A continuing saga of now and again not working content servers

[bombinho]

Hello,

Here we are again. The  content screening servers have been struck by a lightning, earthquake, BT-technician or even worse once more.

[markp]

Hi all,

if there are any users having a problem with the content screening facility within the BT routers, can you please email into support@btbroadbandoffice.com

When you email in can you email the serial number of the router and your acocunt details please.

Regards

Markp

BT Business Forum Moderator

[islac]

Hi,

Have emailed business support with the details, as requested @markp.  

Like @bombinho, my content screening also stopped working overnight last night.

I am now actively investigating other options (eg Open DNS).   Early trials today suggest it is not quite so customisable as the BT Content Screening, but this could well be outweighed by reliabiilty.  However, having a dynamic IP address is a bit of a pain.  If anybody has other experiences with the Open DNS content filtering, I would be interested to hear them.

Thanks,

Isla c

[whiller123]

@all

Ah well here we are again guy's

I have all my content screening down too, I had a very busy day yesterday flipping all my people back to open DNS.

It was only December that it all went wrong last time, this is now beyond a joke,

Most of my clients that have stuck with BT have done so because they felt BT provided a premium professional service!

However their faith is now wavering.

Life is too short to keep contacting BT support about this on a monthly basis, it is time BT just got this sorted

Rob

[whiller123]

@islac

Hi open DNS is quite good if you create an account you can customise the content screening filters to be as good if not better than the BT option. They also have an Ip address updater which is a free download that sits on one of your PC's and tracks your dynamic IP address, this updates this info on your Open DNS account.

I have or should I say had 7 clients using BT 2700/2701 routers and content screening but I have them all set up with open DNS now & I think I will be kicking the BT option into touch

give Open DNS a try as their up-time is very impressive

Rob

[islac]

@whiller123

Have got OpenDNS working, and it seems quite good.  I like the various stats which are available, better than the BT content screening.

The only downside to the customising is that it is done for the whole router, and not for individual devices (with BT I could have some devices at Level 1, some at Level 2, and some with no content screening).

Likewise the dynamic IP updater - only becomes a problem if the router needs rebooted and none of the PCs are switched on.  Doesn't happen very often, but there are occasions this will happen, which means the mobile devices are not protected.

However, if the uptime is reliable I am prepared to live with this, rather than having to urgently reconfigure the entire system every time BT content screening fails.

Thanks for your help.

Incidentally, logged the call with BT on Thursday evening, but have not had anything other than an automated response so far.

isla

[whiller123]

@islac

Ah yes of course the open Dns does have a global effect, what I have done on some of my sites is manually configure the DNS settings on certain Pc's with googles DNS 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4 which unrestricts them but you are right in this respect the BT option does give more control.

I love the content screening in the 2wires but it has just been a total pain every time it goes down. All the sites I manage are business sites and all have a server or two running constantly or a CCTV server running so the open DNS updater does not prove a problem for me & they are not concerned about all the PC's being restricted.

I have not bothered to try the BT screening again so not sure if it is fixed yet, I have never had any down time with open DNS

Regards

Rob

Oh I have not heard back from BT either They could at least try and appear interested eh?

[Goldstien]

Just spoke to support and was told this feature will not be supported by BT any longer. The solution - either use third party software or new router...hmmmmm 😕

[whiller123]

@Goldstien

Thanks for the update.

Well I have 7 BT customers that I support that are only still with them for the content screening,

I will break the news on Monday, to be honest we have fine tuned Open DNS to such a degree now that it is probably better than the old BT option. Another plus, my customers will no longer be handcuffed to BT & will be free to pursue more cost effective options & access controls with 100% reliable up-time

"Bad decision BT"

Many thanks

Rob

[bombinho]

The last time I run a trial on OpenDNS I had slight problems with the IP updater occasionally. For some reason it did not update properly and caused certain websites to be blacklisted as it simply falls back into one of their standard modi.

Anyone experienced the same problem? It did not occur regularly.