Filter config not working with routes (?)

Does anything show up in the logs? It sounds like an error is being repressed. Does the route still display like normal or does it go to a blank screen?

Logs are completely empty and by that I mean that log level is set to 9 and permissions set to the writable directory, but no log file is ever created. Route still displays as normal (in our case it redirects to another part of the website because if user is not authenticated then he should login first - intended behaviour).

We tried on an empty install yesterday with just two controllers and the same behaviour still appeared.

Is 'website' the correct exception to configure? From my understanding, the except list should contain URI's, but surely if the website is configured to point to the default controller, then website.com is what shows up in the browser, the URI is actually blank bar the domain - i.e. there is nothing after website.com. But as mentioned here setting "" or "/" doesn't work either.