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I have a Nighthawk R700 router which I bought to replace a perfectly decent router specifically because I wanted the parental controls. Unfortunately, the parental controls seem to miss as much as they block.
For example, my son was supposed to be doing math but what he was really doing was playing games on various .io domains, none of which were blocked. Diep.io, slither.io, wilds.io, etc. None of them were blocked, even though the 'games' category is checked for this time block.
Another example is lordofthecraft.net which is a gaming forum for an online minecraft multiplayer rpg. I have both 'games' and 'forums and message boards' checked for this time block, and yet he is still able to read and post on lordofthecraft.net. For the .io games I can blacklist, but the forum is something he is allowed to access during his screen time. I really don't want to have to go in and blacklist it every morning andthen take it off the blacklist every afternoon! That is the whole point of having the parental controls, so I don't have to deal with this garbage manually.
I just don't understand why the Genie parental controls are so crappy....why they are constantly missing domains that should be blocked. I mean I guess if someone intentionally mis-characterizes their domain I could understand it but these are legitimate websites that are findable in google search using keywords like 'games' and 'forum' so why can't the Netgear parental controls correctly identify them and treat them accordingly?
As a last resort, Netgearshould include a feature in their parental controls software to allow adding a specific domain into a time block, rather than just a blanket whitelist/blacklist! At least that way I could put the sites in myself when the parental control software fails.
I just don't understand why the Genie parental controls are so crappy....why they are constantly missing domains that should be blocked. I mean I guess if someone intentionally mis-characterizes their domain I could understand it but these are legitimate websites that are findable in google search using keywords like 'games' and 'forum' so why can't the Netgear parental controls correctly identify them and treat them accordingly?
Netgear parental controls is a customized service provided by OpenDNS. You should read the FAQ to get a better understanding of what it is and isn't capable of doing. In particular, question #14 is relevant:
14. Where do you get your list of domains for the Live Parental Controls service?
Live Parental Control is powered by OpenDNS. OpenDNS uses a number of sources for domain and category data including the community run domain tagging system.
AFAIK, Google does not categorize domains; it indexes webpages by content. For example, if slither.io mentions "games", then a Google search for that word will include slither.io. But this doesn't necessarily categorize slither.io as a gaming domain any more than any other domain that mentions "Games", such as one that has a web page that says, "The Summer Olympics Games".
You have to figure that domain categorization has to be done by people. In fact, question #15 in the FAQ allows users to submit categorizations for domain:
15. How can I report false positives or add uncategorized domains to the blocking list?
You can flag domains for review or submit new domains on the OpenDNS website at https://community.opendns.com/.
It is a never-ending battle for OpenDNS to keep the blocking list up to date. If you have ever looked at the filters used by ad-blockers, like uBlock Origin, you will appreciate how difficult the job can be. One of the largest filters is over 60,000 lines!
As I mentioned, Netgear Parental Controls is a customized OpenDNS service. As such, you have to put your faith in OpenDNS to maintain their filters. Unfortunately, you cannot add your own domains to the filters. If you want that capability, you should switch to the regular OpenDNS security offerings. These are not affiliated with Netgear.
I just don't understand why the Genie parental controls are so crappy....why they are constantly missing domains that should be blocked. I mean I guess if someone intentionally mis-characterizes their domain I could understand it but these are legitimate websites that are findable in google search using keywords like 'games' and 'forum' so why can't the Netgear parental controls correctly identify them and treat them accordingly?
Netgear parental controls is a customized service provided by OpenDNS. You should read the FAQ to get a better understanding of what it is and isn't capable of doing. In particular, question #14 is relevant:
14. Where do you get your list of domains for the Live Parental Controls service?
Live Parental Control is powered by OpenDNS. OpenDNS uses a number of sources for domain and category data including the community run domain tagging system.
AFAIK, Google does not categorize domains; it indexes webpages by content. For example, if slither.io mentions "games", then a Google search for that word will include slither.io. But this doesn't necessarily categorize slither.io as a gaming domain any more than any other domain that mentions "Games", such as one that has a web page that says, "The Summer Olympics Games".
You have to figure that domain categorization has to be done by people. In fact, question #15 in the FAQ allows users to submit categorizations for domain:
15. How can I report false positives or add uncategorized domains to the blocking list?
You can flag domains for review or submit new domains on the OpenDNS website at https://community.opendns.com/.
It is a never-ending battle for OpenDNS to keep the blocking list up to date. If you have ever looked at the filters used by ad-blockers, like uBlock Origin, you will appreciate how difficult the job can be. One of the largest filters is over 60,000 lines!
As I mentioned, Netgear Parental Controls is a customized OpenDNS service. As such, you have to put your faith in OpenDNS to maintain their filters. Unfortunately, you cannot add your own domains to the filters. If you want that capability, you should switch to the regular OpenDNS security offerings. These are not affiliated with Netgear.
Thank you for your helpful reply. I understand now why the category blocking is so weak. Unfortunately, I can't use Open DNS for my parental controls because it doesn't have the scheduled time block feature. I also already bought the Netgear router specifically because it had this software. I'll also point out that scheduled blocking has been requested many times by Open DNS users and the stock answer is: use the Netgear Genie parental controls. That's how I ended up here.
As a Netgear customer I'd like to have the ability to add a specific URL to a specific schedule time block (either allow or disallow). Otherwise, the lag between new gaming websites popping up and Open DNS flagging them as gaming sites makes the Genie parental controls basically useless. And considering that the Genie Parental Control is a highly-promoted feature that is affecting customers' choices of what router to buy, I think it is a fair request.
