1. School Manager
  2. School Manager
  3. Filtering

Enabling 24/7 Filtering

Updated
Alvaro Carrillo
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This article is intended for IT support. 

Important

Contact your Linewize Account Manager and Service Delivery Engineer before enabling 24/7 filtering. Enabling 24/7 filtering can have unintended consequences and may violate your school or district’s policies.

What is 24/7 Filtering Mode

24/7 filtering mode allows a school or district to enforce School Manager content filtering rules and policies on school-owned devices even when those devices aren’t at school. This mode is popular in the United States, where schools have a duty of care to students using school-owned or supplied devices even when the students are at home.  This requires Linewize Connect to be installed on your users' Windows, macOS, and iOS/iPadOS devices or the Linewize Connect Extension to be running in your users' web browser.

The activation process for 24/7 filtering depends on your school or district’s technology environment.

  • Chromebooks
  • Windows
  • macOS
  • iOS

24/7 Filtering for Chromebook

The two major steps to configure 24/7 filtering mode for Chromebooks are:

  1. Enable Google authentication in School Manager
  2. Install and deploy the Linewize Connect Extension on student devices

Enabling Google Authentication

  1. First, enable Google Authentication 
  2. Still in Configuration > Authentication > Google, ensure Use FZ Auth API and Allow Chrome Extension Authentication are selected.

Optional for Chromebook Only Deployments

  • Go to Debugging > Device Options
  • Select Enable Browser Extension for Chromebooks Only under Agent

Installing and Deploying the Connect for Chrome Extension

School Manager relies on the Connect extension to complete its filtering in 24/7 mode. The Connect extension needs to be installed on the students' devices in order to allow 24/7 filtering. See our guide on how to deploy the Connect extension.

Google Workspace for Education schools can configure and push out the Connect extension using the Google Admin console. The school Google Admin needs will to select the student group or OU and push the Connect extension using the appropriate extension ID.

24/7 Filtering for Other Devices

There are four major steps to configuring 24/7 filtering:

  1. Enable the mobile agent in School Manager
  2. Install Connect for Windows/Mac on student devices
  3. Enable and configure NAC API & Auth Agent config in School Manager
  4. Install the authentication agent on student devices (customized by Linewize)

Enabling Mobile Agent

  1. Sign in to School Manager
  2. Go to Configuration > Mobile Agent
  3. Under Off School Manager Network, select Filtering Enabled. This will enable filtering students when they are off campus, including at home.
  4. Select Default Filtering Mode. WEB is selected by default
Filtering mode Functionality
DNS The Connect agent configures the device to use a DNS server on a loop back address (127.0.0.1). This DNS server intercepts DNS requests and forwards them to the Linewize cloud DNS filter server, which applies user policy (resolves the request or returns a block page).
WEB The Connect agent uses a packet filter to intercept traffic on the device and apply user policy. Ports 53, 80, and 443 are intercepted.
FULL The Connect agent uses a packet filter to intercept traffic on the device and apply user policy. All ports are intercepted.
  1. Select the groups you wish to filter under the appropriate Filtering Group. If you wish to filter everyone, leave this blank
  2. Select MITM Enabled if you wish to enable inspection of keywords entered into Google Search, Bing and / or content in YouTube.
  3. To enforce Safe Search for your configuration, see Enforcing Safe Search
  4. Select Classroom Enabled if you wish to use Classwize 
  5. Select Save

Installing Linewize Connect

School Manager relies on the Connect agent to complete its filtering in 24/7 mode. The Connect agent must be installed on the student device to complete 24/7 filtering. See our guide for steps on how to deploy the Connect Agent.

The student device will not be authenticated on the Connect agent when you install Connect. The next section discusses how to get the Connect agent associated with School Manager.

Installing the Authentication Agent

You will need to install the Authentication agent after installing Connect on any non-Chromebook device. The Authentication Agent is a small application that runs on the student’s device and tells School Manager who is using the device based on their Windows or Mac account. This allows School Manager to determine what filtering rules Connect should apply to the student device.

  1. Install the Authentication agent .msi or .pkg file provided by your Linewize Service Delivery Engineer. The Authentication agent can be deployed by Group Policy or through a Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform.
  2. Connect should automatically detect the signed-in student and the School Manager Device ID if both the Authentication agent and Connect agent are correctly installed.

Note:

You may need to restart the device if Connect does not associate with a School Manager Device ID after installing the Authentication agent.

After you install the Authentication agent, the Connect agent will change to show that authentication policies are being set by School Manager.

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