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Does GoGuardian DNS work on iPads, Windows devices, and Android phones? Yes. GoGuardian DNS filters at the network level and does not require any software on individual devices. Any device that connects to a filtered network — including iPads, Kindles, Windows devices, tablets, iPhones, and Android phones — is covered. Does GoGuardian DNS replace GoGuardian Admin? No. GoGuardian DNS and GoGuardian Admin serve different purposes and work together. GoGuardian Admin provides extension-based filtering for managed Chrome users, with features like Smart Alerts, per-student reporting, and YouTube filtering. GoGuardian DNS provides network-level filtering for all devices on campus. Use both for full coverage.
Districts that deploy DNS Precision Filtering get per-student reporting with GoGuardian DNS instead of the network-level-only behavior described above.
Do I need separate filtering policies for GoGuardian DNS and GoGuardian Admin? No. GoGuardian DNS can use the same policies already defined in GoGuardian Admin. However, DNS filtering does not support URL path rules, YouTube rules, or Apps and Extensions rules. GoGuardian recommends creating a separate DNS-specific policy that omits unsupported rule types. See Understand GoGuardian DNS for the full list of differences. What filtering limitations does GoGuardian DNS have compared to GoGuardian Admin? GoGuardian Admin supports filtering at the URL path level — for example, blocking sites.google.com/unblockedgames. GoGuardian DNS filters at the root domain level only, so a rule targeting a path would have to block the entire domain to be effective. YouTube filtering, Apps and Extensions filtering, Smart Alerts, Smart Rules, and per-student reporting are not available in GoGuardian DNS. See Understand GoGuardian DNS for the full comparison. Can GoGuardian DNS block direct IP addresses? No. DNS filtering intercepts domain name resolution requests. When a user types a direct IP address, no DNS request is made, so no filtering occurs. Most sites redirect to their domain name to use SSL encryption — that redirect triggers a DNS request, which GoGuardian DNS can then filter. Direct IP access bypasses this. Can different users — teachers, students, guests — have different filtering policies? Yes. You can apply different policies to different internal networks by segmenting your network traffic through your router, such as using separate LANs, VLANs, or SSIDs. Each segment needs a separate public IP address from your ISP. Once segmented, you can assign different filtering policies to each network in GoGuardian Admin. Does GoGuardian DNS decrypt SSL traffic? No. GoGuardian DNS filters at the domain name level only. SSL decryption is not required or performed. This differs from inline hardware filters that require a physical appliance to inspect SSL traffic. Where do I configure the GoGuardian DNS resolver addresses? Use the DNS Forwarders setting on an internal DNS server (such as Windows Server) if your workstations need access to internal resources like print servers or internally hosted software. Use DHCP scope configuration for networks without internal resources — most common on BYOD or guest networks. What is AdDeflect? AdDeflect is a premium add-on for GoGuardian DNS that blocks ads and pop-up ads from the majority of websites and YouTube, network-wide. See Enable AdDeflect.

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Last modified on August 10, 2026