BigNate469 wrote:

(#1680)
My school seems to be continually trying to block things like browser extensions and unauthorized downloads, on Chromebooks in particular.

To get around this I've just started using Raspberry Pi Connect to control my Pi 5 remotely and bypass all that. Since it's running on my home's Wi-Fi network as well, they can't even force pages they don't want us getting at to return 0.0.0.0 (and its IPv6 equivalent). The best part about this is that I can know the exact IP address of the Pi, so even if they start blocking Raspberry Pi Connect, I can still send and receive arbitrary data to and from the Pi, and therefore do clever things that would allow me to re-create something similar to Raspberry Pi Connect.

You can use good old VNC/RDP or ssh.

Just make sure they don't block your Home's IP.

BigNate469 wrote:

My school seems to be continually trying to block things like browser extensions and unauthorized downloads, on Chromebooks in particular.

To get around this I've just started using Raspberry Pi Connect to control my Pi 5 remotely and bypass all that. Since it's running on my home's Wi-Fi network as well, they can't even force pages they don't want us getting at to return 0.0.0.0 (and its IPv6 equivalent). The best part about this is that I can know the exact IP address of the Pi, so even if they start blocking Raspberry Pi Connect, I can still send and receive arbitrary data to and from the Pi, and therefore do clever things that would allow me to re-create something similar to Raspberry Pi Connect.

So you make a homemade VPN that the school can’t even block completely? *amazement*

2D4eter wrote:

BigNate469 wrote:

snip

So you make a homemade VPN that the school can’t even block completely? *amazement*

And the best part is that the Raspberry Pi foundation did most of the work. All I did was buy the Pi, a power adapter and a couple of wires and set it up with a few electronic parts (screen, keyboard) that I had lying around my house, and download Raspberry Pi Connect.

Actually now that I think about it, it gets better than that. Since it's another computer running a fork of Debian, I can download software and files that my school doesn't want me to, like, for example, any Windows/Linux Debian software, and run it (in the case of Windows, indirectly via WINE).

BigNate469 wrote:

2D4eter wrote:

BigNate469 wrote:

snip

So you make a homemade VPN that the school can’t even block completely? *amazement*

And the best part is that the Raspberry Pi foundation did most of the work. All I did was buy the Pi, a power adapter and a couple of wires and set it up with a few electronic parts (screen, keyboard) that I had lying around my house, and download Raspberry Pi Connect.

Actually now that I think about it, it gets better than that. Since it's another computer running a fork of Debian, I can download software and files that my school doesn't want me to, like, for example, any Windows/Linux Debian software, and run it (in the case of Windows, indirectly via WINE).

You can fetch websites, but have you considered getting an open-source browser and modifying so that it will send the request through the pi?

during pandemic and online schooling with zoom the school website blocker went haywire and when I was trying to log onto zoom it literally blocked zoom like it was on the checking loop and my dad had to help me fix it for like 2 hours

2D4eter wrote:

BigNate469 wrote:

another snip

You can fetch websites, but have you considered getting an open-source browser and modifying so that it will send the request through the pi?

I probably could, but I don't want to spend the time modding a web browser, since at this point they're massive, with incredibly complex source code that has built up over the years.

I would also have to have a way to turn this off (preferably as a GUI element, for ease of use), which I would have to program myself. However, since browser GUI (and settings pages) these days are (somewhat ironically) written in HTML5 and JavaScript, it might be doable.

Furthermore, I would prefer to mod Chromium because of it's very good Google product integration (if your school uses Google products, you use Google products) plus it's exceptional web technologies support, especially for useful technologies like the Web Bluetooth API.

And finally, I would have to figure out a way to install it on a school Chromebook that doesn't let me download anything (executable, at least) and which has a locked-down Linux terminal. However, I could probably get around this by importing a Crostini image (ChromeOS Linux terminal image, basically) from my personal Chromebook (which is old at this point, and that's the main reason I don't bring it to school anymore), and execute it restore a backup of a Linux Debian command-line environment from there. Afterwards it's trivial to run .deb executables.

Chiroyce wrote:

wnmy wrote:

does anyone know of any way school could recover permanently deleted files? ipados btw

is it managed with apples education management system or some 3rd party?

I don’t really know

2D4eter wrote:

(#1684)

BigNate469 wrote:

2D4eter wrote:

BigNate469 wrote:

snip

So you make a homemade VPN that the school can’t even block completely? *amazement*

And the best part is that the Raspberry Pi foundation did most of the work. All I did was buy the Pi, a power adapter and a couple of wires and set it up with a few electronic parts (screen, keyboard) that I had lying around my house, and download Raspberry Pi Connect.

Actually now that I think about it, it gets better than that. Since it's another computer running a fork of Debian, I can download software and files that my school doesn't want me to, like, for example, any Windows/Linux Debian software, and run it (in the case of Windows, indirectly via WINE).

You can fetch websites, but have you considered getting an open-source browser and modifying so that it will send the request through the pi?

Proxies and VPNs were invented.

my school used to use a really trashy version of the website blocker so if you searched up something like “button” it would deny and block it because it has “butt” in it

Scratch_Cat_Coder8 wrote:

my school used to use a really trashy version of the website blocker so if you searched up something like “button” it would deny and block it because it has “butt” in it

RIP

2D4eter wrote:

Scratch_Cat_Coder8 wrote:

my school used to use a really trashy version of the website blocker so if you searched up something like “button” it would deny and block it because it has “butt” in it

RIP

oh and also one time during online classes the blocker broke (on my side) and would refuse to open zoom and it took my dad like 2 hours to fix it

Scratch_Cat_Coder8 wrote:

2D4eter wrote:

Scratch_Cat_Coder8 wrote:

my school used to use a really trashy version of the website blocker so if you searched up something like “button” it would deny and block it because it has “butt” in it

RIP

oh and also one time during online classes the blocker broke (on my side) and would refuse to open zoom and it took my dad like 2 hours to fix it

What sort of blocker is it? Is it a browser extension?

Scratch_Cat_Coder8 wrote:

~Snip~
oh and also one time during online classes the blocker broke (on my side) and would refuse to open zoom and it took my dad like 2 hours to fix it

Once had admin install two separate content blockers which both blocked the extension page of the other creating an infinite redirect loop that bricked a few of our ancient Dell Chromebooks.

Also on another note we have a site-wide screen sharing network and my former English teacher once broadcast a two-minute clip of the Bee Movie to every single room.

zaid1442011 wrote:

2D4eter wrote:

snip

Proxies and VPNs were invented.

And useless if you can't download browser extensions or native apps.

If you can't execute it, it can't benefit you.

AHypnoman wrote:

Scratch_Cat_Coder8 wrote:

~Snip~
oh and also one time during online classes the blocker broke (on my side) and would refuse to open zoom and it took my dad like 2 hours to fix it

Also on another note we have a site-wide screen sharing network and my former English teacher once broadcast a two-minute clip of the Bee Movie to every single room.

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLL what was everyone’s reaction

2D4eter wrote:

Scratch_Cat_Coder8 wrote:

2D4eter wrote:

Scratch_Cat_Coder8 wrote:

my school used to use a really trashy version of the website blocker so if you searched up something like “button” it would deny and block it because it has “butt” in it

RIP

oh and also one time during online classes the blocker broke (on my side) and would refuse to open zoom and it took my dad like 2 hours to fix it

What sort of blocker is it? Is it a browser extension?

It was a browser extension on the school accounts. The name is iboss

RobotChickens wrote:

Scratch_Cat_Coder8 wrote:

(#1676)

Wolfieboy09 wrote:

My school can block websites with students home devices by not the DNS server. Websites that are not allowed, gets requested, won't return its IP.
Bypass: I just told my device to use Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 DNS IP

so basically student devices that aren’t used for school can get certain websites blocked on their home devices? that should be illegal. honestly.

The funny thing is, all of this is usually in a form they make you sign when you decide to participate in your school's BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) program. It's pretty helpful to read the fine print

I've been able to bypass my school DNS blocking by using Cloudflare WARP, it works great.

BigNate469 wrote:

zaid1442011 wrote:

2D4eter wrote:

snip

Proxies and VPNs were invented.

And useless if you can't download browser extensions or native apps.

If you can't execute it, it can't benefit you.

You can set proxies and VPNs from chromeOS's settings.

zaid1442011 wrote:

BigNate469 wrote:

zaid1442011 wrote:

2D4eter wrote:

snip

Proxies and VPNs were invented.

And useless if you can't download browser extensions or native apps.

If you can't execute it, it can't benefit you.

You can set proxies and VPNs from chromeOS's settings.

Not if, surprise, your administrator blocks you from changing that.

we have byod at my school which is awesome because it's way less locked down but they still filter the internet, so instead of paying for a vpn or using a sketchy free one I just self-host a wireguard server on my rpi and it works amazingly! don't really use it though now since my friend gave me his private internet access