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droog's avatar
droog
Star
Feb 02, 2021

Parental Conrrols on Orbi

Hi,

 

What are the current options for setting up parental controls on Orbi? The KB articles all tell me to click the parental control "Tile" in the app, which does not seem to be there on my system. It seems that Circle support is no longer - is Netgear Smart Parental Controls the replacement? If so, when will it be released and how to setup? Every article I can find here seems to be out dated, and I need to implement something.

 

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Cheers,

droog

4 Replies

    • droog's avatar
      droog
      Star

      OK, all this really tells me is that others have complaints too. I've searched all the information on this forum, what I have learned is:

       

      1] Orbi Wifi6 (AX600, RBR850 + RBS850) used to have support* for circle but that was discontinued

      2] There may be support coming in future but no-one seems to know if or when

       

      None of the workarounds help me as I bought the product from NetGear in China. The DNS based filtering services don't work here as DNS is heavily messed with by the government for their own censorship apparatus. I tested Cloudflare Gateway DNS service to see if that would work, but predicably the traffic sent to ytheir network is simple re-routed.

       

      My Orbi setup is doing an excellent job of providing seamess internet access around the home. It doesn't help me at all with parental controls though, unfortunately.

       

      --

      Cheers,

      droog

       

      * Lots of KB articles on this forum ask me to run the Orbi app and click on the Parental control tile. I can see it *used* to be there. Indeed, its still on the promotional website page for the product toady. https://www.netgear.com/home/wifi/mesh/rbk853

       

      Sadly that tile is no longer there. The circle service is not being advertised as a feature now. I hope there can be addressed in a future firmware update. I don't mind if this is a paid service or not, just hopeful there is a service I can use soon.


      • droog wrote:

        OK, all this really tells me is that others have complaints too. I've searched all the information on this forum, what I have learned is:

        LInk also had an alternative suggestion for using OpenDNS services as a alternative to Circle. 

         

        1] Orbi Wifi6 (AX600, RBR850 + RBS850) used to have support* for circle but that was discontinued

        Orbi AX systems have never had support or Circle was never offered to this model series. It was only offered on Orbi AC systems and seems to be being phased out on that model series since recent FW versions no longer support it. 

         

        2] There may be support coming in future but no-one seems to know if or when

         

        None of the workarounds help me as I bought the product from NetGear in China. The DNS based filtering services don't work here as DNS is heavily messed with by the government for their own censorship apparatus. I tested Cloudflare Gateway DNS service to see if that would work, but predicably the traffic sent to ytheir network is simple re-routed.

        Someting NG forums can not help with. 

         

        My Orbi setup is doing an excellent job of providing seamess internet access around the home. It doesn't help me at all with parental controls though, unfortunately.

         

        --

        Cheers,

        droog

         

        * Lots of KB articles on this forum ask me to run the Orbi app and click on the Parental control tile. I can see it *used* to be there. Indeed, its still on the promotional website page for the product toady. https://www.netgear.com/home/wifi/mesh/rbk853

         

        Sadly that tile is no longer there. The circle service is not being advertised as a feature now. I hope there can be addressed in a future firmware update. I don't mind if this is a paid service or not, just hopeful there is a service I can use soon. Netgear has set up a community forum specifically for the Circle product. Most of the people who watch that forum are more likely to have experience with Circle and know how to work it better than those of us who follow this "general Orbi" forum. Might be more likely to find someone who has a solution if the question is posted there:
        https://community.netgear.com/t5/Circle-Smart-Parental-Controls/bd-p/en-home-circle
        Good Luck