Parental Controls on R7800

michaelkenward
Guru - Experienced User
Jan 21, 2021
There will soon be three flavours of parental controls on Netgear devices. (A new one is on the way.) My guess is that you want the free version.

This still works on the R7800.

The link from DarrenM is actually a part of the new process.

A number is more useful than "the latest". (It may not be by the time people read this.) There can also be newer versions, or "hot fixes", that do not show up if you check for new firmware in the browser interface.

What firmware version do you have on the device? A new one recently landed. This can change the way into parental controls.

Netgear has removed support for free parental controls from the Nighthawk App for mobile devices. It is also making it harder to enable parental controls in other ways.

If you haven't been there already, the first thing to try is the browser graphical user interface (GUI). This is the way into the router's controls with a wired connection from a PC.

An alternative is to begin with the desktop genie for your operating system.

Here too Netgear wants to kill off this useful tool and is hiding the usual landing pages for the software. If may still be on the support section for your hardware, feed in your model number here:

Support | NETGEAR

If not, it might still be here:

genie Landing Page | Apps | Discover | Home | NETGEAR

Scroll to the bottom and find the version for your operating system.

The problem with that link is that iot delivers an earlier version of the genie. With luck, install it and it will offer you an updated version (2.4.62).

When it comes to managing Parent Controls after it is running, this is probably the best way in:

https://netgear.opendns.com/sign_in.php

I have just run through the process and it still works. But using the browser graphical user interface (GUI) in the R7800 should get what you want.

Good luck, you may need it.
- BlackDot
  Guide
  Jan 22, 2021
  michaelkenward
  
  Thanks for your feedback on this topic. You're right, numbers are better than latest version, especially in forum environments.
  
  Router: Nighthawk X4S R7800
  Firmware: v1.0.2.80
  Genie (Windows Desktop): downloaded v2.4.60.0, after install about page in Genie App said v2.4.62
  Genie (Android): v3.1.78 - doesn't support R7800, redirects to Nighthawk app
  Nighthawk App (Android): v2.8.0.1395 - no parental controls option available
  
  Free or not, I just want a version that will work with my R7800 router - and I'm fine paying for a service. This seems to be the router that fell through the cracks (no circle support and removing all the apps to setup the live parental control setup). Forced to migrate from Genie smartphone app to Nighthawk app but parental controls being removed. Genie Desktop version being removed from the download/supports sites unless finding links from other country landing pages and no more updates/security patches for almost 3 years (Genie).
  
  All that aside, I did get Genie Desktop app downloaded but was having issues getting it to enable parental controls on the R7800. Through the Genie app I logged into my router by specifying the IP but when later learned you need to be either be hardwired or connected to its wireless interface (not that of a separate AP on the same network) in order for the Genie app to actually enable the parental controls. When I logged into my OpenDNS account I noticed that it both my R7800 router and AP were registered as devices because Genie was picking up the wrong MAC addresses to submit through and therefore not applying the rules correctly to the right device.
  
  So Live Parental Controls are now working on my R7800 using a very dated Genie Desktop App - hoping for a refreshed solution from Netgear that enables the configuation and management from a smartphone app rather than being required to us a PC.
  
  Would also be very interested to know what this 3rd parental control option is that will soon be release and whether or not the R7800 will be one of the supported devices. Again, I have no problem paying but Circle isn't an option on R7800 so I'm currently stuck trying to use the older LPC solution with no smartphone management support which by today's standards is a must.
  - michaelkenward
    Guru - Experienced User
    Jan 23, 2021
    BlackDot wrote:
    
    Would also be very interested to know what this 3rd parental control option is that will soon be release and whether or not the R7800 will be one of the supported devices. Again, I have no problem paying but Circle isn't an option on R7800 so I'm currently stuck trying to use the older LPC solution with no smartphone management support which by today's standards is a must.
    
    It was announced at one of those (now virtual) trade shows.
    
    NETGEAR PRESSROOM
    
    I have no idea how it works, or if it is tied to particular hardware. Maybe it is just a tweak to something we know about already.
    
    Given the lack of useful details., who knows what it is about?

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