Smoothwall App Blocking

[asheppard]

After being on the phone with an engineer for quite a while I have discovered that you cannot force restricted mode or block the YouTube mobile app on student owned devices using Smoothwall "It's a web filter not an app filter"! It works great with domain clients where I can push the certificate to but not BYOD devices. The frustrating thing is you can see the traffic going through on the live view as "YouTube" but it doesn't block it.

 

Does anybody use a filter that this does work on? At this point we are considering dumping Smoothwall if we can find a better alternative.

Edited February 17, 2017 by asheppard
Missing word

[robk]

You have two options I think. Either block YouTube completely, or force mitm inspection and force your clients to install a certificate.

 

I think this is the case with most web filtering platforms as you can not see what's in the HTTPs YouTube traffic to filter or modify.

[asheppard]

That's the problem. I'm not bothered about what's in the https traffic I just want to block the whole site but it won't. We can't force the install of the certificate on student owned devices especially as now Android 7 and above devices require you go into developer mode to install the certificate. And who is going to go through all that trouble to get filtered when not doing it gives you unrestricted access?!

 

All I want is to block youtube.com etc. but Smoothwall cannot do that on when it comes from an app even though it is clearly marked as "YouTube" on the realtime view in Smoothwall.

[psydii]

Is the App actually accessing YouTube.com? Or is it connecting to other fqdn's to get YouTube services.

 

We have the restricted DNS setting enabled and the main problem we have is the app on staff devices remembering the restrictions/block when o longer behind our filter/firewall.

 

This might help:

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6214622?hl=en

 

It will block access to most content. We saw a 50% decrease in internet traffic when it was turned on.

[free780]

Block Googlevideo.com . it stops videos on YouTube apps and on the desktop.

[fiza]

That's the problem. I'm not bothered about what's in the https traffic I just want to block the whole site but it won't. We can't force the install of the certificate on student owned devices especially as now Android 7 and above devices require you go into developer mode to install the certificate. And who is going to go through all that trouble to get filtered when not doing it gives you unrestricted access?!

 

All I want is to block youtube.com etc. but Smoothwall cannot do that on when it comes from an app even though it is clearly marked as "YouTube" on the realtime view in Smoothwall.

 

If they don't install the certificate how are they even getting on to the internet? It should be a condition of access. No certificate no internet on your device.