Safeguard not working at all!

[#1]

Hi, I'm affected by this issue as well. Have turned on SafeGuard, turned the router off and on and am still able to access pornography 2 hours later. Tried this with the category specifically blocked and with it not specifically blocked. Did a test by setting a specific site as blocked and it made no difference. Currently have the DNS setting set to manual with the safeguard DNS settings as per faq:

https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/about-dns-server-and-website-settings/

but have also tried with DNS on auto. Can I be added to the list of impacted users please?

[#2]

Hi @RoperNo1 and welcome to the Community Forums.
I'm sorry to hear the safeguard feature isn't working as intended and I've certainly added your example onto the ongoing incident related to this.
 

[#3]

Hi.

I'm also having real problems in trying to get SafeGuard working. With a teenager in the house I really need this to work!

Like others I've tinkered around with the settings, checked DNS, rebooted my router loads of times - all to no avail.

So please can I also be added to the list of impacted users?

Thank you

[#4]

What kind of account have you hot and do you have a fixed IP address?

[#5]

... have you got ...

This 20 minutes editing limit grinds my gears!!!

[#6]

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@phgannon wrote:
I'm also having real problems in trying to get SafeGuard working. 

This is interesting, Safeguard was fixed at the end of April, there shouldn't be any ongoing issues. Could you let me know exactly what the problems you're having are, please?

[#7]

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@JonoH wrote:  This is interesting, Safeguard was fixed at the end of April, there shouldn't be any ongoing issues. Could you let me know exactly what the problems you're having are, please?

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Hi Jono

Thanks for getting back to me about this (because it's doing my head in!). The problem I'm having is that in the SafeGuard says it's switched on (see attached screenshot) and I have categories blocked (such as porn, violence, etc) but it's not actually blocking anything.

I've tried switched SG off and back on again several times (each time turning off & on my router, waiting for a couple of hours, etc) but no difference. I've also tried turning on the timer to see if that would provoke SG into working but no change.

I've looked at what DNS my connection is using (by looking at this page https://www.plus.net/member-centre/broadband/connection-details) and my DNS doesn't match those listed on the PlusNet About page where it talks about how "To set Plusnet Safeguard DNS server addresses" (https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/about-dns-server-and-website-settings/) - see the other attached screenshot

The really annoying thing is that SG used to work but then I had to temporarily switch it off and now I can't get the darned thing back on again.

Please let me know if you need any more info.

Patrick

[#8]

Do you have a fixed or dynamic IP address?

[#9]

also which router are you using?

[#10]

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@Townman wrote:
Do you have a fixed or dynamic IP address?

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Hi

I believe it's a Dynamic IP Address because on my https://www.plus.net/member-centre/broadband/connection-details page it states "Server assigned"

[#11]

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@dvorak wrote:
also which router are you using?

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Hi

It a a Plusnet Hub One

[#12]

Hi there @phgannon,

You mention that you're not using the DNS settings that safeguard recommend? If this this the case, it's likely that's the cause of the problem.

Normally the Hub would change these automatically upon turning safeguard 'on' and rebooting the router.

You would need to change your DNS settings manually to:

Primary     213.120.234.42
Secondary     213.120.234.42

I'm afraid to can't do this directly via the Hub one , but you can change these on a client by client basis.

[#13]

Hi Matt

Thanks for your response. You're quite correct, I can't change DNS on my hub - I've tried but they're non-editable fields.

Setting DNS on a client-by-client basis is not an effective solution - it would be if we all had laptops / desktop PCs but we don't. There's tablets, smart TV and smartphones too.

The REALLY frustrating part of all this is that it used to work as I mentioned earlier (but it got turned off for a while to troubleshoot an issue on the network) - so why won't it work now I've come to turn it back on again?! Why, in particular, won't it automatically update the DNS on my PlusNet router when I turn SG on?

It's beginning to look like the only fix is for me to buy a router to replace the PlusNet router so I can manually configure DNS.

But before I buy a new router (that I can fully configure manually) is there anything else that can be done such as getting someone from PlusNet support to look at the problem?

Thanks

Patrick

Moderators Note: Full quote of preceding post removed as per the forum rules

[#14]

@Optimatts 

Normally the Hub would change these automatically upon turning safeguard 'on' and rebooting the router.

Hi Matt,

Does that not point to the cause of the issue here?

The Hub One router does not permit the assignment of DNS servers of the user's choice.  WAN side these should be set by DHCP by PlusNet's servers.  If the router is not receiving the correct DNS settings then something very odd is happening.

LAN side devices should use the router's address for DNS - indeed some devices might not allow the setting of local DNS and even if it does, smart kids these days will work out how to get around it.

@phgannon 

An off the wall question - please can you check that the router's WAN settings refer to your account name.  It would not be the first time that we've seen a router registered to the wrong account!!  I take it that this is the router supplied direct to you by Plusnet and not one you've obtained by some other route?

Looking at your answer to @JonoH in post 5, the subsequent answers suggest that you are getting nowhere near having the right DNS server address allocated by the DHCP server … so it matters not what you set on the management pages!

[#15]

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@Townman wrote:

@phgannon 

An off the wall question - please can you check that the router's WAN settings refer to your account name.  It would not be the first time that we've seen a router registered to the wrong account!!  I take it that this is the router supplied direct to you by Plusnet and not one you've obtained by some other route?

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Hi Townman

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I've already double checked that the router is using the correct account name. Yesterday I even disconnected the router (via the router's GUI) and then logged it back in again using my PlusNet account name and password - it didn't make any difference though! I thought it might force the router to refresh everything (including DNS) by re-reading it from my account. I did first of all check that I was using the correct account name by logging into my PlusNet account and looked at the Connection Settings page.

And yes, the router I've got is the same one that was supplied to me by the engineer when I got the fibre package from PlusNet.

Patrick