Broken Parental and Access Controls RAX45 - New MACs can always connect

Question

Hello Everyone I have not had much luck with support so turning to the community. I run two netgear RAX45s in my house (switched recently from TP link with Circle) to find a better mobile app supported parental control supported platform.

My problem is this I have not found a way to have access controls and parental controls enabled together. If I turn on parental controls, I get forced to use the app where I setup profiles and can pause and set schedule and the key part here is FOR USERS YOU MAP a profile.

The design flaw I have found is this, if a kid connects a new device (They obviously have the wifi password) the new device gets added to the home profile but it does not apply the parental control policy to the new device.

I have tried using "Off Time", as well as "Bed Time" but a new device will always be allowed on the network if it joins with a new MAC address. When the off time hits my older kids know how to eaisly create a new MAC in XBOX settings and since the have the wifi password they reconnect and internet access is allowed for the new device.

This would be easily stopped if access controls were allowed and I could block all new devices from connecting once I setup their device; no new mac would be allowed. However I've found you either can get access controls (have to control in the router, no bed time or schedule) or you use parental control with the app and you can not block new connecting devices.

Anyone have any thoughts or what I'm doing wrong?

Thank you

michaelkenward · Answer

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Luke0927&nbsp;wrote:
I run two netgear RAX45s in my house ....
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How are they configured?
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Two routers on your network can cause headaches. For example, you can end up with local address problems. Among other things, the other router can misdirect addresses that the Netgear router usually handles, such as routerlogin.net or the usual IP address for a router, 192.168.1.1. This explains some of the other drawbacks.What is Double NAT? | Answer | NETGEAR SupportUnless you have specific reasons for using two routers – to create two separate networks for example – it is often easier to use just one router and then to set up the second router as a wifi access point. Netgear advises this, as does just about every site you will visit.That has its own drawbacks:Disabled Features on the Router when set to AP Mode | Answer | NETGEAR Support
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But in your case you have one RAX45 router handling anything that gets disabled on the other one.
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Luke0927 · Answer

Hi,&nbsp;They are completely separate networks with unique SSIDs.&nbsp; This my my short term solution, the 2nd router the kids do not have access to it supports my home office and our always on devices.&nbsp; With that setup I do not share the network password to kids, when I have to I can physically disconnect the uplink from the "kids" router to the outbound WAN router; basically doing manual off time (not ideal).&nbsp;This is not optimal because I do like to give my kids some time on weekends past the time I go to bed so I want them to have access to their devices and internet just in a healthy moderation.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The only thing I can thing of unless I'm not doing something correctly is setting up a schedule to block services and try and block output TCP/UDP ports in the router; that may possibly kill all outbound connections past a certain time.&nbsp;Currently I try and turn off their access by 1am on summer hours, so they are getting plenty of access time.

michaelkenward · Answer

Luke0927&nbsp;wrote:
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They are completely separate networks with unique SSIDs.&nbsp;

That does not eliminate the double NAT issue.
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You still have two routers on your network.
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You can still create separate SSIDs if you put one of the routers into AP mode. Then you use the router one to control what the kids get up to.

Luke0927 · Answer

OK yes I agree 2 routers I have to NATs in the house, but the two networks are seperated off no devices see both, they are separate IP subnets in the home I don't allow any devices to cross connect (but mine can if needed);&nbsp;I could create a single network with an extended AP but how will that fix the issue of the NetGear Fimeware/NightHawk App?&nbsp; By configuring the 2nd router as an AP only is there a feature or way I can then stop all network traffic through the AP at a given time?&nbsp; I see no way in the GUI or App (and no command line) to do anything else.&nbsp;&nbsp;Unless are you saying if I create the AP with router 2, I can then have it as a device in the nighthawk app I can control? That possibly would work if I have the kids only have access to AP and I can off time it with the night hawk app from router 1.&nbsp;I have ran 1 single router for longer than the dual setup, and it still does not function with only 1 network.&nbsp;I can post a screen shot if you like but in my router once I enable parental controls when I go to /Security/Access controls / I have the message to use access controls use the Night Hawk app.&nbsp; (In my 2nd router I do not have parental controls on and can block/allow devices with the ACL).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Broken Parental and Access Controls RAX45 - New MACs can always connect

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