Parental control not working

DexterJB
NETGEAR Moderator
Jan 03, 2017
Hi ganacia,

1. What are the devices that you have tested?

2. What version of NETGEAR Genie app do you have installed on the devices?

3. Are you getting an error message? If yes, what is the error message? Please provide a screenshot if possible.

4. Was it working before?

5. Have you tried resetting the router?

Regards,

Dexter

Community Team
- ganacia
  Aspirant
  Jan 03, 2017
  I have tried setting specific parental controls on both an android phone and an iphone. When using the app on my phone, I get an error message that states 'failed to set parental controls filtering'. When using the app on my computer, it says it saved the changes, but when I go back in to view that specific device's settings, it has gone back to the default setting on the router. The NetGear Genie app that is on the computer is version 2.4.26 The NetGear genie app on my phone is 2.4.38 The app on my phone was just installed this past weekend. The one on my computer was installed a few months ago. When I check for updates, it says there are none. This is the first time I have tried setting specific parental controls for each individual device.
- ganacia
  Aspirant
  Jan 03, 2017
  and, yes, the router has been reset
  - ahmedalalousi
    Initiate
    Jan 04, 2017
    OK .. so here's how I got this (very quirky) feature going. There maybe other ways, but believe me I must have tried most, if not all of them on my R7000. Below is what worked for me:
    
    Set your blocking to the desired level using the OpenDNS portal.
    VERY IMPORTANT: DO NOT add a network on the portal. If you added a network, that being your static or dynamic IP address, then delete it, apply and wait at least 30 minutes for the changes to propagate before going further. Yes, 30 not 3 minutes as OpenDNS suggest. This OpenDNS "feature" this is not needed for this setup and will NOT work.
    VERY IMPORTANT: If your NetGear router is connecting to the Internet via an (x)DSL or cable router, ensure that this router (the (x)DSL router) is using the OpenDNS DNS servers and NOT your ISP-obtained routers. If you your (x)DSL or cable provider's DNS settings as they are, then the setup will not work - took me a whole night of debugging to figure this out.
    Enable Parental Controls on your NetGear router
    Install NetGear Genie on one or more machines and configure with the details of your OpenDNS account ...etc.
    And here is the {eureka}: this feature is so broken, that you cannot setup different levels of access for different devices as you think or as the documentation tells you to, which is being able to choose an access level, from none to highest. The ONLY way it worked for me is to setup restricted device(s) to use a router default access level, and to choose a none level for unrestricted device(s). In this fashion, if say you wanted to block your child/teenager from accessing "adult" sites, you'd setup the router at that level (highest, say), then configured his devices on the Genie network map to be at a level of router default. If then you and mum want to spend a romantic night in front of a good 18+ rated movie, then your machine(s) would be setup with an access level of none on the Genie network map.
    And that, my good fellows, is that.
    
    Talk about a load of useless; though in fairness, it did the trick for me - I wanted him to have fully restricted access and alas for all the other children's devices, whereas left all the other devices with no access controls. The stupid bit is when you have adult guests, for example.
    
    I must say, very disappointing, and the answers here from the seemingly NetGear staff are equally useless IMHO. I had to solve this on my own, the hard way, because I simply needed to get it working, come what may.
    
    Hope this helps other desperate parents.

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