Policies, wildcarded terms, Restrictive Mode, and Out of School Mode can all cause some trouble if their configurations aren’t carefully considered. Here’s a workflow for troubleshooting one of the most common scenarios facing admins using GoGuardian!

1. Why is _____.com/____ being blocked for my students?

This is probably the most common type of support ticket or chat question GoGuardian receives on a day-to-day basis regarding GoGuardian Admin. This is a valid question! Here are the steps we take to figure out why a particular site is being blocked.

1. Make sure GoGuardian is blocking the web page in question

   1. Search for the student in GoGuardian Admin through the Global Search bar.
   2. Check the student's detailed browsing history to find the exact moment the student was blocked. Administrators can do this in Admin Classic or 2.0.
   3. Copy the full URL by clicking the button on the right column in the same row as the blocked site 
      
      
      

2. Take note of the student's OU
   

   • It is important to always verify the OU path displayed in the student's details at the top of their detailed browsing activity page. Sometimes, students may get moved to the wrong OU after manual OU imports (such as the root OU "/").
   • For more information on importing OUs into GoGuardian Admin, click here.

3. Verify the Policies Assigned to the Student's OU
   
   

   • Navigate to the Custom Policies page under Filtering -> Configurations, and find the student's OU in your organization's OU structure to verify which policies are assigned to that OU ("At School Mode" is the mode displayed by default).
     
     

4. Check the Filtering Settings of each Policy Assigned to the Student's OU
   
   

   • Using the copied URL that was blocked for the student, verify the following in each of the aforementioned policies:
     
     • The site in question is not on the list of blocked sites in the “Website URLs” section
     • The URL that was blocked does not contain a wildcarded term in the blocked list in the “Website URLs” tab.
     • The policy does not have the “Restrictive Mode” toggle enabled - this will block all sites except those that are added as allowed sites in the “Website URLs” tab.
     • The blocked site is not in a category that is blocked in the “Website Categories” tab.
     • NOTE: The shorter the wildcarded term, the more likely it is to be part of a larger URL. Wildcarding *io*, for example, has the potential to trigger blocks for URLs of many legitimate websites, such as ohio.gov.

5. Add or Remove a Filtering Rule in the Appropriate Policy to Unblock the Site
   
   

   • Determine whether to remove an unwanted block rule that is blocking the site, or to add an allow rule for the blocked site
   • NOTE: Allow rules override block rules whenever there are rule conflicts. For additional information on filtering sites in policies, click here.

2. Alternative Method: Student Bypass Attempt Logging

Having trouble finding the exact URL that was blocked for a student? Another troubleshooting option would be for a student that is getting blocked to attempt to use a Bypass password by clicking the Bypass button in the block page.

This can be especially useful when an embedded iFrame element of a page is blocked, rather the whole page, as these types of blocks will not display in a student's detailed browsing history.

1. Have the student navigate to the blocked site, or the site with a blocked iFrame element
2. Have the student click the Bypass button, enter any bypass password attempt in the second field below the field with the blocked URL, then click Submit. If the block is for an iFrame element, the student may need to scroll down within the element to see the Bypass button.
   
3. As an admin, navigate to Filtering -> Configuration -> Advanced Config -> Global Config in GoGuardian Admin.
4. Click to navigate to the Bypass Passwords Attempts section. Find the student's bypass attempt, select the full URL associated with the attempt, and copy it.
   
   
   
   
5. Follow the steps in Section 1 of this article (above) to verify the student's OU, find the policies assigned to their OU, find the blocking rule, and make the necessary filtering changes.

For more information on Bypass Passwords and recommended Best Practices regarding their use, click here.

3. Testing Filtering Policies

Often times, Admins want to see what exactly is going on from a user’s perspective - this is a great practice but can result in some undesirable situations regarding the test data for the user account. The best practice here would be to create a specific test user login that will not be tied to any actual users in your organization. Use your favorite actor, the school mascot, or a fictional character’s name to test your user experience and filtering policies. Do NOT use an account that already belongs to one of your users.