecting to our wireless. Very quickly after blocking that site, I had calls from staff saying TES Resources had stopped working!