Smart Parental Control challenges - IP address based usage

[Tod27]

Sorry for the somewhat vague title.  I have an Orbi RBR850 that I have signed up for Smart Parental Controls.  I used to use the Circle product on a Nighthawk router, so I'm somewhat familiar with the concepts.  I am currently having two challenges setting time limits for my son.

1.  His devices seem to ping IP addresses all day when he isn't using them (away at school).  Using whois.com, it looks like they are Amazon and Apple IP addresses.  I have already found several instances of URL based access of Apple sites and was able to add those to Site Manager as Unlimited.  My problem is that I can't add the IP address based usage to Site Manager to make the system essentially ignore the access.  His devices are an iPad and a Mac Air laptop, so I get the Apple pings.  I don't really get the Amazon pings, but in either case, I don't want to have those use his internet time.  These also show up as "Uncategorized" Usage.

2.  I tried to set up an "Off Time" for the hours that he is at school.  This did not seem to work, and the profile showed usage for the IP address pings.  I don't know if this is specific to the IP address based usage, or if the Off Time function is simply not working properly.

The only reliable solution I have found is to pause the profile when he is at school.  This is annoying and way too manual.

I tried searching on "IP address" problems, but wasn't successful in finding any discussions on this problem.

Any suggestions?

[Jeffgear]

Hi

Does your son have an Apple ID and/or part of family sharing of your iCloud? If so, his iCloud related services like Apple Music, Podcasts, Photos etc on those devices will be pinging Apple's servers in the background. BTW Apple hosts servers in AWS, hence the Amazon ownership showing up from a whois (they all often diversify their services across each other's hosting).

So I think its likely innocuous and related to being an Apple consumer.

[Tod27]

I don’t really care why the device is pinging the addresses, just that it is using his internet time and I cannot manage it using SPC.

[Dialworld]

Same issue here, didn't use to be like that.  An update around March or April seemed to have caused this...  Wasn't really paying much attention at the time.

Time limits are pointless now as when they come back from school system says they've been online 8h already...  And same as you, all Apple related IP adresses from Iphone, ipad, etc...

[kershm]

I have the exact same issue. Even tried having the kids turn “off” the private wifi setting for our network. It will ping all day and make it look like they’ve used all their available internet time for the day - even when they aren’t home. Shows all as IP address in uncategorized. It’s pointless paying for the service if you can’t limit time usage. Resolution yet?

[theKarakal]

I also have the same issue. It started for me 2 days ago after I updated the firmware of my Orbi router to v4.6.9.11. All those pings to IP addresses were being ignored before that. Now my kids' internet access is blocked when they get back from school. 

[NorRose]

Same issue here. Started after I updated to 4.6.9.11. Parental control is useless now with all those pings. Is there a workaround or do we have to wait until a new firmware is released?

[AndrewG49]

Having the same issue here as well.  I both kids IPads had over an hour of time used this morning before they even woke up, and the devices are kept in my room overnight.  They certainly weren't using them.  I just turned off my auto-renew payment option for this service becuase if hours of time are logged for background activity, these parental controls are useless.  Prior to this, I tried to disable all background activity on the ipad, but i guess there are certain actions that just keep going no matter what you do.  Please, either fix this bug or I'm going to have to find a more helpful parental control app! 

[Djmega]

I'm having the same issue. The constant pings to Apple used to never impact usage. I agree that SPC is now basically useless and I'm turning off auto renewal until this is fixed. Netgear pay attention, this is what customer churn looks like.

[Jeffgear]

SPC and Armor seem to have some annoying and lingering bugs with iOS devices that are frustrating their user base. 

[ddeveny]

It really makes the parental control app useless. They need to add the ability to filter by ip range to cover off on the apple pings. Or write some actual code that identifies them.

The app is worth $0 unless they fix this.  My re-bill is Jan.  I'm gone if they don't fix this by then.

[Senthilkumar]

I am also facing same issue. My Son is using Samsung TV Xbox App and I am subscribed for Orbi Parental control. Orbi app tracking the Xbox application loading time. if he plays a game then it is not adding it to xbox instead it is adding it under Unknow IP address lists. Hence the setting for online game is not working. after few hours of playing orbi says that only 5 min under Xbox.

[NorRose]

It’s been close to a year now and nothing from Netgear about the issue. I’m not re subscribing to parental control before this is fixed.