DNS filtering is a great alternative to more traditional hardware and software-based solutions for filtering the internet in schools.
Our DNS filter works by redirecting traffic, based on the information associated with your schools router and the service supplier, permitting the Bark account super admin to filter student web browsing by parameters on their Bark dashboard.
Being at the network-level, the DNS filter is compatible with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. The DNS filter is not tied to your Organizational Units or Active Directory, so you can freely use your Bark for Schools DNS filter in place of a current solution.
Once in place, the Bark Super Admin can review reports on web browsing activity on the network.
Before you start, please also check out our FAQ: Web Filtering.
Get Started
STEP 1: Log in to your dashboard with a Bark super admin account.
STEP 2: Click the top right drop-down menu and select Web Filtering Settings.
STEP 3: Under the Network category, select Create new Network filter.
STEP 4: Enter the name of the network you wish to apply web filtering policies on and click Next.
STEP 5: Add Public IP Addresses.
To find your public IP address(es), you can visit whatismyip.com on a client on your network.
There is no limit to the number of public IP addresses you can filter with the Bark for Schools DNS filter.
STEP 6: Log in to your router management page.
To log in and configure your router, you navigate to your gateway's IP address in a web browser. If you don't know the IP address for your router, you can find it by looking at the connection settings on a device connected to the network.
STEP 7: Find the Custom DNS settings.
Look for "DNS" next to a field which allows two or three sets of numbers (these fields may be empty).
STEP 8: Enter the DNS addresses displayed in your Bark DNS Filter page into the router configuration and click Save or Apply.
When you are done, your router DNS configuration may look like this:
Last step: Set the filter policies
A. Allow/Block Websites
This section allows for the input of any website you would like to blacklist or whitelist. These sites will be reported on within the dashboard for ease of visibility.
Bark also supports the use of wildcards at the front (*.youtube.com) or end (*unblocked*) of a domain to fit your use-case.
The exceptions entered here are prioritized over the category settings in the section below.
B. Allow/Block Categories
This section will allow the whitelisting / blacklisting of whole categories as well as the enforcement of SafeSearch. Our database houses hundreds of thousands of sites that are associated to these categories and is updated consistently.
How do I know it's working?
When the filter starts processing web browsing activity on the network, it will display the activity on the web filter reports on the super admin's Bark dashboard, as seen below:
