Nighthawk App Limitations - Will it be improved to match Genie someday?

[MattMatt]

So I unfortunately allowed my phone to update the Genie app, which has now apparently been disabled by Netgear as being no longer compatible with my router.  This is, of course, complete and total bunk.  My old android phone has an older copy of Genie which works just fine.  But now I'm stuck with a dumbed down app to use with my router.

So that being said, the one feature of Genie that I sorely miss in the new app is the ability to turn on and off Access Control.  Is that going to be added back someday?  Did I miss that in the Nighthawk app?  At this point I have to go to a web browser, log in, navigate to the page, find the feature, enable/disable it, hit apply, wait for two minutes, etc. etc. etc. UGH.  Use to be a simple thing.

The Genie app had nicer icons for the various devices that are attached to my network.  This isn't really an issue but I'm wondering if there are plans to improve that part of the Nighthawk app?

[DexterJB]

Hi @MattMatt, welcome to the community and thank you for reaching out. You can try to use the Pause/Unpause feature on the Nighthawk app for you to disable the Internet access of a connected device. Rest assured, your feedback is very important to us and we will continue to work on improving the app for better functionality.

Dexter

[MattMatt]

Dexter,

Thank you for replying.  How does pausing a device that already has access to my network alloww me to disable MAC address filtering so a different unknown device can connect?

I don't mean to sound rude, but do you know what "Access Control" is?  Just checking.  The ability to turn Access Control on and off was easily done in the Genie app.  It is nowhere to be found in the Nighthawk App.

[schumaku]

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@DexterJB wrote:

You can try to use the Pause/Unpause feature on the Nighthawk app for you to disable the Internet access of a connected device.

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Dexter,

This does disable the access for the device to the network - not "just" ot the Internet.

Regardless of the previous setting, once putting a device to Pause, the access control is enabled automatically - when I have ot right other unknown devices will be allowed.

@MattMatt Turning off the Access Control would undermine the paused devices. 

[MattMatt]

"Access Control" enables, or disables, the MAC Address authentication for devices on the network.  If I have not added a MAC address to the router, and Access Control is enabled, it cannot use the Internet.  In the Genie App, I could enable/disable "Access Control" from within the app.  This feature does not appear anywhere in the Nighthawk app.  I have to go through a web browser to do what I could easily do from within Genie previously, and this is annoying.

Do either of you understand this feature??  Perhaps you should read Netgear's KB on Access Control.

I never said anything about pausing a device on my network.  Please ignore what Dexter wrote...  I'm not trying to pause anything.  😕

[schumaku]

The control to enable/disable the Access Control (which exists in the Genie App and the Genie Program network map!) isn't available in the Nighthawk App - this is it. 

Trouble is the App designers and marketeers apparently don't understand the subtile differences in the feature set, make a big mess with wording and naming of the features in the router Web UI vs the App.

The point is that disabling the Access Control would as well disable the Paused device blocking - they are mixing features, one often mistakenly defined to disable/enable the Internet access for a device, by a control named Paused/Resume ... what in fact does enable the Access Control in the background (Allow all new devices to connect), and add the device to the Access Control as a blocked device.

They are mixing what is "Access Control" with "Block" vs. "Allow" in the router Web UI with a "Device Manager" with "Pause" and "Resume".

It's a huge mess, and I din't wonder that even long term Netgear people and active community members are more than confused.

That's more a Nightmare App then anything seriously designed an integrated - I'm fully with the users complaining!

[MattMatt]

To be fair, I was under the impression that Access Control would prevent a device from accessing *anything* on the network.  According the the KB article I just linked to, that's not the case.  Really, without Internet access, we don't do a lot of device-to-device interaction.  I assumed Access Control was preventing devices from doing *anything* on the network, so I think I stand corrected here.  (I don't like using a guest network.)

So I guess now, the procedure is to give a guest the password, they connect, but if Access Control is turned on in the router do they start out Paused?  So then I just have to un-pause them?

I still have Genie on my unused android phone, and hopefully that old android tablet that I haven't touched in a while.  I'm really upset that Netgear summairly disabled Genie, and have slowly been disabling features in the router during "security firmware upgrades".  Very frustrating and I'm quite soured on the brand now.

[schumaku]

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@MattMatt wrote:

To be fair, I was under the impression that Access Control would prevent a device from accessing *anything* on the network.

Fair enough! That's what happens if you Block a device in Access Control, perfectly correct, and as documented in the Nighthawk routers fine documentation as well as the Nighthawk Routers online documentation:

===

Access Control Help

You can use Access Control to allow or block computer or electronic devices from accessing your network. When a device is blocked, it would only be able to get an IP address from your router, but it won't be able to communicate with other devices, nor it would be able to connect to the Internet.

To enable Access Control:

Select Turn on Access Control check box. Selecting this check box lets you block or allow computers or electronic devices from accessing your network. You have to select this check box before you can specify an Access Rule and use the Allow and Block buttons. When this check box is cleared, all devices are allowed to connect, even if the device is in the blocked list.

Access Rule radio buttons. Select the radio button for the Access Rule that you want for new devices attempting to connect to your network. The Access Rule does not affect previously blocked or allowed devices. It applies only to future devices joining your network after you apply these settings.

By default, “Allow all new devices to connect” is selected, so if you or your family buy a new device, it will be able to access your network without configuring its MAC address in this page.

NETGEAR recommends that you keep this option selected. If you change this to “Block all new devices from connecting”, then your new device won't be able to access your network until you specifically add its MAC address into the allowed list. For example, if a new computer has both wireless and Ethernet network connections, each connection has its own MAC address, you'll need to add specifically both MAC addresses to the allowed list.

Allow and Block buttons. To allow or block access for a specific device, select its check box and then click the Allow or Block button to change its status.

Click Apply when you finish changing the settings.
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This is what the logs show when associating with a Nighthawk router using a Blocked device:

[Access Control] Device Unknown with MAC address 40:4E:36:xx:xx:xx is blocked to access the network, Thursday, May 16, 2019 21:0 

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@MattMatt wrote:

According the the KB article I just linked to, that's not the case.  Really, without Internet access, we don't do a lot of device-to-device interaction.  I assumed Access Control was preventing devices from doing *anything* on the network, so I think I stand corrected here.  (I don't like using a guest network.)

The KB is somewhere between vague and wrong. Of course, putting a device to Pause on the Nighthawk App does block it from the Internet access - this is obviously not the full truth.

Now read my previous reply again 8-)