Sophos UTM Country Blocking: Oops!

Background: My girlfriend has an AirBnB service for a spare room in her home. I have a Sophos UTM appliance running her home network.

Okay! Last night my girlfriend received a text on behalf of our guest stating that the WiFi wasn’t working. We were out for pizza + beer, so we didn’t exactly rush home to check it out.

[…]

This morning we got word again; “the WiFi isn’t working, they say they need to use the WeChat app”

I logged in to the Wireless AP and it checked out. It’s an Asus AC router and it lets you make guest networks, so I use it for the whole house.

I connected to the Guest SSID from my iPhone and loaded google. I looked at my public IP address and I was utilizing my Comcast connection.

So, what wasn’t working?
I received the guest’s iPhone and the first thing I noticed was a “Connecting…” message looping over and over. Behind that, it was all Chinese writing. All Chinese writing….

…OH!

I was blocking China!

I have a Sophos UTM appliance serving the network at my girlfriends place. Country blocking is a convenient security feature. Naturally I should take into consideration the diversity of guests we have and opt to not block their home countries.

Oops!