topic Re: Safeguard not working at all in Everything else

Safeguard not working at all

Richyroo — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 07:14:04 GMT

Safeguard is switched on, several categories are selected including porn.
If I switch it off and on again I receive an email to say it has changed. The history lists any changes.
I've restarted the router, I've left it switched off over night.
I've waited many hours for changes to take effect.
Despite all this I can still access pornhub via WiFi

Re: Safeguard not working at all

dvorak — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 08:37:13 GMT

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Broadband to Everything Else

Re: Safeguard not working at all

dvorak — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 08:38:58 GMT

Have you checked the DNS in router and your wifi device?
If the wifi device doesn’t pick up its DNS settings from the router it won't work.

Re: Safeguard not working at all

joez — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 05:31:32 GMT

Safeguard was working for me for the past 3 years then suddenly it is not working at all for me as well. tried restarting the router, turning on and off the safeguard, DNS of wifi is pointing to the router which has the auto-allocated DNS from Plusnet. Does anyone else experience this problem or could advise?

Re: Safeguard not working at all

Percy2 — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:05:13 GMT

Same here, was working fine, but now not working.
Changed during w/c 22/01/24

DNS settings

213.120.234.42
213.120.234.38

P

Re: Safeguard not working at all

joez — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:13:27 GMT

I have the same DNS.

Re: Safeguard not working at all

Richyroo — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 07:01:22 GMT

In my case this happened because I'd started using a VPN, if I switch the VPN off briefly then safeguard works.

Re: Safeguard not working at all

Percy2 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 10:08:54 GMT

Some feedback from Plusnet would be good. This is still a problem for me.

P

Re: Safeguard not working at all

joez — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 14:03:21 GMT

Called PlusNet and am told there is nothing they can do. Suggested me to use parental control on the device instead 😞

Re: Safeguard not working at all

James30 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 14:33:11 GMT

@joez - Hi, can I check what device you have tried it on, the trouble is that quite a lot of programs specifically others like to mess with the connection such as using their own DNS services, a VPN without knowing and also proxies but this will render our safeguard useless.

Can you try another device, a fresh one where you haven't installed anything so we can be sure that there aren't any rogue programs changing the network settings without you knowing?

Also, are you using our router?

Also, do you have any other network tech like Powerline Adapters or a Mesh? They have their own DHCP server that can use another DNS address.

Re: Safeguard not working at all

Percy2 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:25:22 GMT

Hi James,

Windows PC with direct cable connection to Plusnet router.

See attachments.
The MOST IMPORTANT CLUES, surely, are that :-

1. Safeguard was working for a long time but stopped last week.
2. And users have started to come here for a resolution.

Plusnet have changed something.

P

Re: Safeguard not working at all

Percy2 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:32:18 GMT

It took a while to get acknowledged and fixed previously

https://community.plus.net/t5/Everything-else/Safeguard-won-t-stay-enabled/td-p/1747164/page/11

Re: Safeguard not working at all

DS — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:56:11 GMT

@Percy2

Unless I'm seeing this wrong, on 1.jpg the IPv4 address is showing as 192.168.1.2

Now IIRC this should be in the range of 192.168.1.64 to 192.168.1.253, but I'm not 100% sure as I've not recently had to sort other persons devices out.

It's entirely up to you, but what I'd be trying is:

Power down that device, disconnect the Ethernet cable. Reboot and then reinsert the Ethernet and see if this changes to .64 or anywhere up to .253 - but this could be a waste of time
Rather than rebooting the Hub/router, physically turn it off at the mains, wait 5 mins (have a brew or a drink of your choice) and then switch it back on. If you have a dynamic IP address (which unless you paid and asked for a static IP) then this should change.

It's been almost 4 years, but likely more like 5+, since I've offered advice on sorting this dreaded Safeguard 'hiccup' out. Some users of this service/product could not get it working despite the best efforts of PN trying - although back then this was due to their internal problems with this service/product. Also I would have expected many users whom have noticed its no longer blocking sites to have come on here - maybe they don't know or maybe it's just the recent reports?

I don't think its a good idea to go back in and out of turning it off and on via the setting as this could potentially create more issues.

I can also see you have an up time of around 1 day. Although I've suggested power cycling (<- posh for switching off and on) the router it wouldn't be advisable to do this too often as this could mess with your internet speed.

If I remember anything else I'll pop it up.

Re: Safeguard not working at all

MisterW — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 17:50:26 GMT

Unless I'm seeing this wrong, on 1.jpg the IPv4 address is showing as 192.168.1.2

Now IIRC this should be in the range of 192.168.1.64 to 192.168.1.253, but I'm not 100% sure as I've not recently had to sort other persons devices out.

@DS well spotted that ~~man~~ person!. 3.jpg confirms the DHCP range. If the PC has got 192.168.1.2 it must have been statically assigned in which case it wont have got the DNS servers via DHCP, so it may well not be using the router as a DNS server (which is what it would normally get via DHCP) and thus not using the Safeguard DNS.

Re: Safeguard not working at all

DS — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 18:14:21 GMT

I'm a boy, a real boy!

(nose grows and touches the laptop screen)

edit Just to clarify my above doubt in the post above, I hobbled away from doing this sort of stuff from the middle to late 2019. I went on to offering advice and guidance on vehicle related issues and house related issues. However once my brain moves in one direction it empties itself and I have to really dig deep.

It's not that I'm stoopid or owt like that <nose punches a hole through the screen, oopsie>

Re: Safeguard not working at all

Percy2 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 18:49:09 GMT

Yes, my home PC is configured for static IP.
It has been like it for years.
At the bottom of image 1 it says (from the home PC)

DNS Servers 192.168.1.254

Which is why I added image 2 and image 3 to show the IP address of the router and the DNS servers held therein

Re: Safeguard not working at all

DS — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 19:31:05 GMT

I totally understand what you're saying regarding the allocation of a device set IP and that it's been set that way for several years.

However, without giving too much away as google scrapes most of this and gives kiddies a means or defeating mum/dad/guardian from circumventing certain parent allocated restrictions, if you could try - even statically on your device as long as no other device is using that router assigned IP - to one within that range I mentioned earlier then I would say it may help, or at least will be something you can tell Plusnet you tried without success.

(a reboot of the router would be needed to allocated your chosen new IP)

If you don't want to do that, or in the event this doesn't help one iota, then currently I really can't think of an "at your end" problem assuming you're not using things like a Virtual Private Network or other things like that.

This could well be an internal problem (within Plusnet) and nothing you do will fix this.

Also it clearly won't help you, if anything it makes their system foolish, but I was wrongly allocated Plusnets Safeguard DNS settings on my router for a number of years even though I've never ever used it as I used to set any parental settings outside of their provided products/services personally.

Re: Safeguard not working at all

CuriousSideny — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 12:06:10 GMT

I have the same situation as the original post. SafeGuard was working fine and suddenly it stopped for all home devices, some time in the last few weeks, I believe.

Specifically I noticed it when searching in google chrome all family users are now able to change SafeSearch in their google searches to "Off".

When I looked at my SafeGuard account settings I can see that a number of "Block Categories" are no longer what I had set them to (specifically no nudity was certainly set before).

There is nothing in the "Change History" section at all.

Re: Safeguard not working at all

DS — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 12:40:11 GMT

Welcome to the forums @CuriousSideny

There was a widespread DNS issue within Plusnet a few weeks back and messed up an unspecified amount of connections, myself included.

Have you tried switching the router off (aka power cycling) for around 5 mins and then switching back on again. I'm not sure if this will kick-start the safeguard DNS system to work again but it certainly wouldn't do any harm, even just as a 'well I tried this'.

Re: Safeguard not working at all

CuriousSideny — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 13:28:29 GMT

Thanks for the idea DS, I did try that already this morning - and as yet no change.

My settings are pretty much identical to the original poster with the exception that I'm not using any static IP addresses and I have a Smart Hub 2.