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cannot sign in to openDNS account to set-up parental controls using NETGEAR Genie
Hi, I am trying to use NETGEAR Genie Parental controls and when I attempt to login to my OpenDNS account, I get the following error message: "There was an error signing, in please make sure you're ...
Hi Tony,
Please allow a curiosity question ...
TonyWilath wrote:To make matters worse I logged a request for a refund on my router as this web filtering is the prime reason for buying their top of the range router. ... It took a good 2 weeks to get a response to tell me they have now managed to route my call to the correct department. Since then its been over 5 weeks and despite numerous follow ups I am now getting zero response on my refund request.
Not knowing the legal situation for Australia ... have you bought the router from Netgear or form a local retailer or eShop, distributor? In most parts of the world, end users don't buy from Netgear ... much more from reseller channels. This does lead to the situation that there is no legal contract between the end user and Netgear - can't you simply return the product to the point of sales, where you have a legal contract, as the product is broken and not firt for purpose? Yes North Americans, I'm aware the situation is different in the US and Canada.
TonyWilath wrote:I don't plan on ever buying anything Netgear ever again.
It's sad Negear is ruining it's brand name and reputation with simply less than average software quality.on their consumer routers. ElaineM or JamesGL ... actions are required.
Hi schumaku & other forum members who have subscrbied to this thread
Yes I bought this from an reseller and not direct from Netgear. I'm based in Australia so it was purchased from lareg retailer Harven Norman that operates throughout Australia. I paid $556 AUD for it so it wasnt cheap. It was the top of the range modem/router from Netgear at the time and the only reason I purchase this grade of router was for the parental controls to filter the internet for my kids.
I asked to escalate my call within the Netgear channel and specifically asked for a refund. I mention if a refund was not provided I was engage with Australian Consumer Protection division of our governmental fair trading departments (I wasnt bluffing either and I have used this in the past so am familiar with the process. Additionally I have enough evidence to show that this router has almost never been able to deliver the advertised function and I have engaged through all Netgear appropriate support channels included having carried out a full device swap). I have now returned my router to Netgear and they are in the process of processing my refund request (I believe its been approved). The process takes around 6-8 weeks of which I am now about 2 weeks through the process. I will let the forum know once the money hits my bank account.
Additionally I have managed to setup parental controls without the Netgear functionality that was advertised and for cheaper (under $450 AUD). I got a tip from @MrPink. Basically Netgear just use the free OpenDNS service to do their filtering. Anyone can point their router DNS to use OpenDNS and setup an OpenDNS account but the draw back is the internet is filtered for everyone. The great thing the Netgear router offers is being able to selectively choose which device uses OpenDNS and which doesnt. This can be achieved by setting up two networks with two routers. There are cheaper routers than the Netgear ones available on the market. I had bought a decent qualtiy TPlink router for around $350 AUD a while ago which replaced with the Netgear one I bought. I pulled this out of its box and then bought a cheaper Linksys secondary router for around $100 AUD. I then set up a secondary network using the cheaper secondary router and I use this for the kids. I connect their devices to a secondary network which routes through OpenDNS. My wife and I connect to the primary router/network for out internet.
There are some simple instructions for how to do so here (use the LAN-to-WAN setup and NOT the LAN-to-LAN one):
http://www.wikihow.com/Connect-Two-Routers
The secondary kids network is setup so that when devices get their IP address from DHCP they also get OpenDNS settings. The router DNS also points to OpenDNS DNS addresses. This works perfectly.
Hope this helps everyone. Its been a lot of work and because of this I would never consider Netgear ever again. But I am gettign to the end of this.
This will be my final post. Hopefully it will server to provide a pathway for others.
On my previous post I had provided a work around solution. It was however dependent on getting a refund from Netgear on the router. I am happy to say my refund was approved and came through which meant Netgear have acknowledged this long standing issue and the fact it will not be fixed quickly.
As I discribed on my previous posting I have managed to setup selective parent filtering on my kids devices by using a cheap second router for much less than the price of the original Netgear router that has been the object of my woes for some time now. Hopefully this has paved the way for others on this forum. If they want to seek a refund I have set a precedent and also provided and alternate solution for around price of the router that allows selective parental filtering based on device.
I am going to end my last post by saying I never intend on purchasing Netgear again and I would not recommend them to anyone. Best of luck to you all.
Tony W
Hi Tony W,
Glad to hear that you got a refund on your Netgear device. I have continued trying to get the parental controls to work and even after a firmware update and multiple app updates, there is still no light at the end of the tunnel.
I think the only way to get parental controls on any netgear product is to configure the whole network to the family dns settings provided by OpenDNS. Having the second modem/router setup in the back of the house has been working a treat and also provides my sons with a much better wifi signal too.
For this reason, i will be throwing in the towel with Netegear Parental controls and just sticking with my current setup. I just want to thank you for your commitment to setting the precident with your refund. It will certainly make it easier for anyone who comes across this forum with the same problems.
Chees mate.
I'm dismayed that this problem has gone on for so long. I'm sure its a finger pointing match between Netgear, opendns and microsoft. there are two password problems. one passing credentials between NetgearGenie to your router, and one between NetgearGenie to OpenDNS.com. The first one is a fairly obvious password token issue within the app. the second is most likely a password encapsulation problem. most likely completely out of netgear's control. its probably blocked by Windows firewall or is munged up before OpenDNS can read it.
two things you can do to make it work:
1. easy way: just use the Android app. its the only one that works. I started following all the advice on this blog but its really the only one that worked.
2. harder way: use the android app to activate the parental controls, but still enable NetgearGenie on a PC to manage them.
Here's what I did to make option 2 work:
First download the netgear genie from the link on your router on your PC. Save the downloaded file. Once you enable parental controls, the "parental controls" link on the router web interface changes to redirect you to netgear.opendns.com, which is where you will do most of your filtering and configuring. if you want to install netgeargenie onto another computer, you'll need that file.
Now you can dig out someone's Android device, install the netgearGenie app and configure your parental controls there. I set default filtering for "none". (tell you why later)
start NetgearGenie on your PC and click on "router settings" and log in. I also had to specify my router IP manually, in my case 192.168.1.1. This shoudl sucessfully create a password token it can send to other functions without using the broken password hashing code. (except of course for the parental controls link. ignore this link from now on) Then go back to "Network Map". click on the kids computer. at the bottom it says "parental controls filtering: Default level on router". click on "modify" and then change the Parental Controls filtering to "high". Conversely, you can set the default to high, and then select your computer and set it to "none". I'm guessing this works because it identifies computers by MAC address. However, its possible that its by IP address, and if you have DHCP, this could be a problem to have some computers filtered and some not.
That's basically it. use the NetgearGenie PC app to select which computers get filtered and which don't. Log into the router and click on the "parental controls" link to open a new browser tab to netgear.OpenDNS.com to configure blocks of time or default filtering settings. I haven't tried blacklist/whitelist yet, but its my next task. I really hope its not hamstrung like the built-in NetGear router functionality that can only block http (unencrypted) connections, not https(encrypted), which almost all connections are now.