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We have bought a Nighthawk R7000 specifically for the Parental Controls feature. This is for a business who wish to block users from accessing certain websites during business hours. But, 2 users may access certain blocked sites at any time.
We checked the router is using the latest firmware. We've created the OpenDNS Account and we can log on to their website OK. The router is using their DNS Servers (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220)
We've set up Time Blocks and we can set Whitelists. But, the Whitelist doesn't work. If we Whitelist www.linkedin.com, for instance, it works for a day or so, then blocks everyone. So we decided that a Bypass Account would do the job. This was set up within the OpenDNS web page.
For this to work we need to use NetGear Genie (Downloaded for Windows from http://www.netgear.com/lpc) to browse the web, logging on to the Router with the bypass Account. This is where it goes horribly wrong.
We can open Netgear Genie on the PC, but if we click the Parental Controls tab we get a message "Checking Router Firmware
We're making sure you have firmware that supports Live Parental Controls.
It looks like you might not be connecting to the internet through a supported NETGEAR router........."
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we may overcome this issue?
It seems Netgear finally fixed this issue...or at least I was able to solve it:
First, download the new firmware, 1.0.3.48.
Loggin into my router through the web interface (198.162.1.1), it did not find the new firmware (go figure). I had to manually download and install it. It can be found here:
Once you have the new firmware installed, you'll then need to activate Parental Controls. You can't do this through the web interface. If you try, it will take you to the Netgear page to download their awful Genie App. If you try to use the Genie app, it will tell you do not have the proper firmware!
To solve this, I used the iOS app to enable Parental Controls. I don't know why they were disabled...they were set before, but regardless, you'll need to enable them. In the past, the iOS Genie app would not allow me to log in to my OpenDNS account, which I had already set up. But this time it worked as expected. However, the filter settings I had already established were not listed, so I needed to reapply the filtering (Custom) settings. Once I checked the Enable button, I logged out, waited a few minutes for the settings to filter through, and finally, went to a website I knew should be blocked and it was.
We downloaded the Net Genie app that was on the website - version 2.4.38.
We've tried it on 3 different devices: 1. Small Business Server 2008 R2 2. Windows 7 PC 3. Android smartphone
I don't recall the message that the Android phone gave, but it didn't allow connection to the Parental Controls. Server & PC both give the "Checking Router Firmware" error.
We have uninstalled / reinstalled about 5 or 6 times on each device.
The router was reset to factory defaults initially, when we first realised the app wasn't working.
I'm reluctant to get back in touch with the client unless I have a serious and specific answer to the problem. She is not at all pleased that they've bought this expensive router, for one particular job, and it isn't working. She is not going to pay me to return to site, to cause more disruption to the staff by resetting the router, etc, only to have the problem continue to happen.
Essentially I am keeping my head down and cursing Netgear for (1) selling me a product that doesn't work and (2) not having the promised levels of support to overcome the issues.
I did get a call eventually, (on Mon 23rd May), and I spent over an hour with a Remote Support techie.
She wasn't able to resolve the issue so she agreed to contact me again at 1.00 pm on Thurs 1 June, when I would be on-site again.
I didn't get the expected call, again, of course. That doesn't surprise me for some strange reason!
The client isn't prepared to pay for my time trying to fix an issue with a Router that I have supplied to them. Netgear aren't interested in resolving the issue, despite the fact that I have bought this router in good faith, based on the advertised functionality.
I'm having the same issue and am unable to access Parental Controls for the same reason as the OP, whether I try accessing them on my Mac via Genie, or via iOS. Would really love to get to the bottom of this.
Could someone please post an answer to this, its been months and many of us have been having this problem since the newer versions of the Genie app for PC and Android have come out, your software is garbage so please fix it.
This will be the last time I buy Netgear products and I'll make sure to buy Asus next time, at least their products work.
Thank you Dexter. I really think there's a Firmware issue going here. I reset my R8000 to factory defaults over the weekend. Even still, I was unable to access the Parental Controls portion of the Genie app, getting the same
"Checking Router Firmware
We're making sure you have firmware that supports Live Parental Controls.
It looks like you might not be connecting to the internet through a supported NETGEAR router........."
message as others have reported, which is untrue as I was, in fact, connected to the internet. Again, this is with the latest Firmware, 1.0.4.36.
And how long do you guys need to address this issue, it's literally been months and this tired canned response is getting old. We pay a premium price point for hardware and thanks to the horrible software we can't even access the router with it and functions are tied to certain checks, which are also rendered useless.
Why don't you provide a REAL answer, or better yet an actual timeline when this will be fixed, because this "It's being worked on" garbage has gotten really old.
I did some testing to isolate the issue. If you remove the firmware upgrade, you should be able to login to Parental control screen.
I would request support person to look into the firmware upgrade for possible change related to login security. Appreciate if you could release a new version of upgrade / patch to fix this issue.
Sorry for the confusion. Now I am not able to login. It allowed me login only once. This was after I did factory reset to the router. My current version of firmware is V1.0.0.42 and I am unable to login to the Parentel control. Please help
I am having the same issue that has been going on for months as well. I was told that this is the "premium" router to purchase at Best Buy and I can't get acces to the Parental Controls. Are you kidding me??? Seriously, what good is it if basic controls are unavailable.
So this issue just seems to have dropped off the boards. Did everyone give up and buy a different brand router? I'm having the same issue with my R8000....posted a new message about it but haven't gotten any responses yet. I can't believe for the premium we pay for this thing that this issue is being ignored.
They are ignoring the issue. Presumably they think that, as we've already bought an expensive router, we'll put up with it and simply accept the fault.
This is a short-sighted view, as routers may last some years but we will eventually buy again, based on our own good, or bad, experiences. We probably buy a router a week.
As an IT Support company we have supplied many different Netgear products over the years. That's because I remember the days when any, very rare, hardware faults could be reported by phone. A UK-based techie would help there and then, or simply replace the faulty goods straight away.
They've totally lost that customer service and, as a result, will lose customers. The marketplace is quite crowded with other tech companies bringing out ever more reliable goods.
I won't buy Netgear again, after this woeful experience, which seems such a shame given the many years of loyalty I have shown the brand. But, they aren't reciprocating with any loyalty or decent service towards me or my clients.
Well seeing as I just bought it and still have the box, I'll be returning it and getting a different brand. The Asus I had before this was pretty good....and had very good parental controls. Not sure why I decided on the Netgear other than it seemed to be one of the best on the market. Guess you can't really trust the reviews....now I know to stay away from Netgear.
