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Forum Discussion
Time Schedule and Parental Controls
I am trying out the Nighthawk router and I am comparing its features to Linksys and Asus routers. The router has the latest firmware version. I have a few questions about using the Nighthawk router. ...
lizpadula- Sorry for the late response. Let me first say, most preteens and teenagers love their devices regardless if it is a phone, iPod, game system, laptop or something else that connects to your router. Obviously, I can't speak for every preteen and teenagers enviroment. I try to put myself into my own teenagers life and try to find out which sites and Apps they are using today. That is the purpose for me to have "testing" devices. I use an iPod Touch 5g and a Windows laptop.
I tried using the Nighthawk r8000 router in two different configurations. The first part, I configured it and was using, cough.. cough.. OpenDNS to set the content filtering level to most of the devices. I set the router to turn off wireless at 9pm which affects EVERY DEVICE. There was no way to set a time schedule on a single device. I used this configuration for about a week and I used an iPod and a wired computer as test devices to make changes to the configuration. Also, I wanted to see what sites were blocked and which Apps were blocked based on the configuration. Unfortunately, I was disappointed because not many sites were block as I hoped for.
The second part, I configured the router but instead I didn't use OpenDNS at all and I didn't use parental controls as PC is tied to OpenDNS. I used the same methods as I did in Part 1. I didn't see any benefits of this configuration except you can't do much unless you use OpenDNS.
In my conclusion, Netgear sucks. PERIOD. The router is a waste of money and time. The Genie App is terrible too. Does a "perfect" router exist? No, of course not. My definition of "perfect" must include the following features ie. Speed, Parental Controls, Firewall, Time Schedule, Web History or Log and a good App to manage the router. Everyone uses the router in a different way. Trust me, I have used Linksys 1900ac, Asus 68u, Apple Time Capsule and HomeHalo router. None of these are "perfect" routers but Asus came close to being a really good router.
Currently, I am using a Synology rt2600ac router. Synology is based on there NAS products and they have only two routers ie. 1900ac and 2600ac. The 2600ac is more expensive than the 1900 due to hardware reasons. This router is not "perfect" but Synology is heading in the right direction in terms of features. I like what I see so far.
I am SO disappointed in the lack of flexible device access scheduling on this router. I cannot believe a company with the consumer base of Netgear hasn't figured out that parents want flexible control on a per device basis in their household. I just "upgraded" to this modem router (xfinity user) because I wanted fuller support for the xfinity service i have, and because netgear has in general been more on the ball with needed firmware udpates.
Netgear--seriously--content filtering is at best a very limited form of parental control. I have teens in my house, and desperately need a way to schedule their access by device by day and by hour--variable. I did figure out how to block services on a schedule, but it only allows me to set one schedule, so I can only block access to services in one way regardless of the day of week. OMG--my kids have different weekday/weekend access schedules!!! Are you kidding here? Get some parents involved in your product ideation.
This may or may not stall my netgear adoption.
I have said this time and time again. Netgear SUCKS. They are clueless when it comes to parental controls. They use OpenDNS for content filtering which they suck too. Don't waste your time and effort fixing OR looking at fixing something that you that is out of your control. Stop using their product. Depending on your budget, buy a Linksys, Asus or Synology router.
- My c7000 has two channels the 2.4 and 5, I went to advance setup then wireless and set a time block on channel 2.4 so at 10pm my 2.4 wifi goes off but the 5 continues to work. My son does not have the password for the 5 so all his electronics go off and the rest of ours work.