Preventing VPN Activity using School Manager

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) allows users to hide their identity and access content in different locations. While VPNs have several legitimate purposes, they are commonly used by students to attempt to circumvent school internet filtering. 

If you find students consistently using or trying to use VPNs in a school environment, they are likely trying to bypass your school's content filtering policies and prevent your school from meeting your duty of care.

Creating Content Filtering Policies

Creating a Block Proxies and VPNs Filtering Policy will block most known VPNs and other filtering circumvention services and tools. However, it’s a constant arms race between people trying to block those tools and those making and selling them, and sometimes things slip through. If you find a new VPN tool or service, contact Linewize Support for a review. You can create a Block Policy to temporarily block the tool or service while we update the Proxies and VPNs signature.

Using the Quarantine Feature

You can enable the Quarantine feature in School Manager if your school uses a Linewize Appliance without On School Manager Filtering enabled. The Quarantine feature temporarily blocks all internet traffic (for a default of three minutes) when a VPN is used to attempt to bypass your school’s safe network. The Quarantine feature is designed as a consequence to deter wrong online behavior. Being cut off from all internet sends the message that VPN use is unacceptable at school. You also inhibit a user’s access to potentially unsuitable content that your filters are otherwise blocking.