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Forum Discussion
Genie and major shortcomings
Dear Netgear,
Your parental controls/Genie have some MAJOR shortfalls. Here is what EVERY parent wants:
1. Able to disable any additional MAC addresses from connecting to the router via Wired or Wireless. Kids are smart these days and can just change their MAC address. If they do this then it should disable them from all internet access.
2. Ability to control parental controls by MAC address (not ip unless you statically assign IP via MAC)
3. In parental controls we should be able to use OpenDNS levels or custom.
4. In parental controls we should NOT have to install software on the child's PC to login or manage the bypass login. This should be controlled via Genie/Router.
5. We need a way to turn off the internet on a timed basis. For instance my daughters need to be off by 8pm, and my son by 10pm. This should be handled again via MAC address not IP, and through Genie/Router.
6. Some parents want time limits. So if there has been activity (major activity) it should count that time against some type of timer... for instance my daughters get 2hrs each on their PC's but my son gets 3hrs.
7. I would love to have the option of a Two-Factor Authentication, especially for remote management.
8. I want to see logs of every denied request each MAC address is doing. If my kid tries to access something like "penthouse" it should log it. Furthermore an option to email or SMS us would be great in this case.
If anybody wants to add anything to this discussion please do. Right now I think some of this can happen through Genie/Router but not all. The fact that I have to login to their PC using Genie as admin to enable Bypass user is totally ridiculous. I am pretty sure some teenage programmer thought that was a great idea... certainly nobody with children would ever have built Genie this way.
Sincerely,
Corey
1 Reply
I am sympathetic to your plight (I am a parent, too), but if your kids know how to change their MAC address, then it's game over. They can use the MAC address of a whitelisted device that has been granted full Internet access.
Moreover, a kid that can change MAC addresses can also change DNS servers. So long OpenDNS.
Or they can just reset your router. :smileysurprised:
Proper control is more likely to succeed when enforced on the device. Look into Microsoft Family Safety (really worth checking out), OSX Parental Controls and, of course, 3rd party software.
Or you can just announce that you have the ability to log all traffic and that any forbidden activity (visiting adult websites, breaking curfew) will have consequences. And trust your kids to do the right thing. Having #8 is certainly nice to have to back up your threat. You can also periodically audit their computers. Or you could just bluff. :smileywink:
