Safeguard blocking ALL sites on specific device

[#1]

Hi. Been with plusnet for a few months, have a 13 yo that’s currently got some issues with her behaviour online, and decided to enable safeguard as a result to try and make controlling her activity easier. Problem is, on her laptop specifically, it blocks absolutely all websites no matter what you do. Adding sites to the allowed list makes no difference, and even if I turn all the category blocks off it’s still the same. The smartphones are fine, my other windows 10 laptop is fine, but her Acer gaming laptop (also running windows 10) just freaks the minute you turn safeguard on and won’t allow anything through regardless. I even fired up Edge to see if Chrome was the issue but browser doesn’t make any difference.

Having been through the safeguard related posts, I can’t see anyone else having this kind of problem, so I’m throwing myself into the capable hands of anyone here who has some thoughts on what the problem might be and how to fix it.

Thanks in advance!

[#2]

Hello @CharlieG83

Thanks a lot for reaching out and I'm sorry to hear that you're having problems with SafeGuard. Not an issue I've seen before to be honest but I have an idea or two.

Have you made any changes on the Access Control section on your Hub One Manager? This allows you to allow and revoke access to the internet for specific devices at different times of day.

[#3]

Hi Adam, thanks for replying. Short answer is no, I’ve restricted her access at device level rather than via the router. Just double checked and access control is not accidentally in use either.

[#4]

@CharlieG83 

So if you bypass Safeguard by setting a different DNS in the computer IPv4 settings can you get access to t’internet?

[#5]

Safeguard doesn't work at a device level. It's all or nothing based on the upstream DNS resolver the router is using. Are you using the service in conjunction with something else?

[#6]

@bobpullen 

That’s interesting. Does this mean that you can’t input the Safeguard DNS addresses in to a device, it only works if they are held in the hub and you route devices DNS searches through this? 

[#7]

@bobpullen

I’m trying to use safeguard purely to restrict access to internet content - I’d settle for being able to just block a couple of specific websites, but even turning safeguard on with no restrictions set results in a complete inability to access the internet on her laptop. I’m using device based settings (MS family safety for the laptop in question and iOS downtime) to manage physical screen time, which is how I’ve been doing it for a couple of years without any issues. Her devices lock at specific times even if there’s no available internet connection.

[#8]

I understand what you're saying @CharlieG83

Though as per @bobpullen 's post, SafeGuard does not work on a device level, which is why I asked whether you'd amended any settings via Access Control. Any changes made on SafeGuard will take effect on all devices connected to the router, so it's really strange that turning on SafeGuard restricts internet access entirely on her laptop.

If other devices are working normally, the source of this issue, in my opinion, is the laptop's network settings.

[#9]

@adam

Any suggestions on how to set about looking at the network settings? Other than literally connecting it to WiFi via the usual windows wizard method, I haven’t touched her network settings in the two years she’s had the laptop. She can’t alter them because of my admin settings. She frequently connects to a variety of public and private networks without any issue, including some with heavy filtering like her school and NHS hospitals. Pretty daft that something designed to make life easier (and safer) is causing massive problems with a laptop.

[#10]

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@Baldrick1 wrote:

@bobpullen 

That’s interesting. Does this mean that you can’t input the Safeguard DNS addresses in to a device, it only works if they are held in the hub and you route devices DNS searches through this? 

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No, it will work if the resolver is set at the device level and other devices are configured to route around it. I (rightly, it seems) assumed the OP wasn't doing this though.