Safeguard Issues!!

[#1]

Moderators Note.
[Moderator's note by Mike (Mav) Topics merged.

[#2]

Interesting that we should be asked what site or what access myself and NoSafeguard are being blocked.  I certainly was not aware that I have to account myself to anyone other than the ISP or the law, so I actually find it highly offence to be challenged in a public forum, All I will say to Oldjim is that unless you are a proven member of PN or the law, none of your business!

The issue remain the same
When I joined I opted OUT of Safeguard.  No problem
Over the last few days our connection has been as flaky as heel resulting in the routeing resetting itself time and time again.  (May or may not be the cause)
Last night Safeguard kicked it, blocking pretty much everything.
So I go to the Safeguard section and click turn off the damned thing.
Oh no it tells me "Sorry we have a problem and cant currently safe your changes, please try later"
So I have, several times over several hours and still get the same message.
Yes I have restarted my router, yes I have cleared my cache, yes I have reset PC, all to no avail.
So what the hell is going on, as it is blocking sites and VPNs that I need for work, PN is now coasting me money!

Oh and I checked PN turned it on 16/01/2016 at 05:53 then set it to off at 16/01/2016 at 06:23. It is now blocking everything under the sun, including totally safe site such as the BBC, and half of my ports, which I need to be abel to work from home!
SO the problem is NOT solved and it appears that no one form customers serviced gives a monkeys either!

[#3]

Hi tdarch
Welcome to the forum
You have read OldJim response in the wrong context, i can assure you his question was put in order to try and help you.
There are lots of helpful and knowledge people here, who will help, when given the info requested and spoken to in the correct manner 
Kind regards
Mike

[#4]

The reason I asked was that so other customers could check whether it is blocked for them and if it was where the block was happening as it is possible it isn't safeguard doing it but a block from the IWF list or even because it was routed via BT and was hit by a Court Blocking Order although I haven't heard of one of those causing problems recently

[#5]

Well as to which website are and which are not is irrelevant, when on over 50% of the sites, including such heinous sites such as the BBC News, Open University, Harvard University, etc, I get the "We have blocked this page banner"
Now if you read my original post you will see I have made is quite clear what the problem is

• So I go to the Safeguard section and click turn off the damned thing.


• Oh no it tells me "Sorry we have a problem and cant currently save your changes, please try later"

I have tried this for over a day now, but no it wont allow any change!
So no it has NOTHING to do with websites, it has to do with PN Safeguard blocking sites and NOT allowing changes to its software or turn it off
This particularly galls me as I opted out of it originally, and PN turned it on against my initial request and with zero warning.
Not impressed at all, and yes I know I'll just get the usual fob off suggestions, it is not PNs fault, sorry but you have peed of a new customer, and I am raising it as a formal complaint, as this has cost me wages!!
Please DO NOT expect me to recommend PN to other now and if I could get out of this contract I would ...after two months not bad going !

[#6]

Quote from: tdarch

Not impressed at all, and yes I know I'll just get the usual fob off suggestions, it is not PNs fault, sorry but you have peed of a new customer, and I am raising it as a formal complaint, as this has cost me wages!!

PN are not responsible for any loss of earnings, as unless you have a business grade account you shouldn't be using a home grade account for business use anyway.
if your connection is business critical to you then you should have a business grade account AND a backup connection with another ISP. anything other than that is foolhardy.
good luck with your complaint, don't expect to be compensated though.

[#7]

I think Safeguard works by intercepting the DNS lookups for those sites, and would be bypassed by setting your devices to use other servers.  For example Open DNS  208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220,  You should be able to change your router so it dishes these out instead of Plusnet's servers.   

[#8]

Quote from: NoSafeguard

I switched it OFF last year .YOU have switched it ON AGAIN.

The only time Safeguard should be switched on is if you explicitly request it. If it's been turned on without your consent then there's a problem somewhere. Did either of you receive any emails about it being switched on, or emails about any of the subsequent changes you tried making?

Quote from: NoSafeguard

I switched it OFF again and 15 hours later it is still blocking a perfectly legal site.

I know you've tried deleting cookies etc. but this is quite often the result of DNS caching, seems to be more prevalent on Windows 8/10 machines. Try running this in an Administrator command prompt:

ipconfig /flushdns

Then open a private browser window, visit the site in question and mash CTRL + F5 a few times.

Quote from: tdarch

So I go to the Safeguard section and click turn off the damned thing. Oh no it tells me "Sorry we have a problem and cant currently save your changes, please try later"

Again, that shouldn't be happening.
From what I can tell, the service is disabled for both of your accounts, however I'll have somebody take a look at the back-end systems and see if we can work out what's happening.

Quote from: NoSafeguard

Remove safeguard from my connection completely and entirely.

In the interim, the blocking is governed by the DNS servers you're being assigned so you can override it by changing the network adapter on your computer (or the DNS servers on the router directly if it allows it) to use any of the following four addresses:

212.159.6.9
212.159.6.10
212.159.13.49
212.159.13.50

[#9]

I've been experiencing Safeguard coming on overnight, I've never turned it on at any time. I've tried clearing Cache on browers to no avail.
I've found that rebooting the router clears the problem, this was intermittent but now it's happened 2 days in a row.
What would I look for in the event log to see when it's invoked?
TCP/IP settings
Primary DNS: 213.120.234.42
Secondary DNS: 213.120.234.38

[#10]

Just rebooted my Router Safeguard does not now block sites
DNS  213.120.234.42
Secondary DNS: 213.120.234.38
So I'm not sure if that's of any help.

[#11]

Quote from: Bob

From what I can tell, the service is disabled for both of your accounts, however I'll have somebody take a look at the back-end systems and see if we can work out what's happening.

@tdarch, can't find any record of you in the policy manager that looks after the blocking so things should definitely be switched off. I can see a lot of disconnections on your line though, which will have assigned a new IP after each reconnection. It shouldn't cause issues but it does increase the potential for problems to arise as you're assigned a new IP address each time you reconnect. Have you noticed any other problems with your broadband connection?
@NoSafeguard, we can see you and you're matched to the correct IP, but all blocking is disabled, so again you shouldn't be having problems.
Not managed to get anywhere with why the service would mysteriously activate itself. that's not something I nor anyone else I've liaised with has seen before

[#12]

Nope no change,
So if it is switched off why do I continually get the this page is blocked message, even if I try and tell it to unblock for a hour or even pregnantly., all I get is cant svae changes try later, AGAIN
Regarding the connection, it is on and off like a yo-yo sometimes several times a day.  It was NEVER a problem with BT directly, in fact it only went down once in 3 years of solid connection and that was for planned maintenance. Since coming across to PN, it is up and down like a yo-yo! Speed is not a problem, connection is, other than it appears to be bottle necked No doubt though SafeGuards filters).
I have tried changing DNS as suggest, I have tried flushing DNS as suggested
Not happy at all!

[#13]

If you aren't using the Safeguard DNS settings something else is causing the problem
Can you try setting the DNS on your computer to use Google which are 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

[#14]

Jim's right. If you're using our standard DNS addresses (212.159.6.10/212.159.6.9/212.159.13.29/212.159.13.50) then your traffic is going nowhere near Safeguard so it has to be some sort of local caching issue or similar. Regarding your connectivity drops, I strongly suggest you raise a fualt by completing the troubleshooter here.

[#15]

I've changed the DNS to 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 and everything is now working properly.
I had been using PNs standard assigned DNS, so there MUST be a fault there, as this blocking was replicated on multiple laptops and tablets. I had also flushed DNSs and Caches.
On the laptop with the standard DNSs it is blocking, the google'd DNS one it is working correctly, I have also flushed DNSs and Caches to make sure