Campus Network - Determining Whether a Site is Blocked by DNS

This document describes how to determine whether a website has been blocked via DNS on campus networks, and what to do if a site is blocked.

Determining Whether a Site is Blocked by DNS

If the page doesn't load at all while on campus, but loads normally from other networks, it may indicate that it has been blocked by campus DNS. You can also check this using the nslookup command line utility by entering the following command into either the Command Prompt (on Windows) or Terminal (on Mac OS X):

nslookup <URL of website> (NOTE!! - do not include http or https)

If this command shows an IP address of 127.0.0.1, the URL has likely been blocked.

What to Do if a Page is Blocked

If a website that you use has been blocked, you can contact the Office of Cybersecurity at cybersecurity@cio.wisc.edu for further investigation. Please include the following information:

  • URL of the page you are attempting to access
  • Which network you were on (e.g. UWNet wireless, Campus Ethernet, etc.)
  • Date/Time you attempted to access the page

See Also


Keywords:
blocked spam phishing malware url dns site can't access doesn't work 
Doc ID:
87688
Owned by:
CSOC K. in Cybersecurity Operations Center
Created:
2018-11-12
Updated:
2024-10-16
Sites:
Cybersecurity Operations Center, DoIT Help Desk, Office of Cybersecurity