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Forum Discussion

patsch's avatar
patsch
Tutor
Apr 18, 2019

New Nighthawk App - where are the parental controls??

As suggested by Netgear I had set up an OpenDNS account and used the Netgear Genie App to enable / disable the parental controls on demand.   Today I was forced to upgrade to the new Nighthawk Ap...
earthsound's avatar
earthsound
Star
Apr 26, 2019
patsch wrote:

As suggested by Netgear I had set up an OpenDNS account and used the Netgear Genie App to enable / disable the parental controls on demand.

 

Today I was forced to upgrade to the new Nighthawk App - and the parental controls are gone.

 

I have now no way to turn parental controls off - I have to go through the OpenDNS site. This is a major inconvenience, as it was very useful to be able to just turn the Internet on for 5 minutes even during a configured 'down' timeslot.

 

Any reason why this feature was removed ? Esp. as the screenshot of the Nighthawk seems to suggest that it is still there ???

 

Netgear has dropped the ball here. If you have an Android device, you'll want to install the 3.1.74 version of the Genie app to retain the ability to configure connected devices using Access Control based on OpenDNS parental controls.

 

Don't upgrade the Genie app unless they've fixed this bug and add back support for all the router models they erroneously dropped recently. 

  • lauranda's avatar
    lauranda
    Tutor
    Jun 14, 2019

    You can re-enable Parental Controls by downloading the previous version of firmware and from routerlogin.net interface -> "Upgrading" (you will get a popup asking if you are sure you want to downgrade) to the Firmware Version 1.0.4.26 Download, see https://www.netgear.com/support/product/R9000.aspx#Firmware%20Version%201.0.4.26

     

    Note: Release notes from v1.0.4.28 did not list any security updates.

    Also, since the recent genie update, the app does not show parental controls option but the web interface does. So you might have to go to a browser vs. the app. patsch thanks for the tip to install the 3.1.74 version

    • michaelkenward's avatar
      michaelkenward
      Guru - Experienced User
      Jun 15, 2019
      lauranda wrote:

      You can re-enable Parental Controls by downloading the previous version of firmware

       

      Is it the firmware that has disabled Parental Controls or, as the first message from patsch says, the Nighthawk app?

      • lauranda's avatar
        lauranda
        Tutor
        Jun 28, 2019
        It appears to be both. Now parental Controls can no longer be enabled in router login page even with the old firmware. Ugh