tom_newton

Just fired ravenjs (root domain and their minimised js file) through smoothwall on-prem and there's no block, so may be a red herring

DM me some ticket numbers and I will make sure they're looked at together

FYI this was covered today on UKSIC's filter vendor quarterly call - they are putting together a joint message to google about this issue

I'd always either go with ICT Direct, or ICT Direct.

If you want PDNS type service, but not to use NCSC (which is cloudflare in disguise, so SHOULD be good, but I suspect the "limit it to just people who are allowed it" causes more bother than it is worth) then use Quad 9s (I bet you can guess the IP)

Feel free to cc me if that would help

Looks like we are looking for a customer to help prove this out - drop me an email [email protected] and I will put you in touch with the team. They want to verify the changes work in the real world

Great! Glad you got sorted

Its with the dev team in build - let me chase.

Stick in a support ticket with mg too I'm away for a few days, as my wife is home from Africa tomorrow, but I'll check in, might not be as responsive as normal

Nah its definitely string you want. And it's definitely associated with the app, and pushing the app via MDM?

Reopen the ticket, send me the number

Nothing obviously wrong there - Im not familiar with mobile guardian (other than I know the founders!). I think a support ticket's your best bet

Your screenshot is broken for some reason

Yeah, it's the browser you need - same for filter and monitor. You should push orgid and serial via MDM

Shared ipad mode is definitely the way to go to get identification working properly.

You'll not get super far with pihole or other DNS blockers. The trajectory of ad blocking was DNS/URL, which is still useful, but not when it is google you are trying to work around, then we moved on to actually adjusting the DOM (ublock does this, as does Smoothwall cloud, and to an extent, on prem (which has in-page regexes, a bit more blunt instrumenty)). Even that is now useless when the ads are served in the same video stream as the content, and ad blockers are increasingly detectable. To my mind, the only solution here is for an ad-free version of youtube to be officially offered to schools in the same way youtube premium is offered to individuals. I am pushing folks to join me in campaigning to make this a reality, and take the constant worry and fight away from Schools.

Some good advice on here: yes, on chromebooks you are limited to the browser, and while it is possible to do device level controls, we push as user (we are working with google on what to do with the rest of android). Windows it is device level - you don't currently need a monitor browser extension for win, just the msi

We've found it is generally pretty hard to thread the needle of "block ads" and "avoid ad blocker detection" unfortunately.

What's your email domain? Does that look like something in your MX? (My guess is some sort of janky DNS issue their end)

Admittedly you will end up spending some $ if you go the 3rd party route and need more than 100 emails a day - but otoh you will get better logging and deliverability, and you can use it for other non-bromcommy stuff if you have requirements for other tools to deliver mail as your school.

No, they haven't - I would suggest @DrCheese has the right idea: if Google would offer an inexpensive youtube for schools, it's a win/win - they get schools to have a google account, and make a lil bit of money, If they wanted to broker that through filter vendors as @pete suggests... feels like hard work, but we'd do it.

Smoothwall's add-on for video blurring can pick up nudity/swimwear in ads. We are working to push google to allow schools an ad-free experience (by "we", I mean the UKSIC, Smoothwall, Securly, and a bunch of other filter vendors who are sick of Schools getting the rough end of the stick)

Drop me a pm, I'll get this escalated to engineering

I'm not claiming we are perfect - far from it, and please do get in touch with your details as well @GK1999, anything we can learn from would be really great (sometimes a second set of eyes on a situation is useful). Having said that, unless one of your account managers has gone on maternity leave, 3 seems high, although the team has had a little reshuffle recently in order make sure each team member only has as many schools to work with as the next.