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Forum Discussion
Restoring LOCAL parental control functionality
So since Netgear is removing the "Live Parental Control" from their routers (which is good, I don't want to have to go to some other site just to change configuration), just WHEN are you going to res...
jelabarre59 wrote:So since Netgear is removing the "Live Parental Control" from their routers (which is good, I don't want to have to go to some other site just to change configuration), just WHEN are you going to restore the LOCAL Parental Control functionality in the firmware? Properly, it should be available *NOW* (as it never should have been removed in the first place) so you should be providing a patch to fix your oversight immediately. I need a function that DISABLES connections immediately, which means I would have to have local controls. An online filter only works for manipulating DNS lookups (and probably is broken by DNS-over-HTTPS, and I can't shut that off on a school-managed Chromebook anyway).
I am not certain that Netgear is removing Parental Controls. Disney Circle is still working. And, the "New" Netgear version of Parental Controls is available on the original Orbi product line and will be available on the AX product line "in a few months."
I believe what is happening is that the older "Live" Parental Controls is going away in favor of the newer products.
My understanding is that Netgear got into the Parental Controls business (with "Live", with Disney, and now by themselves) because the methods that had been used on routers for years no longer met peoples' needs. The new "Smart Parental Controls" come in free and subscription versions. (See toward the bottom of the page for differences)
https://www.netgear.com/home/services/smart-parental-controls/#parental-control
The Orbi "app" will disable connections immediately, although that is probably not the intention.
It is really frustrating that Netgear does not have employees watching the community forums, where customers discuss Netgear products amongst themselves. We are left to speculate about things and have no influence on Netgear business decisions.
Just bought a D7800 and Netgear have definitely removed "live parent controls" and replaced it with absolutely nothing! It provides absolutely no way to restrict/control/manage my children's internet access, a must in modern society! Netgear's new "smart parental controls" aren't available on the nighthawk so looks like I'll be returning it and looking for an alternative :-(
You are entirely correct. Good luck on fiinding something. I searched for "Best Parental Controls" and am not sure I believe their story:
https://www.lifewire.com/best-parental-control-routers-4160776
What a debacle, looks like all the manufactures are trying to force you to have a "subscription" rather then give you the controls in the modem/router. My old ADSL modem/router from 10 years ago had infinite control, the TP-Link modem I have now states it has "parental controls" but they are less than optimal to the point of almost useless. This is very disheartening.
CrimpOn wrote:You are entirely correct. Good luck on fiinding something. I searched for "Best Parental Controls" and am not sure I believe their story:
https://www.lifewire.com/best-parental-control-routers-4160776
I see a couple that apparently require a cellphone app to manage the router, or at least to manage the parental controls. Being forced to use a phone/tablet is just unacceptable to me, and I'll automatically reject any such product.
One particular issue I see with most Parental Controls is they are far too "static" in their configurations. I need to be able to dynamically shut off a connection, or to temporarily tweak a profile. And it seems a lot of these are relying on DNS to manage connections and filtering, but it would seem once a device has already run a DNS query, then it will have it in an ARP cache and won't hit DNS for a while (I know just enough networking to be dangerous :smileyfrustrated:). Technically what I'm in need of is more "access controls" than "parental controls", but they usually get lumped together.
As I had this R6220 that we had bought for a temporary usage for a tenant, and now we don't need it for that anymore, I had hoped to make use of it for home. Doesn't look as though it's fit for purpose. I've looked at OpenWRT as an alternative [1}; it should be quite capable of doing it but figuring out the commands and scripting is a pain. My daughter will probably graduate from high school before I get that worked out.
[1] (I have a R7000 I found in an electronics recycling bin; it has 19.7.7 on it right now. As I say above, figuring out the access/parental controls is not so straightforward, although if I can figure the commands out it should be simple enough to make Ansible playbooks to do what I want).
jelabarre59 wrote:
I see a couple that apparently require a cellphone app to manage the router, or at least to manage the parental controls. Being forced to use a phone/tablet is just unacceptable to me, and I'll automatically reject any such product.
This is so interesting. My mobile is always in my shirt pocket. Opening the Orbi app and sliding the "Pause" button would be a lot more convenient than logging into a computer interface, navigating to some screen, etc. "Different strokes for different folks".
jelabarre59 wrote:One particular issue I see with most Parental Controls is they are far too "static" in their configurations. I need to be able to dynamically shut off a connection, or to temporarily tweak a profile. And it seems a lot of these are relying on DNS to manage connections and filtering, but it would seem once a device has already run a DNS query, then it will have it in an ARP cache and won't hit DNS for a while (I know just enough networking to be dangerous :smileyfrustrated:). Technically what I'm in need of is more "access controls" than "parental controls", but they usually get lumped together.
Technically, it is the DNS cache, and Yes, entries stay in the local device cache until their "Time to Live" expires. I have seen articles about "How do Parental Controls work" discussing whether they are only DNS or have some other capabilities. Having no one to "Parent", I have not spent much time researching how controls work.
