Some T-Mobile customers have been experiencing an “OpenDNS error” while trying to access certain websites on 4G/5G. If you are one of the customers who are currently dealing with this issue, it may be because of T-Mobile’s filtering tool.
As discovered by a source of The T-Mo Report, T-Mobile recently “upgraded” its Web Guard feature. With the upgrade, the feature now supports HTTPS.
The report also shows that many T-Mo customers did not know that they have Web Guard enabled on their phones. This is a per-line basis feature that helps block certain content on a browser. There are three filtering levels available, which range from adult websites to email access.
There have been several customers who shared their frustration of being unable to open certain websites on their phones. Some of the complaints on Reddit involve being unable to access social media, YouTube, and other sites.
Another source of theirs reveals that T-Mo has updated its internal Web Guard information page. This shows how each filtering level works and what the feature is blocking.
What’s blocked
Safe Search: High and Medium filter levels enable SafeSearch, an automated filter of pornography and other offensive content that’s built into search engines (Google, YouTube, Bing, and DuckDuckGo).
When a user attempts to access a site that is “blocked,” a popup message appears: This site is blocked due to content filtering: [name of website]. Content filtering has been enabled on this line and is restricting access to this content. An authorized person on your account may be able to disable this restriction through the account management website. This site was blocked due to the following categories [lists categories].
Customers may also see ‘secure connection failed’ if the website is being blocked by Web Guard.
If you are unable to access certain sites, you can get in touch with T-Mobile’s support team to disable the Web Guard feature. You can also turn off the feature on My T-Mobile or in the app. It’s unlikely that this feature is enabled randomly. It’s possible though that some users have had the feature enabled from the start but are only noticing it now after the upgrade.
Source: The T-Mo Report