connection EDIT: NEVER improperly blocked - youtube
New user here. Filtering is working fine generally, but here is an error. Even with video sharing category unblocked and then (since unblocking did not allow connection) with the site managed individualy to never block, I could not connect to youtube. I had before had it blocked. Managed similarly, connections to google.plus.com seemed to be handled properly. Hours have passed since filtering changes were saved.
opendns network filtering-youtube error-1.JPG
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First of all YouTube is Google, and they share many domains and use a lot of domains and subdomains.
If you whitelist just www.youtube.com, then you whitelist just this, nothing else. You'll want to whitelist to the broadest level, i.e. youtube.com. And beside this, you will find many domains being used by YouTube, like:
youtube.com
www.youtube.com
s.ytimg.com
i1.ytimg.com
yt3.ggpht.com
apis.google.com
clients1.google.com
gtglobal-ocsp.geotrust.com
www.google.com
www.gstatic.com
r5---sn-5hn7zn7k.googlevideo.comTherefore check your stats at https://dashboard.opendns.com/stats/all/blockeddomains if any related domains are blocked, and add them to your "never block" list, like ytimg.com, ggpht.com and googlevideo.com, probably to the broadest level.
The same principle for pinterest.com.
"Hours have passed since filtering changes were saved."
You need to flush both, your local resolver cache and your browser cache, after each settings change to take effect immediately. Didn't know?
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Ah, just seeing:
"connection improperly blocked"
Never! A DNS service cannot block any connection, because DNS has nothing to do with connections. DNS is the phone book of the internet, not the phone lines. A DNS service just can perform a "different" name resolution, not returning the right "phone number".
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Thanks for your response. Please clarify: One can block with one check but to unblock takes a lot more, or one simply has to do a double flush of every connected computer whenever one makes a filtering change, or is that only required for an immediate change (which I implied I was not anticipating with the clarification that it had been hours since the filter change was saved)?
"Didn't know?" No, I didn't know and still don't know: Is the double flush of every connected computer required whenever one makes a filtering change, or is that only required for an immediate change? -
"One can block with one check but to unblock takes a lot more"
Not really. You undo that "one check" to unblock again. But yes, if you want to have something whitelisted as an exception, then it can become really complicated, especially with top sites working with CDNs and therefore with many domain and subdomain names. It really can become a nightmare if you aren't an expert on internet technology...
Therefore, best is to not initially block what you don't want to have blocked, i.e. to be more selective with the blocking, not with the whitelisting.
"one simply has to do a double flush of every connected computer whenever one makes a filtering change, or is that only required for an immediate change"
Cached content is used only if you actually visited a site before. Caches can be very persistent, the local resolver cache for the current computer session (until it is rebooted), and the browser cache for days or even weeks. So, if you changed any OpenDNS settings at the dashboard, and it doesn't seem to take effect, this is almost and most likely due to the caches.
You now have these options:
- Simply don't care about the cacnes and wait until they expire, so that your changes take effect delayed, sometimes after days or weeks, or
- You flush the caches on those end devices where you think sites to be blocked have been visited and therefore may be cached on those devices, so that the changes take effect immediately.
"Is the double flush of every connected computer required whenever one makes a filtering change, or is that only required for an immediate change?"
Said the above, in principle the latter. For other computers only if someone visited sites to be blocked with a computer, and you want to have your changes effective on this computer immediately.
Clearer now?
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