Broadband with outgoing ssh port access

biffer_2

I've been suffering with Post Office broadband for the last year or so working from home, unfortunately (and I discovered this the hard way), when the parental filter is on, they block egress on port 22, meaning outgoing ssh doesn't work.  Post Office use something called SafeGuard for their filter, not sure if that has something to do with it.  Now, after a year working from home, flipping my parental filter on and off as I need to for work (often forgetting to re-enable it of course),  I'm up for renewal, and wanting an end to this nonsense.  I know this wasn't a problem with BT or Virgin as I've used them before, however I'm not keen to go for either of them this time round.

So my question is, for anyone out there, who regularly uses github, or other sites that need ssh, and what (non-BT, Virgin) ISP do you use, and do you have the parental filter on?

Many thanks!

Zellah

Surely if you're considering to another ISP which doesn't use a Parental filter then you might as well stick with Post Office and switch off their 'SafeGuard' filter permanently? 

biffer_2

Switching off SafeGuard means my kids have access to stuff I don't want them to see.  When I had BT, they had a filter too, but it didn't block that port.

biffer_2

Also, Virgin had a filter, which didn't block the port.  It's a problem with the Post Office filter only.  I've complained to the Post Office but it was hard enough getting them to even understand what I meant because many tech support people don't understand the concepts of tcp/ip port numbers.

JJ_Egan

Plus its a resold product not a PO product .

Neil_Jones

You could always use "local" parental control software, assuming you all use the same computer - something like NetNanny?

biffer_2

If you have an ISP with the parental filter on (and it's not Virgin, or BT, or Post Office which I know about), you can check for me very easily.

When I use the filter this is what I see:

$ ssh git@github.com
ssh: connect to host github.com port 22: Connection refused

This is what I'm supposed to see, and what I see with Post Office when the filter is switched off.

$ ssh git@github.com
The authenticity of host 'github.com (140.82.121.3)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is SHA256:nThbg6kXUpJWGl7E1IGOCspRomTxdCARLviKw6E5SY8.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

Any recent PC (Windows, Mac or Linux) should have an ssh command that you can test this with at the command-prompt.

If anyone out there can run this test and report back, I'd very much appreciate it and it may help other people too.  I'm hoping Post Office is the odd one out.

Noupoi

I know it's not exactly the solution in mind, but have you considered using a VPN from your PC to allow you to SSH without having it disable the filter?

A_Lert

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the parental control filters do block SSH and also known VPNs. Otherwise it's easy for a kid to skip around the filter.

biffer_2

Noupoi said:

I know it's not exactly the solution in mind, but have you considered using a VPN from your PC to allow you to SSH without having it disable the filter?

That won't work.  Many sites block access from VPNs.

biffer_2

A_Lert said:

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the parental control filters do block SSH and also known VPNs. Otherwise it's easy for a kid to skip around the filter.

Blocking ssh to stop kids getting at content makes little sense.  They could in theory tunnel elsewhere assuming it was enabled on the server, however nobody with any sense runs a server with password access, so they'd need a private key, which they'd almost certainly have to pay for.  And if they had the knowledge to setup the tunnel and figure out how to do do all that they are probably old enough for the content anyhow.