SafeSearch Not Working...
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Thursday, May 03, 2012 6:35 AM
Hi Folks;
I'm running TMG 2010 (all updates) and recently re-installed the firewall. Ever since, my safesearch hasn't been working so I've got something wrong.
I'm using URL filtering - works great, but safesearch doesn't. I'm wondering if it might be related to the order of the rules? Right now the rules are in this order;
Safesearch
Blocked Web Destinations
Allow Web Access for All Users
Other then that, I can't think of anything I did differently when I re-installed the software....
- Edited by Dave Onex Friday, May 04, 2012 5:03 AM
All Replies
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Friday, May 04, 2012 6:32 AMModerator
Hi,
Thank you for the post.
“my safesearch hasn't been working so I've got something wrong.” – would you please elaborate “not working”?
Regards,
Nick Gu - MSFT
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Friday, May 04, 2012 6:29 PM
Sure, with my previous TMG 2010 install SafeSearch worked perfectly with Google - that is to say, Google's safe search feature was always set to strict and so, it worked perfectly.
Since the new TMG 2010 install it's not being set at all.
Do you have to have the firewall client installed for the safesearch feature to work?
- Edited by Dave Onex Friday, May 04, 2012 6:30 PM
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Friday, May 04, 2012 8:38 PM
Silly question but, is SafeSearch Enabled? I don't believe it's enabled by default. Your rule ordering matches mine and SafeSearch works perfectly here. No client here either.
- Edited by HillJack Friday, May 04, 2012 8:41 PM
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Friday, May 04, 2012 9:37 PM
Thanks for confirming both the rule order as well as whether a client is required :-)
I have SafeSearch enabled, I've turned it on and off many times now trying to figure out what the scoop is.
I don't get it, it used to work perfectly prior to re-installing TMG 2010. I thought maybe the rule order was causing an issue but if that's not it then I don't what could be causing it.
But at least we've figured out two things it's not - and that's important :-)
- Edited by Dave Onex Friday, May 04, 2012 9:37 PM
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Friday, May 04, 2012 9:43 PM
I think I might have it figured out....
If I'm signed in at Google then safesearch does not work
If I'm signed out at Google then safesearch does work.
I'm quite certain that before I re-installed TMG it did not matter whether I was signed in or out at Google - safe search was always on.
Can anyone else confrm this for me? If you're signed in at Google can you change the safesearch settings on your Google account to off or moderate?
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Tuesday, May 08, 2012 5:36 AMModerator
Hi,
Thank you for the update.
As far as I know, SafeSearchConfiguration.xml file should be modified to contain "Safe=strict" in order to force strict safe search.
Regards,
Nick Gu - MSFT
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Tuesday, May 08, 2012 5:53 AM
I was hoping someone would actually test my findings above to confirm they are seeing the same issue. I suspect what's happened is that Google has changed the URL structure and that TMG's safesearch will no longer work if a user is signed in (to Google).
If I'm correct, then that would effectively negate the safesearch feature altogether.
From everything I've read, and my previous experience, when safesearch is enabled it's always strict. There is no moderate or other setting. In the past, I was quite sure it worked whether I was signed in to google or not.
It would be great if someone, connected to the Internet through TMG 2010, with safesearch enabled, could try going to Google and search for something prohibited, while logged in to their Google account.
I think you're going to find the same thing I am - that safesearch no longer works when a user is signed in to Google....
- Edited by Dave Onex Tuesday, May 08, 2012 6:06 AM
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Tuesday, May 08, 2012 7:19 AM
Hi !
Try to edit or configure SafeSearchConfiguration.xml files, is locatedin installation folder
Best regards Abdagic Ahmet Disclaimer: This posting is provided AS-IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.
- Proposed As Answer by Ahmet Abdagic Tuesday, May 08, 2012 7:19 AM
- Unproposed As Answer by Dave Onex Tuesday, May 08, 2012 8:08 AM
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Tuesday, May 08, 2012 8:05 AM
I give up. Forget about it. These groups are useless. Yet another non-answer proposed as the answer by someone who can't even read/understand my posts.
This is an improvement over msnews.microsoft.com ? We all knew (and posted about) what a mistake it was to kill off the newsgroups.
All you've done is disenfrachise all the truly knowledgeable users and swap them out for people from India. Way to go Microsoft, you just lost a customer.
The only person who added any real value to this thread was HillJack as he was able to actually confirm and help me narrow down my diagnosis - every other post didn't add any value whatsoever.
Now if anyone out there has felt the same frustration I have, please feel free to propose this post as the answer.
Q: Marking a question as answered when it's not - is this something new? A: Not at all, it's standard Nick Gu!
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Wednesday, July 11, 2012 2:05 AM
Hi Dave,
I was having the same issue and you are right on this that when you are logged in to Google services, safesearch doesn't enforced. This is what I just noticed.
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Wednesday, July 11, 2012 2:11 AM
Thank you for confirming the issue :-)
So, what it boils down to, from my perspective, is that safe search is broken, has been for some time, and Microsoft should either;
1) Stop marketing it as a TMG 2010 Feature
or
2) Address the issue.
Unfortunately, the people from Microsoft who frequent these groups seem to be un-interested, un-educated and not able to understand that, in TMG 2010 safe search is broken.
I don't know what to be more alarmed about, the fact that no-one else has mentioned this (as that would indicate to me that very few people are actually using TMG 2010) or that the people from Microsoft who responded to this post are unable to even understand the issue or raise it to the level of the TMG group so that it can be corrected.
Nevertheless, thank you for posting up that you were also able to confirm that SafeSearch is broken! :-)
Q: Marking a question as answered when it's not - is this something new? A: Not at all, it's standard Nick Gu!
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Wednesday, July 11, 2012 2:28 AM
I'm going to try to help. I don't use TMG yet but I'm still on Websense and about two months ago I notice SafeSearch did not work as well. So I reached out to WebSense and the issue has to do with when your signed into Google everything is now done with HTTPS, check the URLs. Hence why safe search is broken. I was recommended by Websense to buy into their HTTPS inspection software which costs way way too much. So I'm leaving them for TMG.
Anyway, do you have HTTPS inspection turn on? If not then that is your problem.
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Sunday, July 15, 2012 11:50 PM
I'm going to try to help. I don't use TMG yet but I'm still on Websense and about two months ago I notice SafeSearch did not work as well. So I reached out to WebSense and the issue has to do with when your signed into Google everything is now done with HTTPS, check the URLs. Hence why safe search is broken. I was recommended by Websense to buy into their HTTPS inspection software which costs way way too much. So I'm leaving them for TMG.
Anyway, do you have HTTPS inspection turn on? If not then that is your problem.
I susepct you're right - that is a work-around that will probably work. However, as anyone with TMG can attest to, turning on HTTPS inspection tends to bring with it a whole host of other issues.
I'm going to table the issue (for now) until I have some time to consider all the implications but thanks for posting up your thoughts as I'm quite sure it's put me on the right path (although not one I really wanted to go down) :-)
Q: Marking a question as answered when it's not - is this something new? A: Not at all, it's standard Nick Gu!
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Friday, August 03, 2012 6:09 PM
Hi Dave.
I use TMG 2010 and I can tell you that, unless TMG or anyone else become a magician, it couldn't inspect SSL traffic, without decripting it.
I want remember that when you use HTTPS everything is encrypted, from the URL on. If you enable HTTPS Inspection on TMG (and you need to know how correctly do this) you'll be able to have Safe search functioning! :-)
Many times it's not a Microsoft fault but our fault, caused to lack of knowledge (we always have to learn!) ;-)
Hope that helps!!
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Saturday, August 04, 2012 6:14 PM
Hi Santo;
Thanks for the advice. While this gist of your post is correct your assumptions about it being my falt aren't :) If you read throught this thread you'll understand that SafeSearch always used to work with Google - as it did with everyones else and then something changed....
Anthony determined the roo cause, it was when Google changed to using SSL that SafeSearch began to fail.
Therefore, the entire SafeSearch feature has now changed. It's now dependant on SSL inspection.
This was determined with the help of some non-Microsoft folks in this very thread despite the fact that the Microsoft India folks kept coughing up the wrong answers and then highlighting their stupidity by marking them as correct.
If you actually read through this thread from start to finish I think you'll understand a little better. But hey, if your assumption is that the entire was caused by my lack of knowledge, that's OK too.
I don't claim to know everything but I do ask that the company I buy software from actually runs in a somewhat effective manner instead of making the problems worse for the end users with tech support from India that clearly shows they don't even understand the question - and then have the gall to mark their 'answers' as right when they are so far off-base that it's not even funny.
Read my sig file :)
Q: Marking a question as answered when it's not - is this something new? A: Not at all, it's standard Nick Gu!
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Monday, August 20, 2012 5:27 AM
Dave,
I just want to confirm to you that if you enable HTTPS Inspection safe search will work correctly for Google and other search engines that use HTTPS. It works pretty well too.
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