Oftentimes, school networks and devices used primarily by young children employ very strict firewalls and internet restrictions on networks. Kodable utilizes industry-grade encryption and is very secure, however sometimes these policies erroneously prevent Kodable from working properly. Some possible reasons for this include:
A firewall - This can be on your computer itself or on your network. You might need to get in touch with your district administrator to have them whitelist Kodable URLs.
A browser plugin - Certain browser plugins (such as ad-blockers and Antivirus tools) can sometimes block access to our servers.
Your browser - a browser set in "restricted" or "secure" mode might block access to the Kodable servers.
Addressing Log in and Network Access Issues
1. Update your apps!
Make sure the Kodable app is up to date if you are using Kodable on iPad or iPhone. Older versions might not have the most up-to-date security measures that could get flagged by network security systems.
2. Whitelist Kodable URLs
If you are using a firewall, ad-blocker, or other security systems, you will need to whitelist certain URLs to make sure our game and dashboard can communicate our servers. Ensure that there are no policies that are blocking the following URLs:
*.kodable.com
api.amplitude.com
o259245.ingest.sentry.io
3. Verify your Website Access Policies
Browsers, firewalls, and network access settings can often restrict data access. For example, if you have a browser's security settings set to 'restricted' or 'strict' mode (often the case with student devices), it will ignore whitelisted URLs completely. If you have whitelisted the above URLs and still do not have access, this is a great place to look.
4. Contact us
If you're tried the above steps and still don't have access, feel free to reach out to our support team at support@kodable.com. Try to include as much information about the errors you are experiencing as can, as this will make it much quicker for us to help you and get your kids back to coding!
Tips and Tricks
If you are on a school network or one you do not have access to its firewall settings, you can find out if your school network is causing the issue by trying somewhere else. Typically, public networks such as Starbucks work fine.
Proxies can cause access issues as well. This often happens with international users, especially in Australia and the United Kingdom. Be sure Kodable is configured to be allowed through the proxy, or if possible bypass it altogether by using the web version of Kodable.