Safeguard not working at all

[#1]

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

[#2]

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.

[#3]

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.

[#4]

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'.

[#5]

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.

[#6]

I'm experiencing the same issue of SafeGuard still showing as active on the setting page, but no longer working to block access to websites. It used to work and I'm not aware of anything having changed with my computer or router settings. Primary DNS remains 213.120.234.42.

[#7]

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@CuriousSideny wrote: snipped

I have a Smart Hub 2.

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I didn't think it would, but in the event you have to endure a call to Plusnet you can hopefully assist the call handler from not having to read the full script that they use

Regarding your router, is it a BT Smart Hub router or a Plusnet Hub 2 router (obviously one is black with BT on it, the other is white with Plusnet on it)?

Assuming it is a Plusnet Hub Two (PNH2), there is one more thing you could try, but again it might not give the result(s) you need.

1. I'd suggest using a laptop or PC
2. Log into the router - type 192.168.1.254 into your browser
3. The hubs user interface (UI) should load
4. Go to the Advanced settings - you'd need the admin password off the card on the rear of the router
5. Click the My Network tab
6. Click the IPv4 Configuration
7. Towards the bottom you should see DNS Servers with Auto selected. Also make a note of which Safeguard DNS is primary and which Safeguard DNS is secondary
8. Turn Auto off (No) and on the Primary DNS write 8.8.8.8
9. On the Secondary DNS write 1.1.1.1
10. Click Save at the top of the page.
11. Reboot the router.

Then (and I understand its becoming a chore) repeat the above but this time YOU fill out the DNS but with the original secondary DNS in the primary window and the original primary in the secondary.

After the last reboot you would need to reboot a 'test device' of your choosing to see if this device is now being blocked.

Should that work then the other devices would also need rebooting to release them from the routers DHCP and hopefully pick up the (now swapped) Safeguard DNS

And I'll apologise now if that was a waste of time - I'm trying my best to find a solution and this is something I've not suggested before (although I thought about this a while back) or even read about trying before.

Should it work I should add for future readers that the Plusnet Hub One cannot have it's DNS changed whereas the Plusnet Hub Two can have the DNS settings changed.

[#8]

Excellent instructions, @DS , thankyou!

I am using the "Plusnet Hub Two".

When I follow your instructions and go to the DNS Servers and disable auto, the two fields are blank.

Edit: I'm going to try adding these: https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/about-dns-server-and-website-settings/

[#9]

Hhhhoooolllldddd oooonnnn aaaa mmmmiiiinnnnuuuutttteeee <my attempt of slow mo>

If it was Auto it should have been showing the Safeguard DNS settings in THOSE windows

So yours, in auto, had zip, nil nada?

But yes that link will help

edit. Having pondered on my response, I now think I could be wrong and when in auto it doesn't show the automatically selected DNS settings in those sections, but I could be wrong on this too. I've not yet unwrapped my PNH2 as I couldn't be ars bothered to do this.

[#10]

Indeed - seems pretty strange!

I have filled them in (tried swapping primary and secondary), rebooting.

ipconfig /flushdns

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /renew

Having done this, if I perform a nslookup of somewhere I might expect to be problematic, I do at least see one of the correct dns addresses, but it doesn't stop access to that website:

nslookup pornhub.com
Server: indnsc92.ukcore.bt.net
Address: 213.120.234.42

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: pornhub.com
Address: 66.254.114.41

At risk of meeting the definition of madness full on, I have tried disabling and renabling safeguard, checking that the categories are correctly set to block (nudity/pornography, for example) and no change.

I've switched the router off and on, the last time gave it a full 5 minutes of downtime to itself.

And I've repeated the ipconfig command above. No change.

Edit: if I change the DNS setting back to "auto" then the Server in response to "nslookup" returns:

nslookup pornhub.com
Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.1.254

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: pornhub.com
Address: 66.254.114.41

[#11]

Also now attempted a factory reset and the same problem remains. It's hard to see how this can be progressed further from my end.

[#12]

So now that you've jump through the flaming hoops of certain death but came out on the other side (unscathed hopefully) there is nothing you can do with Plusnets Safeguard and thus it's gotta be at their end.

There would be other parental controls DNS settings out there so I would probably look into those and move the hub to use these

Or wait for a member of staff to pick up these reports and dig/prod/poke someone at their end 🤔

[#13]

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@DS wrote:

There would be other parental controls DNS settings out there so I would probably look into those and move the hub to use these🤔

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The obvious alternative would be to use  OpenDNS   settings in your router.

"OpenDNS Family Shield" is the least configuration effort choice,

or if you want more refined control then choose "OpenDNS Home" - but it works better if you get a Plusnet STATIC IP address.

Both alternatives are FREE !

I've used  "OpenDNS Home" to protect my kid's internet access and their mobile's WiFi, for around 15 years.

I also use it on my home's "Guest WiFi", to avoid my kid's friends from accessing inappropriate content when visiting !

[#14]

Thanks for this - I have temporarily swapped my DNS servers over to these but one thing it can't do (at least for the free version) sadly is rerouting google searches to forcesafesearch.google.com which is something that I find to be a pretty critical feature for me and plusnet SafeGuard does do... when it works...

[#15]

It really is worth reading this from page 10 onwards. The link goes to page 10.

https://community.plus.net/t5/Everything-else/Safeguard-won-t-stay-enabled/td-p/1747164/page/10

And on page 11 @JonoH says

"Ultimately though, we provide the service and we need to stand by it, it's our responsibility to ensure it works for our customers and even though on this occasion it is not the fault of any 3rd party, but if it was we wouldn't pass the buck so to speak anyway."