NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.

Forum Discussion

sapphirestorm's avatar
sapphirestorm
Follower
Jan 06, 2016
Solved

Parental control not working

Hi I have been using OpenDNS only as Parental controls in Netgear Genie app have never worked. I would prefer to use Netgear genie so i have removed my network from the OpenDNS and I am trying to ge...
Genie
  • DexterJB's avatar
    DexterJB
    Feb 13, 2017

    Hi Hebby,

     

    Those options are the different operating modes of the router and each can be used depending on the setup of your network. If you do not have another router setup then the router mode should be the correct option.

     

    Regards,

     

    Dexter

    Community Team

DexterJB's avatar
DexterJB
NETGEAR Moderator
Jan 06, 2016

Hi @sapphirestorm,

 

1. Are all the devices affected (not being filtered)?

2. Please check the DNS values on the router UI and make sure the values are set to OpenDNS which are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.

3. Have you tried setting the filtering level to "High" and check if there are changes?

 

Regards,

 

Dexter

Community Team
 

bluegilldude's avatar
bluegilldude
Initiate
Mar 18, 2016

I also have the same problem. I use Netgear Genie to set individual parental control levels, and even level 5 (high) seems to block absolutely nothing. The DNS servers in the router are the correct OpenDNS ones.

Like the OP, the only thing that works is to add my network to OpenDNS and set the whole thing to High. There are devices on my network for which I want that, but not the whole thing.

  • DexterJB's avatar
    DexterJB
    NETGEAR Moderator
    Mar 19, 2016

    Hi @bluegilldude,

     

    1. What is the model number and firmware version of your router?

    2. What version of NETGEAR Genie do you have installed?

    3. Have you tried setting the filtering level on another device?

     

    Regards,

     

    Dexter

    Community Team

    • bluegilldude's avatar
      bluegilldude
      Initiate
      Mar 31, 2016

      So, I opened a support ticket with Netgear on this. After reaching the third level of escalation, they confirmed that per-device parental controls are just broken. I don't understand how that got past QA.

      My firmware versions are all the latest available, and the bug is reproducible via Genie for iOS and Genie for Mac, so I presume the bug is in the router OS, not Genie.

      Support told me that they are "collating similar cases and will provide you feedback the soonest."

      So, I guess that's it for now. The whole reason I bought this router was for the per-device parental controls, and that feature doesn't even work.

      Bummer I didn't discover this until I'd already recycled the box. Costco will probably take it back anyway, though. They're pretty good about that.

       

      Shame on Netgear for shipping something with a core feature broken.