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While creating a Block Page, entering a Notice Email enables the option for end users to request a domain be unblocked. These requests are sent to the Notice Email address.
Block Page notifications are available for DNSFilter account admins in standard and MSP accounts.
These emails come from Alerts with the subject "Website Block Notification."
A typical email message contains:
- A block notification
- The Site and Policy that blocked the content
- Blocked domain details
- User contact information
MSP Block Page Admin notifications
MSP accounts can customize this alert. Under the legacy Whitelabel configuration, the Email Configuration defaults to Send emails from @netalerts.io.
When this default is selected, the Organization field of the Block Page notification email is replaced with the External ID from the Organization's profile. The account does not need to be on the legacy Whitelabel plan for this setting to work. If the emails send from @netalerts.io, the External ID will be the identifier.
Selecting Send emails from @dnsfilter.com or using a custom email template displays the Organization name in the email, as it does for a standard DNSFilter account.
Using the External ID is helpful because Organization names can change over time, while the External ID remains the same. If the Organization does not have an External ID, the email field remains blank.
Respond to a Block Page notification
Use these tips to resolve Block Page notifications:
- Compare the requested domain against the Filtering Policy. Visit the site to see whether the content violates the policy.
- If the categorization is correct but users need access for business reasons, add the website to the Allow List.
- If the categorization is incorrect, report the miscategorization. Reports are typically processed in one to two business days. Add the domain to the Allow List to provide immediate access as needed.
Block Page notifications not delivered to inbox
This most commonly happens because the email inbox is set not to receive mail: either it is a forwarding account, which can also cause the failure to send message described below, or the inbox settings have unsubscribed. Update the settings to allow this type of email.
MSP partners using the custom email configuration can check ElasticMail settings to resolve the issue.
"Failed to send message, please try again" error message
When opening the form to submit a request for a specific domain, users may see the error message: “Failed to send message, please try again.”
The most common reason is that the attempt is from blocked.dnsfilter.com or from the Block Page preview.
This is expected behavior. The form submission feature works only after visiting a specific domain. After a user visits a real blocked domain, the form sends correctly.
If the error appears from a blocked domain, check the following:
- Missing deployment element. Both DNS IP and web IP must be present on the Site deployment. The IP address appears at the bottom of the Block Page.
- Misconfigured networks. A correct DNSFilter configuration is a single Site per physical location, and each Site accepts multiple IP addresses for different network providers at that location. A common error is reversing the configuration, setting each network provider as a different Site, which leads to this error message.
- Forwarding email address. Confirm the email address used for Block Page notifications can receive mail and is not forwarding to another email address.
- The blocked domain was idle for too long. Direct users to navigate to the blocked domain again and resend the notification.
Comments
2 comments
Hi, Is it possible to set email notifications to multiple email addresses?
Hi, Ecko Technical ! I see our Support Team has already responded to your question via your ticket, but to repeat it here for anyone curious about the same question:
Right now, notifications can only be set to a single email address within DNSFilter. If you’d like multiple people to receive them, a common approach is to use a shared or distribution-style inbox (for example, it@…) and then configure that mailbox to forward or replicate messages to the right team members.
If having multiple addresses built directly into the product would be useful for your workflow, we’d love to hear that feedback! I recommend submitting a feature request so our product team can track the interest and consider it for future updates.
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