Overview
At this level, administrators begin shaping Blackhole to fit the specific needs of their home, shop, or organization. The default protections remain in place, but you now gain visibility into what is being blocked and the ability to adjust filtering policies accordingly.
Policy tuning is about finding the right balance to maintain strong protection while minimizing false positives and ensuring legitimate business or personal activities remain accessible.
Monitoring Activity
Start by reviewing DNS filtering activity to understand what’s being blocked.
Within the Dashboard → Metrics section, use these cards for context:
- Blocked Domains: shows the total number of blocked requests
- Top Blocked Domains: identifies the most frequently blocked sites
- Threats Detected vs. Blocked: highlights overall filtering effectiveness
Regularly checking these metrics helps you spot unusual patterns, such as an increase in phishing or advertising traffic, and verify that critical services remain reachable.
Adjusting Filtering Rules
Administrators can manage domain-level policies directly through the dashboard’s DNS management section.
Common actions include:
- Unblocking a domain for legitimate services (for example, an ad-based training platform or a required third-party tool)
- Blocking additional domains that are distracting, inappropriate, or noncompliant with organizational policy
Changes take effect immediately across the network, ensuring consistent behavior for all users.
For detailed steps, see DNS Filtering.
Balancing Security and Accessibility
Tuning policies isn’t just about access control, it’s about shaping user experience. Here are some tips for maintaining the right balance:
- Review reports weekly to stay ahead of new risks or recurring false positives
- Prioritize productivity by allowing essential business or educational tools
- Preserve privacy by continuing to block tracking and analytics networks
- Engage users when unblocking sites to ensure legitimate business justification
Documenting these adjustments builds a transparent record of security decisions that can be referenced later.
Maturity Progress
By actively managing content policies and understanding what your network blocks, you’ve reached Level 2 — Visibility 🟡. This level transforms Blackhole from a passive defense layer into an adaptive control system, giving administrators meaningful visibility into what users access and why.