Blocked websites still accessible on tablet and iPod but not from laptop?!

[#1]

Hi all
A very odd thing to happen. I blocked a certain website using the 'Parental Control' feature and it's done just that on the laptop. But as the thread title states, I can still access it via a tablet or iPod 
Can anyone shed any light on why this is occurring ?
Thanks in advance.

[#2]

Interesting!!
This is just but a guess - if you previously accessed those pages on those devices before putting in the parental controls, I wonder if the website 'home' page has a reroute for mobile devices to something like m.website.com or website.mobi  or any other similar re-route to a mobile friendly format.  If the 'home' page were cached on your mobile device, it would not need to 'call' website.com (which is now blocked by the parental control) to reach the (not blocked) mobile friendly version.
As I said I do not claim this to be what is happening - it is a theory of what could be happening!
Cheers,
Kevin

[#3]

Thanks Kevin.
Also want to add : there's another laptop in the house and the site is blocked for that one (as well as mine). Maybe devices like the iPhone, iPod, tablets etc... have an automatic workaround (as you've inferred) ?

[#4]

yeah you have to make a second entry with http(s):// m.nameofwebsite.com  unless your router has the wildcard ability where you simply put in %facebook% or *facebook* so it blocks any traffic to anywebpage with the word facebook in,
from personal experience I have found that its impossible to block the access via things like the facebook app on a tablet unless you also wish to loose the ability to use java on every website (I use facebook because its a particular bugbear in my house at the moment having a bunch of teenagers, but it equally applies to other things including youtube and any number of miniclip games that have a downloadable app)
would that it was easier to disable the use of such things on those devices but apparently as parents were not qualified to make the decision bombarding kids with porn add's is bad .......

[#5]

Quote from: Cagney1994

...have an automatic workaround (as you've inferred) ?

Sorry I forgot to add that clearing the internet (Safari) cache on the tablet / iPod is where you'd start to test my theory.  If after clearing the cache you can no longer reach website.com which is blocked by the parental controls, you will proved the theory.
Cheers,
Kevin

[#6]

By the "Parental control" feature - is this on the Plusnet Router or on some other kind of software such as Microsoft Family Safety (or similar) ?

[#7]

Yes, it's on the PN router (the TG582n one). And I've cleared the cache and cookies on the iPod and the blocked website is still accessible. Also thanks to nanotm for suggesting I might need to make another entry. I'll give that a go and see what happens.
dick:quote

[#8]

To test a theory on the tablets accessing a slightly different url, try blocking my website (my username and .co.uk) - neither the tablets or laptops should be able to access it as it doesn't have an alternative mobile site.

[#9]

Hi picbits. It seems your theory has been proved correct
And re. creating another similar entry for the blocked website (YouTube in this case), I tried doing what 'nanotm' said but unfortunately it didn't work.

[#10]

are you using the tab browser or the youtube app ?
you cant block the app access with a url filter, you have to create a custom firewall rule in the router to block the app,
I've found its possible to block all app's but only when blocking cookies +java ative-x and proxies as well as using the url filter.
of course that means 99% of the websites I use no longer work so I then had to create exclusion rule for both mine and the wife's machines....
then I found out that because I'd blocked all there app's the stupid tablets wouldn't work anymore for them to do there homework on anyway, I tried to block the specific app's through some custom firewall entries but they don't work without static device ip addresses (I'm not using the technicolour router though) and whilst the block entries worked for the apple products they didn't affect the android ones, blocking the android ones blanket blocked the apple devices .....
if I had the ability I would work on creating a customised distro of IOS /android to allow the apps to be disabled (removed and blocked from getting installed) but I don't and simply disabling them via settings stops other needed things from working properly

god I hate those sodding stupid things, if they weren't 100% necessary for school I wouldn't have them in my house (the windows based stuff is far easier to sort out and admin systems actually work on them)

[#11]

Hi nantom
Well basically, I just used the main web address of YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/) and pasted that into the necessary area. And the other info you've mentioned; it's gone kinda over my head, lol. Sorry but I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to what you've said.

[#12]

yeah if you add in an entry of m.youtube.com and m.youtbe.co.uk  as well as the standard www.youtube.com/www.youtube.co.uk (etc etc) addresses it should block all browser access, it might even block a few of the built in app's both on desktop/laptop as well as tablet/smartphone type devices
I suspect though that like my offspring yours will probably develop ways round everything, although thankfully my belligerent youths have at least understood why they mustn't do certain things, even to the point that now they don't upload stuff at least....

[#13]

You just need to block the domain "youtube.com" (without the www.). That blocks any sub-domains such as www.youtube.com and m.youtube.com .

[#14]

Yes, that's the address I used (without the www's). And for some reason, it's blocked now on the iPod. I really can't understand why it wasn't before. Very strange.