Cannot unblock site using admin tool

[diz420]

Hi,

I blocked some sites using the security/block sites feature in the admin tool however the sites remain blocked after I removed them from the keyword list.  I was able to do this in the past.  I rebooted my router and satellite and forgot/reconnected to my wifi and cannot get it to work.  Any ideas?

[CrimpOn]

(disclaimer: I use this feature only when attempting to understand posts on the forum.  On my "older Orbi", the feature blocks only attempts to connect to unencrypted web sites (http) and ignores encrypted sites (https), and is thus practically useless these days not that 99% of the internet is encrypted.)

I verified today that removing an entry from the table does not take effect until the "Apply" button at the top of the screen is pressed.  If I went to another menu page and came back, the entry was still there.  Can you please verify that after removing an entry, Apply was selected and that leaving the page and returning shows the entry actually deleted?

[diz420]

Hi...yes pressed Apply. The sites are not on the list yet still blocked.

[CrimpOn]

Thanks for confirming that.  Is this the error message that appears on the web browser:

[diz420]

It never posted such a screen.  It essentially tries to connect and receives a browser connection timeout error.

[CrimpOn]

Can you compare several web browsers?

[CrimpOn]

This is Part 1 of a two part post:

I just did an experiment with Windows 11 Pro.  Set up "ford" as a keyword to block and set to block "Always".

Opened Edge browser and entered:

Notice the "http" which forces the browser to look for an unencrypted connection:

The result is this:

Opened a new tab and entered this:

Notice the "https".  This time, the Ford.com web site opened as expected.

So, let's try Opera:

The result is this:

now try encrypted:

Ford.com  web site opens.

Let's try Chrome:

Oh, my.  Chrome appears to switch to "https" when "http" fails to produce a connection.  Helpful, but renders my site blocking attempt totally useless.

Firefox?

Oh, dear.  Firefox also opens the encrypted web site.

This is the reason I concluded that Block Sites is essentially useful as a means of controlling what users can and cannot access.  (There are other reasons as well.)

[CrimpOn]

Part 2.

As another experiment, I entered a keyword for a web site that does not exist, sexykitten.

What happens with these four web browsers when I attempt to connect to the http (unencrypted) version of this non-existent web site?

Edge:

Opera:

Chrome:

Firefox:

Notice that all four web browsers returned a DNS lookup error.  None of them remarked that the Orbi Firewall had clocked connection to this URL.

My conclusion is that the Orbi Block Sites mechanism only reports that the Firewall has blocked access to the web connection when the DNS lookup is successful.  Personally, if I had been programming this, my choice would be to deny the DNS lookup up front and never attempt to make a connection at all.

(for me) this moves the investigation from Orbi Block Sites to "How do we establish that this web address is real?"

[diz420]

Same result across browsers and devices.  Are you with Netgear tech support?

[CrimpOn]

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@diz420 wrote:

Same result across browsers and devices.  Are you with Netgear tech support?

---

Alas, Netgear support staff and software engineers do not participate in the Community Forum.  I retired some time ago, have  no interest in golf, and came to the forum because I had a question, my 90 days of 'complimentary support' were long past, and a kind person on the forum solved my problem.

The point of those rambling posts was that when the Block Sites mechanism on my RBR50 Orbi takes action, the result is a message that the Orbi Firewall has blocked access.

This morning, I did the experiment again using an RBR750 with most recent firmware, and found that the "Firewall" message does not appear on Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Opera.  This leaves web browsers thinking that the URL did not match any entry in the DNS process rather than that the Orbi Firewall had blocked access. (Personally, I find this behavior less useful than the previous behavior.)  It is frustrating when different versions of the Orbi firmware behave differently in specific situations. (RBR50 vs. RBR750, for example.)

Is it correct to assume that when Block Sites is changed to "Never", that web browsers are able to open that web site?

[diz420]

No, because even with set to Never and a list that is empty, I still cannot access the sites that were previously on my list.  I make sure to click Apply and I have rebooted all of my devices, routers and modems....negative.

[CrimpOn]

Given that the router Block Sites

• Is set to block "Never", and
• Has no entries in the table, and

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that this router feature may not be the reason that web sites are not connecting.  (It remains annoying that the RBR750 router never appears to take credit for blocking a connection.  This would be "proof positive" that it is responsible.)

Could you change the DNS servers that the Orbi uses?  I use CloudFlare 1.1.1.1 and Google 8.8.8.8 rather than the servers suggested by the Internet Service Provider (ISP).