I'm attempting to use Access Control to block access to selected devices from 11pm to 6am. I think I have more than one issue going on here.
Manual Blocking
At 11pm, I go into the admin menu and go to Security / Access Control. I go through and change the settings for individual devices from Allowed to Blocked. In the morning, at 6am, I go into the admin menu and change the devices back from Blocked to Allowed. This works most of the time. However, a couple times, in the morning I can't get into the admin menu. I enter "http://orbilogin.htm" and it just spins. I've actually rebooted the router and it still just spins. The router is technically working... all Allowed devices are able to access the Internet, but I can't unblock devices. I try again a few hours later and presto, the admin menu is now accessible.
In addition to the issue regarding the inability to access the admin menu, the whole manual process is cumbersome. So I thought I'd try the scheduler option.
Scheduled blocking
This just doesn't do anything. I set certain devices as "Blocked" and set a start/stop time. The scheduled start time passes and I check the devices and they're still working. I've also tried allowing all devices and blocking all devices and still the scheduled start time passes and all devices are still working. As far as I can tell, the scheduler is non-functional.
So I have a few questions.
How does the scheduler work?
How would I properly set up the scheduler to block certain devices?
I've read about a parental control program... would that provide my desired functionality and does it work on my router model?
If my only working method is to manually block/unblock, is there a way to use a list rather than the individually editing each device on the list?
Yes, manually blocking/allowing individual devices is not sustainable. (Might be easier to physically remove the device at night and hand it back in the morning.) The only option that Netgear offers is Smart Parental Controls. The Product Data Sheet claims SPC is available for the 750 series.
I discovered that the original Orbi (RBR50) device block was "too stupid" to be effective. By that I mean that it understood only a single 24 hour day. Block sometime after midnight and Unblock sometime before midnight. What you want is to Allow sometime after midnight and Blockk sometime before midnight. You get one pair of actions that must be completed within a single day. It would be relatively easy to set up an experiment to determine if your router has the same behavior. (I'd call it a basic flaw, but that's just me.) Set up a block to start 10 minutes from now and to end one hour from now. You'll know in about an hour if it works or not. Then, try a block late tonight and unblock in the morning and find that it fails.
Good Luck
(p.s. If you are trying to control teenagers, you have already lost.)
