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Circle with Disney Parental Controls On Orbi WiFi Systems Now Available
Click Here for details on installing Circle with Disney on your Orbi WiFi System.
NETGEAR is bringing peace of mind to parents by managing not only access to appropriate online content but also...
The most useful review on this thread by Frank. He gets it.
I just dumped my traditional router for Orbi. 100% of the reason for choosing Orbi is the performance of the system. Every review clearly states it is #1 as a MESH solution, and they are correct. There isn't anything else close for a larger home. Trust me, I have tried many router, extender, dual router and MESH options.
That being said, the parental controls are actually a nice bonus. I had looked at Circle for a year, but just couldn't bring myself to set up a new account and buy a piece of hardware. The fact that it was integrated into Orbi is great. All you do is sign up.
Frank gave an excellent account of the free Circle features. That is good enough for 99% of parents, and better than any other router parental controls I have used. It's also better than a couple subscription services I have tried due to ease of use.
My one complaint was touched on above. The basic features (pause internet, filter content and services by age, monitor usage) are great. I wish Netgear/Disney would offer an option to install the basic features on 4G/LTE using the MDM/VPN solution. I just want to extend the basic features to my kids' phones when not on WiFi. Call it Circle Go Light! I would happily pay $4.99/mo for that, but it is a bit of price gouging to require $4.99/mo to ENABLE THE ABILITY to pay extra for Circle Go!
I respectfully request that you offer this in a future update. Just do it an squash the competition!
Purchased Orbi AC3000 in place of a Linksys AE8500 due to the capability to have one on each level of my home. Linksys offers FREE the parental control future where as for Netgear you have to pay Disney a monthly fee. If you want my opinion NEtgear should offer as a FREE service or drop Disney. If not, you will continue to lose business like mine. Returning today!
The Orbi is one of the most expensive routers on the market, albeit with high-end functionality. Unfortunately, however, with the introduction of the firmware v 2.1.1.12, parental controls beyond basic filtering cost an additional $4.99 per month via Disney Circle (http://www.netgear.co.uk/landings/circle/). Even as I write this, I cannot believe that Netgear is expecting its customers to pay for functionality that other manufacturers include as standard. Shame on you NetGear - Shame on you!!