SkieHow do you stop students using proxy websites to reach blocked sites?
Skie filters proxy and anonymiser domains through the filtering DNS categories and adds Chrome's safe-sites filter, which checks the page itself. Proxy apps are never allowed, and incognito and other browsers are blocked. No single filter is perfect, so reports of a new proxy are fixed centrally.
A proxy website is a web page that fetches another site for you. If the school filter blocks the real site but not the proxy, the student gets in. That is why proxy and anonymiser sites sit in the unsafe categories of a good filtering DNS.
Skie stacks several checks. The filtering DNS refuses domains in those categories. The safe-sites filter in Chrome examines the page itself before it loads, which catches pages on domains the DNS did not list. SafeSearch removes many proxy results from search. Proxy apps are on the always-blocked list, so the app route is closed as well.
New proxy sites appear every week, so some will be new to the filter. This is the same for every DNS or web filter, whether from a vendor like Securly or Linewize or a DNS service. If a student finds one that works, report it. The filter provider can add it, and for Skie behaviour a fix goes out centrally to every device.
The admin signal is the same as for other bypass attempts. A filter that is off, or a device that is not on the latest policy, shows in the compliance score and breach centre. A single proxy website that loads on an otherwise filtered device is a gap in the list, not in enforcement.
Practical tip: collect the address with the date and class, and send it with your report. It saves the team time and speeds the fix.