Web Filter lookup

[EduSWIT]

Securly have an awesome solution for staff to lookup websites to check that students can access it before the class starts - https://www.securly.com/lookup-tool/

 

We recently started using smoothwall and it doesn't look like they offer such a product at the moment!

 

Does anyone know of a bit of software or a website so staff can check the filter status of websites for students?

[Protec]

I don't know of anything that does that. Even if there was, I can't imagine it being that widely used (at least here). Most websites the teachers want students to use are not blocked and if they are, it's probably for good reason. If the site is something that has been blocked (such as an educational game) then it can be requested to be unblocked.

[Roberto]

Securly have an awesome solution for staff to lookup websites to check that students can access it before the class starts - https://www.securly.com/lookup-tool/

 

We recently started using smoothwall and it doesn't look like they offer such a product at the moment!

 

Does anyone know of a bit of software or a website so staff can check the filter status of websites for students?

 

If your filtering solution is blocking enough 'good' websites for this to be massively useful then I would suggest that the root cause is a poor filtering solution or overly zealous settings and the fix is probably not giving the students (or even just teachers, who are often not focussed on whether something will present a DPA or safeguarding issue) a tool to find ways to bypass the filtering.

Edited October 16, 2021 by Roberto

[CJF]

Fwiw there is a policy test tool within Smoothwall. I’m not sure how easy it is to grant access to the tool nowadays but it was relatively easy a few years ago (the last time I touched the Smoothie UI)

[EduSWIT]

Thanks... I will speak with our account manager to see if this is something we can get setup.

[ibpalle]

The feature is available in the Guardian - quick links - policy tester. It can also be accessed by creating a user portal, where teachers can login using the AD credentials, and then check if a URL is available.

[mrwoberts]

Here's another nifty tool to quickly check your filter against the standard requirements...

Test Your Internet Filter | SWGfL Test Filtering

 

No need to fill in the pre-test questions, I just choose 'School', and off we go. This tool saved my bacon at least once when I misconfigured our filter for a certain group of people.