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Existing bookmarks allow workaround for blocked sites

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Big Riff

Hi, while dialing in parental controls on my new Gold SE I noticed that an existing bookmark to a particular page on a domain (ex: a Reddit post) allows a workaround to the rule blocking the domain. I set up a rule to block reddit.com and it is applied correctly to the devices I want. If I try to access reddit.com the site is blocked. However in further testing I noticed that an existing bookmark I had for an old Reddit thread allowed me a gateway to the domain and I could then access any content within the domain. Is there a way to fix this? Thank you

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    Firewalla

    Can you give me an example of the blocking rule and also the "domain" that failed to block? (no need to be exact)

    Also, while you were doing testing, make sure you wait or flush DNS between the tests. (change wifi or off/on wifi)

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    Big Riff
    • Edited

    Thanks for responding.

    After further testing I noticed that this problem is related to the target list I built and the associated rule applied to a group of devices.

    If I create an individual rule to block a domain, in this case reddit.com, the bookmark workaround does not work.

    I also double checked each site/domain on the target list (blocking domains to a group of devices) and noticed that there were certain domains on the list that I could still access.

    Since the target list doesn't seem reliable I'm going to go back to creating individual rules instead of using the target list option. It's time intensive to create but it does work 100%.

    Any ideas on why this is happening?

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    Firewalla

    Target list difference is wildcarding

    *.reddit.com will block everything, and including subdomains. 

    But ... reddit.com will only block reddit.com

    While rules is default wildcard, so you don't need to use *.reddit.com to block something.reddit.com

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    Big Riff

    This is great thank you

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