Schools Broadband Netsweeper changes seem slow.

[filteringtech]

I have been trying to make some Netsweeper filtering changes, but its taking over 30 mins for the changes to take effect (both from seeing a result in a Trace Request, and even longer for the actual filter), which is problematic. Is anyone else seeing this?

 

For anyone with Netsweeper not on Schools Broadband, how long does it normally take for a change such as an allow or deny to take place?

 

Thanks.

[filteringtech]

Its taking hours for a Netsweeper change to take effect now. Raised in a support ticket on 4th October. I don't suppose anyone at Schools Broadband "who is in a position to remedy the problem" has even looked at it yet.

[whartomt01]

Same issue. They are aware I believe. Awaiting a fix for this and not being able to use Netsweeper logs. Ongoing since August

[filteringtech]

Same issue. They are aware I believe. Awaiting a fix for this and not being able to use Netsweeper logs. Ongoing since August

Is that their new "in house" front end or raw Nesweeper logs?

 

I've been adding spurious changes just to time them and its getting progressively slower.

 

I had been making changes to enforce safe seach on search engines where there is an enforceable parameter that can't be set in Group Policies, or where there is no enforceable safe search to redirect back to Google since that seems more useful than a block request. Initially, I coudn't figure out why it wasn't working until I made the change one day, and tested it the next once the updates had finally been applied.

 

I think that SBB's lists that they apply to us have so much redundancy and duplication (in some cased, they have 5000+ lines where one will do, if they understood the "referrer header" parameter), that there must be some self-inflicted performance degradation.

[whartomt01]

Its the raw netsweeper logs. That helps adding allows when something is being blocked. No issues with The Hub so far

[filteringtech]

Its the raw netsweeper logs. That helps adding allows when something is being blocked. No issues with The Hub so far

 

Definately.

 

The only other thing I use to help figuring out allows (and denys), is urlscan.io which is a sandbox, but can help identify what is called when loading a website - remembering to ignore the ad severs and trackers.

[miloshmedia]

Netsweeper non SSB has almost instant changes unless I've been using an older version. I made a change a week or so ago to allow a visitor's VPN through and it authenticated almost simultaneously of making the change.

[Badaz52]

Taking days for us, also virtual web browsers are just sailing right through and there are too many for me to block individually especially when it takes so long for it to take effect. I don't understand why there isn't a category for them.

[filteringtech]

Taking days for us, also virtual web browsers are just sailing right through and there are too many for me to block individually especially when it takes so long for it to take effect. I don't understand why there isn't a category for them.

 

There is the Web Proxy category that catches most of them for us.

 

(Web Content/Security/Web Proxy)

 

There are some Google Docs and Google Sites that list hundreds of them. SBB whitelist these domains and I've had to block them individually - even though Netsweeper categroizes correctly them as Web Proxy.

[filteringtech]

A change I made this morning, well over 3 hours ago still hasn't taken effect.

[filteringtech]

4 hours now, and still not fully updated.

Might there be a problem with Policy Server: Policy3.xxxxxxxxx ?

 

It never seems to update during school hours.

Edited October 18, 2023 by filteringtech

[filteringtech]

10 hours. Like Diana Ross, "I'm still waiting" (For Policy Server: Policy3.xxxxx to update).

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hi folks. We've a case open with Netsweeper on this atm. This isn't affecting everyone but is a top priority.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[filteringtech]

For a problem that we reported in a support ticket on 4th October (that other schools may have reported earlier), and one of your support staff confirmed in the same ticket on 12th October, an event report on the Status Portal was raised on 19th October (stating that the problem started on 18th October). There are no further details provided other than confirming you have involved Netsweeper and no problem owner and that your Netsweeper service has a status of "degraded".

 

For those of us who are on our knees because any Netsweeper changes that we make one day, do not seem to take effect until the next day - disrupting teaching and learning and our legal safeguarding obligations (KCSIE), can we have an update on this "Top Priority" issue please?

[SchoolsBroadband]

Yes, the issue is with Netsweeper developers at the moment as its not a software config issue that we've done. It isn't common across our entire platform and even on the policy server you've mentioned isn't the same for all changes. Sporadic issues are always the hardest to diagnose but we're working with Netsweeper to address them. We currently don't have many active cases on this from our customers although it sounds like you've been impacted more than others which we do apologise for of course. Please keep an eye on the status portal as always as that will be updated as soon as we have something from Netsweeper with a final plan on how to address the issue.

 

Thank you for your patience

 

Dave

[filteringtech]

Thanks Dave, but a problem I can reproduce on demand is not sporadic. I updated the support ticket to reflect that. If your team would be good enough to update/acknowledge the support ticket I wouldn't be posting here.

[filteringtech]

Yes, the issue is with Netsweeper developers at the moment as its not a software config issue that we've done. It isn't common across our entire platform and even on the policy server you've mentioned isn't the same for all changes. Sporadic issues are always the hardest to diagnose but we're working with Netsweeper to address them. We currently don't have many active cases on this from our customers although it sounds like you've been impacted more than others which we do apologise for of course. Please keep an eye on the status portal as always as that will be updated as soon as we have something from Netsweeper with a final plan on how to address the issue.

 

Thank you for your patience

 

Dave

You have made a config change. Its been wonky since the upgrade "Status Portal > Event #1041",in July, though I couldn't put my finger on it then and as usual, at the time thought it was me. I was also doing less work on the platform at the time, so it wasn't so glaringly obvious.

[filteringtech]

No update in the Status Portal. No problem ownership. Still no apparent plan.

[filteringtech]

Thanks for the update on the Status Portal. It is honestly appreciated.

 

Can you say what time the service will be unavailable, and which users will be affected please?

[sigma]

No further feedback on the Status Portal or support ticket. Still not working properly.

[filteringtech]

Apparently its fixed, but its not.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hi folks.

 

Sorry for not answering sooner. I've been away on leave for a few days.

 

Netsweeper has confirmed to us there's a software bug that has been found. It's quite complicated and is only particularly affecting one of our many policy servers.

 

Netsweeper are working on fixing the bug ASAP and we're hopeful a patch will be deployed this week.

 

Please follow the status portal for all updates.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[filteringtech]

Hi folks.

 

Sorry for not answering sooner. I've been away on leave for a few days.

 

Netsweeper has confirmed to us there's a software bug that has been found. It's quite complicated and is only particularly affecting one of our many policy servers.

 

Netsweeper are working on fixing the bug ASAP and we're hopeful a patch will be deployed this week.

 

Please follow the status portal for all updates.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

 

I'm following the Status Portal but its's not been updated since before you responded here.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Patch being rolled out probably on Tuesday after going through q&a. Status portal will be updated shortly.

 

Dave

[filteringtech]

Just to note to record that well over a month has past, and it's still takes "hours" before changes get propagated through.