There are times when a website you need to use is blocked by our content filter. Although we employ a sophisticated firewall and content filtering system to keep inappropriate content out of reach of students, the service provider sometimes mis-categorize websites.

When a website does not appear to meet criteria for blocking, but gets blocked anyway, a false positive occurs. Since we subscribe to the content filtering service, changes are global and affect all subscribers, so we are unable to manually whitelist those sites ourselves. However, the service provider has provided a way to submit a URL to be evaluated and if warranted, re-categorized. 

You can do this yourself without the need to involve IT.

Simply visit: https://urlfiltering.paloaltonetworks.com/ and type or copy+paste the URL of the site you wish to use, and click Search to view the current categorization. Then, click Request Change to suggest a new category.

Here's the process in more detail:

Step 1. Visit https://urlfiltering.paloaltonetworks.com/ Once you type or paste the URL of the site you wish to unblock, hit Search (be sure to check the "i'm not a robot" captcha).

Step 2. Review the information. To submit a site for re-categorization, click the blue Request Change link (be sure to check the "i'm not a robot" captcha).

Step 3. Now, click the Add Category link to find a more suitable category. Once you find one, click on it.

Add any comments as you see fit. Enter and confirm your email address and once again, be sure to check the "i'm not a robot" captcha.

Now click Submit.

You should see a confirmation that your change request has been successfully submitted. The response time is excellent. You should have a reply within 24-48 hours if not sooner.