topic Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer in General Topics

Blocking BBC iPlayer

AndyH — Thu, 25 May 2023 11:23:30 GMT

Hi,

Apologies if this is the wrong place to post but am having a world of trouble trying to get BBC iPlayer blocked on a 1590 device.

The "BBC iPlayer" Application/service doesn't seem to do anything when assigned to a policy, nor does a custom policy with wildcard URL's in (*bbci.co.uk*, *iplayer.api.bbc.co.uk*) - these may be old as the most recent post I can find from BBC is back from 2017!

Source: Any Destination: Internet Application/Service: BBC iPlayer (or custom) Action: Block

Does anyone have any experience of this/successfully blocked the site?

Many thanks in advance,

Andy

Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer

G_W_Albrecht — Thu, 25 May 2023 12:46:47 GMT

Seems you have a centrally managed 1590 ! On locally managed the config would be:

The central management rule base would be interesting if used... But i would rather contact CP TAC to get this resolved asap!

Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer

the_rock — Thu, 25 May 2023 12:58:42 GMT

To add to what Guenther gave you, I also verified in dashboard (IF this is centrally managed) and below is what I see for BBC. As he said, maybe get in touch with TAC to get this solved faster via remote session.

Andy

Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer

G_W_Albrecht — Thu, 25 May 2023 13:28:40 GMT

I did verify that, too - but this is just what @AndyH told about the policy used.

Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer

the_rock — Thu, 25 May 2023 13:44:38 GMT

Yea, I believe those 4 come up by default.

Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer

AndyH — Thu, 25 May 2023 13:59:13 GMT

Hi,

Thank you both for getting back to me.

These are indeed locally managed 1590 boxes, I've been trying to get a poliy block to stick on several of them, the standard 'BBC iPlayer' entry doesn't seem to cut it so I'm also trying with wildcarded URl's
I've through Policy and now Blade, as suggested, but neither of these appear to be doing the trick.

Am assuming there's something at our end causing issues so will keep banging my head against it until it works!

Thank you both for your help 🙂

Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer

_Val_ — Thu, 25 May 2023 14:34:06 GMT

HTTPS based application blocking might require HTTPSi to be enabled. Second the TAC recommendation, to expedite this

Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer

G_W_Albrecht — Fri, 26 May 2023 16:42:14 GMT

Better contact TAC - a quick remote session will help you to achieve that, or R&D has to fix it!

Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer

the_rock — Fri, 26 May 2023 16:47:02 GMT

As @G_W_Albrecht said, better contact TAC.

Andy

Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer

AndyH — Sat, 27 May 2023 07:38:19 GMT

Hi, thank you all for your help. I think we're getting somewhere with it but I'll contact TAC to be sure. I'm marking this response as the 'Solution' to try and close the ticket down (if that's how I do it?) but would like to express my gratitude for all your responses.

(I tried to star and give Kudos to everyone but don't know if it's taken root!)

Best regards,

Andy

Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer

the_rock — Sat, 27 May 2023 12:05:01 GMT

Keep us posted...dont worry about kudos, but if you really want to give them, below is how : - ). Same for stars...just hover over whichever star until it lights up, from 1 to 5.

Andy

Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer

AaronCP — Sat, 27 May 2023 21:51:54 GMT

Hey @AndyH,

We blocked BBC iPlayer by creating a Custom Application/Site and used regex expressions for the various BBC iPlayer URLs. We used this Custom Application/Site in a drop rule in policy, which worked well.

This does require HTTPS inspection to be enabled, though.

Aaron.

Re: Blocking BBC iPlayer

the_rock — Sun, 28 May 2023 00:14:59 GMT

Yes sir! Correct, https inspection is required.

Andy