Sky Broadband Shield comes ready to use with any new broadband package that you take out from Sky. It’s designed to give you more control over what the members of your household actually have access to when they’re using the internet in your home.
There are many different aspects to Broadband Shield, and there’s also different ways to bypass it too. It’s also worth knowing about the settings of Shield too, so let’s check it out in more detail.
Sky Broadband Shield – Overview
Having Sky Broadband Shield turned on at your home could be the difference between you being vulnerable to malware and viruses on your device. It can also help to stop younger people accessing adult and restricted content.
The good thing about it is that it shouldn’t have any negative effect on your internet connection – it can only makes your experience safer. It’s unlikely to have any negative effect on your connection, and you can always change your Sky Broadband Shield settings if you think this may be the case.
But this is just a brief overview of the software, so let’s take a look at it in a little closer detail, as well as whether you definitely want to have it active at home.
What is Sky Broadband Shield?
Many people aren’t exactly sure what Sky Broadband shield even is, with many folks thinking that it’s some form of antivirus. And whilst it can work to prevent you getting malware on your devices, it doesn’t work in quite the same way.
Essentially, Sky Broadband Shield work on a few different levels. One of its main functions is to give your household devices parental restrictions. Having the ability to put restrictions on anything that doesn’t mean the age rating requirements can definitely come in handy.
This way, during the evening you can have unrestricted access through your broadband. But in the daytime when the kids are awake, bad sites are restricted from being accessed.
Another one of the main areas where Sky Broadband Shield is effective is similar to the function of an antivirus. It can help to prevent any phishing or malware sites, which can help protect your laptop or phone from viruses.
So on this level, it is similar to an antivirus, though it’s best used in tandem with a comprehensive antivirus software. Between the two, they should be capable of keeping your network secure.
Your Sky Broadband Shield is intended to be used on all of the different devices in your house. This means that it’ll work with your laptop, TV, tablet and even your kids Playstation or Xbox too. You don’t need to install or do anything special to get shield active on your home broadband system, as it will come automatically up and running.
Sky Broadband Shield – Bypass Guide
If you want to bypass your Sky Broadband Shield settings on your laptop or your phone, then the best way for you to do this is by using a VPN, also known as a virtual private network.
Essentially, this will create a different private network for you to use, so you won’t be connecting to the internet from your home server. Therefore Sky Broadband Shield won’t be able to interfere with your connection.
Whilst they’re created to give tech users more privacy, nowadays it seems like VPNs are becoming more commonly used by pretty much everyone. It’s a way to access the internet private from anywhere in the world, and it can allow you to bypass Sky Broadband Shield too.
Sky Broadband Shield Age Settings
With Sky Broadband Shield, things are divided into three different age categories, and therefore three different levels of access. It’s split into three different categories; PG, which is fine for any aged family member; 13, which restricts any content which probably isn’t suitable for pre-teens; and 18, which has little to no restrictions on content.
The good thing about these restrictions is that they work on a watershed system, much like British television has done for years. This means that between the hours of 5:30am and 9pm, access to these sites will be restricted. But outside of these times, you’ll be able to access whatever content you want.
It’s a good way to keep the kids off anything too mature for them, as it’ll block them from getting access to anything with an age rating on it.
There’s also a safe search section within Broadband Shield, which works specifically with search engines like Google. This will stop them from finding anything they shouldn’t within the search function as well.
There isn’t one hard rule with all of these settings – you can add and subtract certain websites as you see fit. So if you want your kids to have no access to YouTube after 9pm around bedtime, then you can do that pretty easily within the settings.
And likewise, you can also put restricted content in the accepted site list during the daytimes too.
Should I turn off Sky Broadband Shield?
If you’re in a house full of adults, it can be tempting to turn Sky Broadband Shield off completely, as you might be getting a little annoyed with it restricting your access to certain websites.
In most cases, you’re likely to be better off by just changing the settings of your Sky Broadband Shield to stop it from restricting these sites.
This way, you’ll still be able to get the benefits of its malware detecting capabilities without the annoyance of it restricting you from accessing some websites. You can do this in your Sky Broadband Shield settings. If you want to turn your Broadband Shield off completely too, then this can also be done in your settings.
Worth Noting
Whilst there’s a lot to like about Sky Broadband Shield, there’s also a few things you should also consider if you’re thinking this might be the resolution to all your problems.
Sky Broadband Shield not working/blocking sites
Although generally the software here works pretty well, in some cases, you might find that your Broadband Shield might not work properly. If this is the case, then there’s a few things that you’ll want to take a look at.
In many cases, if you’re having a problem with your Sky Broadband Shield, then you can usually sort things out in the settings. This is where you’re going to find the ability to change your restrictions, which is the first thing to check.
If you don’t want to be able to access adult content, then you’ll need to change the settings to either PG or 13 blocks. Both of these block out the majority of bad sites on the internet – the PG setting (or PG 13) blocks out social media sites too. It’s a good idea to use the Custom settings and create these rules yourself.
If you can or can’t get through to a specific website, then it’s worth checking your Excluded websites list. Often, this might be the reason why you can/can’t access a website.
This is the case if you can’t access your VPN, as you’ll need to allow it in the settings. And, it could be the reason why you may have been previously blocked.
Conclusion
All in all, Sky Broadband Shield isn’t exactly a necessity if you’re switching over to Sky, as there are different ways to prevent viruses on other networks, and you can put parental controls on your wifi via different methods (you can even find routers with parental controls on them already).
However in most cases, there’s no harm to leaving Sky Broadband Shield on in your home, especially if you have younger folk in the house as well. It can be a good way to make sure that children aren’t accessing they shouldn’t be.
