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Forum Discussion
Devices on my network stuck in Bypass login but I have no bypass login account
Hi all, Thanks for reading.
I had Parental controls working fine for a year. Now disaster. The router has changed the access level of a number of devices on my network. It has set a number of them to Bypass Login, although I have no Bypass Login acount. This includes devices like my TV, printer and Chromecast.
I have looked through the community issues and a couple have similar problems but the thread stops with a rep giving a boilerplate answer about logging on to your Bypass account thru Genie. Obviously I can't do this from my TV, printer, Chromecast or Linux virtual machine etc.
I have disabled and re-enabled Parental Controls. I have created a Bypass login account and deleted it.
At the moment I've had to turn off all Parental Controls to even use my devices. Not ideal with young kids, and (as with many) was one of the selling points of buying the router.
The problem was triggered when I temporarily disabled access (access control on genie network map) to my linux VM, and it would not boot without the network. As I disabled this on the network map I could not re-enable network access for the device because it was not on the network map any more because it would not boot without the network! So I went into the access control through the router web interface, and turned access control for that MAC address back on. That seems to have triggered the Parental Controls to get messed up for everything.
It's a pain that you have to do some things through Genie and others thru the web interface (and yet others thru OpenDNS).
Any ideas?
Dave
78 Replies
- Still problems this end - found my teenage son on his laptop able to access absolutely everything. On the network his laptop had bypass login against it. Changing that resulted in a message telling me to log out of the bypass account first. I have no bypass account.
Please fix this Netgear - you've known about this issue long enough and nothing is being done that I can see, to fix the problem.ElaineM Hi Elaine, I'm the OP. Nothing has changed - still does not work. Still can't get devices including Chromecast and printer out of Bypass mode, and I still don't have a bypass account. Android Genie App v2.4.38 (latest on playstore), Firmware v1.0.7.2_1.1.93.
This is a serious security flaw and is going unaddressed for a long time. As others have reiterated, it needs to be fixed.
Please let us know when this is scheduled to be fixed?
- Elaine. I never got a response to my last post. I'm still experiencing the issues here with the phone app creating the bypass for no reason.
What is the ETA on this being resolved?Still nothing
- I can't even believe that this is a real company!! How can they ignore an obvious problem?? Not only won't they fix it, they won't even answer on here anymore. This is pathetic. Elaine isn't going to answer us. Right, Elaine?
- Aside from the issue we all face in terms of open access to all, what bothers me considerably is the manner in which Netgear as a company is handling the matters raised here.
Rather than acknowledge there is an issue and thereby owning it with a degree of accountability, the onus is being placed on the customer: that perhaps we haven't downloaded the latest version or perhaps it is our individual and respective sets-ups. This, despite a united voice declaring that there is a problem, no matter which medium we use or which software ( I gather an older version may work).
This is not customer service and to also hear of customers being held for long periods of time while staff pass them from person to person over the phone before finally acknowledging that yes there IS a problem, is outrageous.
We are not idiots and many of us have a degree of technical knowledge - perhaps more and in some cases, much more than you Netgear, care to give us credit for.
Your continual avoidance of engaging with your customers and advising them of updates and progress is appalling. I have been a loyal customer for several years but this whole episode makes me instead opt for a rival product. Furthermore I feel it is time to contact organisations such as CNet and Wired etc as well as post on vendors such as Amazon advising of the issues raised here to warn others.
This whole debacle is as incredulous as it is disgusting. Since NETGEAR has gone completely silent on this issue, despite the reported issue by multiple users, I am now researching alternative brands to replace this R8000 router. While I was researching highly rated routers last night, I found an interesting article posted on Tom's Guide pertaining to Netgear routers ( http://www.tomsguide.com/us/netgear-nighthawk-router-flaw,news-24015.html ) . This article was published 2 days ago. Two important things to note: #1 - this issue is so bad, the US Government has published a warning regarding the use of Netgear products ( link in article), and #2 - NETGEAR has known about this flaw since August.
If anyone can make any specific recommendations on a non-NETGEAR branded router to replace an R8000, I would be interested in hearing your personal experience.
Thanks,
Morelia
- Can u copy the link u found to download the old app version?
How about if you try to do the following?
Temporarily disable the Wi-Fi on the router
Connect directly to the router through the Ethernet port
Launch the LPC User Bypass Utility on all machines and sign-out of any bypass accounts.
Uninstall LPC User Bypass Utility
Uninstall the LPC Management Utility
Launch NETGEAR genie app and click on Parental Controls section and follow the instructions on the screen.Take note as well that you should be using the right management interface which is http://netgear.opendns.com.
ElaineM Hi Elaine,
By disconnecting wireless, I will be left with a desktop PC and a printer connected to the router via direct wired ethernet.
Before commencing, can I confirm that at step 3 you would like me to *download* and *install* the LPC User Bypass Utility on the desktop PC, then use it to check if any spurious bypass accounts are visable, then try to delete them? Then at step 4, uninstall the tool again?
Can you please give me a link to download the correct utility so that I ensure I have exactly the right tool?
Thanks.
Wow. I've just read through this entire thread. Just wow! Our problem started Jan 1, 2017. My stepson came back home on that day and brought his Xbox One from his dads (This is a normal routine, not a new event). When he tried connecting to Xbox Live it wouldnt let him although Xbox shows that it is connected to the internet. Also his smart phone and my daughters as well have only limited access to apps (guessing its based on what category they are listed as in Parental Control settings). I didn't have Genie installed on my phone at the time. I had the Genie app installed on my old phone(My old phone, an LG G3 had an adverse reaction to the newest firmware upgrade and chose to get stuck in a continuous reboot loop), but that all happened back in around October '16 when it died and I replaced it with my LG5, and as I said I had not added the Genie app back to my new phone and hadnt attempted to make any changes to parental controls or even log into the router.
Back to the story, so now my stepson cant play Xbox live, or his smartphone games, and my daughter can't access an app thats required for her job so she can see her work schedule. All 3 devices are stuck on bypass login. I had to download the genie app onto my new phone just to find this out. I've deleted and recreated bypass login accounts to no avail. I've reset the router. I've logged into the Netgear Open DNS site and changed the parental controls to none. no go. I'm not the most computer literate person in the world so some of what Elaine mentioned I didnt understand. I'm left questioning what I do now. Unfortunately cant call customer support, since I purchased my router back in 2015 and I dont want to purchase additional support. Do I follow that one gentlemens lead and look for a different brand of router (perhaps Linksys) and spend another 200 dollars to replace what was a perfectly functioning router or can NetGear pull their heads out and come up with a solution. Everything I've seen to this point has been merely suggested attempts at solving an unknown problem rather than an actual work around or patch or some sort to remedy this issue.
Any thoughts, anyone?
What can I tell you? There's been no useful rsponse to this at all. My teenaged kids have for months now been exposed to sites on the internet which I do not want them to access. I specifically bought this router for this feature, and it is now completely non-functional.
I would like a refund so I can buy something that actually works. I'm very sick of waiting for a fix.
I would have thrown it in the bin by now but I have a matching ex6200 extender which I'm concerned I'd have to replace as well. Hundreds of dollars down the drain.
It used to work, how hard can it be to roll back whatever stuff up they made?
Is this a forum or a class action suit? If the latter then please count me in. I am experiencing the same problems as everyone else included in this thread. All my devices have defaulted to "Bypass" which has significantly limited my access to the internet (including the mail server). The only solution from Netgear is to logout of an account that does not exist. To complicate matters the genie app no longer recognizes my password as valid even the same password allows me web access to the router. I have deleted the app and reinstalled it to no avail. Any proposed solutions by Netgear officials assume that there is a mass conspiracy whereby people have sabotaged their devices by changing various settings (clearly user error), or we are instructed to jump through technical hoops under the presupposition everyone is tech savy (ie, delete the LRC on a second Tuesday of a blue moon, reinstall the proxy but only after the device has been shut down exactly 18.73 seconds, hold the device at a 37 degree angle while eating a pbj....). I have no problem with a flawed product, but I have a real problem with a company that turns a deaf ear to so many experiencing the same problems. I suspect there are many more who have not found their way to this forum. I choose this product based on the Netgear reputation, so I trust they will come through with a solution.
- I have the same issue too .. A little different so I'll explain! My entire family runs on Android devices and I just purchased a new phone yesterday. I gave my son my old phone and did a factory reset & then set up my new phone with Netgear Genie and the DNS Bypass account like we previously had before making the switch. Last night I noticed I was being restricted from sites but shouldn't be because of the bypass account! Long story short, after hours of serious frustration and my son being WIDE open online, I'm stuck with no options and the parental controls are a hot mess! I logged onto my computer to try a different route and saw my old phone (now my son's) is still stuck on "bypass" and keeps telling me he needs to log out of the DNS bypass account first before moving to default. He's not linked to one but possibly the phone/IP is!? Then I found there's two of him on the network ... How? Only one phone! So there's an extra IP address in there that's unaccounted for! Then I also found my other children and devices such as smart tv, printer, etc were all on different settings/filters rather than on default like they're suppose to be! So I switched those around but my son's account remains wide open on bypass! Highly irritating! I'm going to try deleting all information and genie then jump on computer to see what I can do as mentioned above. I'm assuming this still hasn't been resolved so if I find a way, I will gladly share .. Please do the same :)
