Router with easy to use parental controls

[Braintilt]

I recently went from renting a modem/router, to my own device of modem and a router. Let me say my ISP provider had all the settings in one, parental control. Setting times, limiting access, or just blocking off the internet completely when the kids wanna act up. Very easy to use and no hassle. I bought a netgear R6120 I read up on it, they claimed to have very easy to use parental controls. errrrrrrrrrrr i was wrong, they require you to make an account on the netgear opendns website. Top it off its a complicated hot mess to even try to set a time, or it don't even block internet access unless I shut off the wifi completely. Which my girl puts everyone to sleep and stays up watching netflix and all that. So is there any advice on which brand of router has the easiest app to make all this happen : Parental controls, Setting a time where internet access is unavailable for specific devices, and a simple app design? I'm tech savvy, but the wife isn't... she wants something simple and not have me set some complex system where i have shut off the wifi completely. Appreciate the responses. 

[MrSimplicity]

I don't know of any router specifically that can do this to my knowledge. but you should be able to limit access just by blocking the devices MAC address not sure if you can setup a timed thing. the easiest, not exactly the most convenient method, is if you have both 2.4ghz and 5ghz you can set a different password for each and at night or whenever change the password on the 2.4 for the kids and have a different password on the 5ghz band for you.

 

like 8 years ago i used to have an app on my phone that i could just connect to any wifi and completely block access for whomever i chose or just block the entire network. I don't remember the name, just know it got patched (sort of). I'm sure if you dug around you could find something that could work the same. With that you might be able to find a program that you can run on your computer that can do all that as long as it has access to your network. 

 

I'll look around and see if i can find something that can help you. if your router doesn't have the options you are looking for you shouldn't have to go out and buy a new router.

[MrSimplicity]

1 hour ago, Braintilt said:

Appreciate the responses. 

So with my limited digging i can't find any specific information on a router other than SonicWALL which has an extensive firewall that can do exactly what you want and can block specific MAC address (devices) from the internet on a schedule. But i think the cheapest router you can get is $200 which doesn't seem too bad.

 

Otherwise there's a program called NetCut [https://arcai.com/] that you can download on your PC that with the little bit of testing I did seems to only sort of work. I don't have another Desktop to test it on but using my phone and tablet I was only able to block access to certain things. I could still use google and get to most websites. I was not however able to use certain apps that required internet. So this option is a bit of a nuisance but could definitely make using the internet a bit annoying.

 

But if you have the cash to spare i would look into the SonicWall router and their firewall. It looks like it has everything you may be looking for.

[mtz_federico]

You could take a look at at FingBox, Last time I checked it blocked internet access by telling the device that you want to stop having internet access that the fing box is the router and not letting that device access the internet