Problems setting up parental controls on 9100EM router
aknnyc
Enthusiast - Level 1

I have tried to setup parental controls to block www.formspring.me from my network and facebook.com for some devices during certain hrs. No success so far on either one.  I have gone through the other messages posted on these forum pages as well as through the steps listed in the router user guide.  I have gone through the dynamic vs static IP addresses, naming each rule, adding each device (as well as ALL) etc etc. but unable to have it block the access ot these URLs  At times, it seems to block access for couple of minutes and then back to normal access.  IE or Firefox makes no difference. 

Any suggestions?

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Re: Problems setting up parental controls on 9100EM router
jumpin68ny
Master - Level 2

I'm not sure if this applies to the westell router but on the actiontec router when you use parental controls it will half your download speed.  I have 25/5 speed and when I used Parental Controls on my actiontec router my download speed was 10 meg down.  Parental Controls is run in software on the router and not hardware thus the reason such a large impact to your download speed.  Remember this will affect all PC's and not just the ones you want to block this on.

What i did to solve this problem is to use parental controls installed on the PC directly.

Verizon offers (for free) parental controls software

Widows offers (for free) parental controls software called windows live family safety.

If you are interested in any one of these or more information let me know.

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Re: Problems setting up parental controls on 9100EM router
marietg
Enthusiast - Level 2

I am having the same problem with this router.  I have blocked facebook, and numerous other pages to certain computers and they are still able to access them.  There is no problem of cutting internet speeds in half with this router!!!

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Re: Problems setting up parental controls on 9100EM router
jumpin68ny
Master - Level 2

If the parental controls are not blocking then parental controls are not properly enabled and thus the internet download speeds wont be cut in half.  I'm not sure if you have created the proper rule.

I have an actiontec router and hopefully these steps will help  you:

1 Go to Parental Controls

2 Select the device to block by name.  If the name is listed as new-host you need to match up the IP on the device you wish to block to the proper name.  You can also modify the new-host name and give it a name of your own, i.e. billys_pc

3.  Step 2 on parental controls list will be to check the first radio button:  block the following websites and keywords

4.  select the websites and/or embedded sites.  for example for website: www.facebook.com.  for embedded keyword: formspring

5.  Create the schedule (days to block) Click all days

6.  Select the time the rule will be active.  1am to 1am will block all the time

7. Create rule name and save.  

Not sure if the same steps apply in other routers VZ provides but hopefully this helps.

The steps above currently block facebook and formspring

Let me know if this helps.

Jim

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Re: Problems setting up parental controls on 9100EM router
aknnyc
Enthusiast - Level 1

"If the parental controls are not blocking then parental controls are not properly enabled "  Really Jim? please give us some credibility.

I am the OP and I think you and many others on this forum should stop posting answers unless you have ACTUALLY sat in front of the computer and REALLY solved it. Stop simply repeating what's in the manual or suggesting alternate solutions which are not REAL solutions.

The problem with Parental Controls on 9100EM is how they are implemented.  The router internally resolves/converts the URL/keyword  to one (and only one) IP address and blocks that IP address. As long as the URL has only one IP associated, it works perfectly (tumblr.com).  However, many websites (incl facebook) have multiple IPs associated with it and even if one IP is blocked by the router, next one in the list will allow the access.

Solution (verified):

Instead of blocking by the URL/keyword, block each and every IP associated with the URL.  Not an easy task, since you will need to know all IPs associated with the URL and they can change/add new IPs.

Here are some of the IPs associated with facebbook:

66.220.146.32, 66.220.153.11, 66.220.153.1, 69.63.189.11, 66.220.146.11, 66.220.146.25, 66.220.149.32, 66.220.147.22, 66.220.153.19, 69.63.189.31, 66.220.146.18,66.220.146.28,66.220.147.11 and many more

Blocking these IPs will slow down access to facebook enough for the browser to time out. To completely block out facebook, you will need to add few more additional IPs but you may not have to do that. My kids give up after few tries and browser timing out on them.  They KNOW that I am blocking them and wil know if they attempt it.


Also:

  1. Using Parental Controls on 9100EM does NOT cut the download speed in half. It has absolutely NO effect.  Please stop scarring people. Anyone saying that (and suggesting alternate solution) probably has another motive.
  2. Using access controls on EACH PC/laptop is not a solution most of us want. Router is a single point of entery/exit and is much more secure and managable. So please stop suggesting that
  3. Stop suggesting OpenDNS, unless you have financial interest in it and if so, please declare it first. openDNS is a commercial site (even if free) and some of us may not like another site to collect data on my accesses.

If anyone has any other questions/issues related to Parental Controls on 9100EM, pls post here and I will try to answer it. I have researched it enough.

Thanks,

AKNNYC

Re: Problems setting up parental controls on 9100EM router
prisaz
Legend

I know on the Actiontec when you have parental controls enabled, it would go out and hit a third party server each time it checked a web site, so yea it did slow things way down in regards to response times when getting a web site. But does the Westell do that? You would need to enable outbound logging and check. Or run wireshark, or some other tool.

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Re: Problems setting up parental controls on 9100EM router
jumpin68ny
Master - Level 2
I never suggest a solution without testing what I provide. The instructions I list were steps I went through to enable parental controls.

Enabling parental controls does indeed cut your download speed in half on the scrounged How do I know? I ran all sorts of tests to verify this claim. Also this is a feature implemented in software and not hardware and thus the processing takes horsepower from the router. Also on the actiontec when you use a FQDN it will block everything in that name.

Your comments are appreciated but we would all benefit from constructive critism and not negative bashing. Kindly keep your negative comments about other folks to yourself so we can all get along.
Re: Problems setting up parental controls on 9100EM router
prisaz
Legend

@jumpin68ny wrote:
I never suggest a solution without testing what I provide. The instructions I list were steps I went through to enable parental controls.

Enabling parental controls does indeed cut your download speed in half on the scrounged How do I know? I ran all sorts of tests to verify this claim. Also this is a feature implemented in software and not hardware and thus the processing takes horsepower from the router. Also on the actiontec when you use a FQDN it will block everything in that name.

Your comments are appreciated but we would all benefit from constructive critism and not negative bashing. Kindly keep your negative comments about other folks to yourself so we can all get along.

Jim

I agree there are some strange things that go on in regards to parental controls in the router. It know it would go out and hit that third party server everytime It resolved the name. Why it would go hit a network in APNIC is beyond me. By that is what mine would do. Don't know if it still works that way. I run all my stuff through DanGuardian in a Linux based router. It is cool that you figured out how to make things work. If some one with only 2 posts was bashing you, I would take it with a grain of salt. Yes we all try to help each other here, as it is peer to peer support, so I agree with you that if someone does not like an answer they should ignore it and not question someones credibility. We should all be as nice to the next person as we would like them to be to us.

If the OP or anyone else wants to do a search, this was discussed back in 2008. Yes a while back.

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/FiOS-Internet/Firewall-rule-cuts-speed-in-half/m-p/4945#M649

Everyone have a good evening.Smiley Wink

Re: Problems setting up parental controls on 9100EM router
marietg
Enthusiast - Level 2

@jumpin68ny wrote:

If the parental controls are not blocking then parental controls are not properly enabled and thus the internet download speeds wont be cut in half.  I'm not sure if you have created the proper rule.

I have an actiontec router and hopefully these steps will help  you:

1 Go to Parental Controls

2 Select the device to block by name.  If the name is listed as new-host you need to match up the IP on the device you wish to block to the proper name.  You can also modify the new-host name and give it a name of your own, i.e. billys_pc

3.  Step 2 on parental controls list will be to check the first radio button:  block the following websites and keywords

4.  select the websites and/or embedded sites.  for example for website: www.facebook.com.  for embedded keyword: formspring

5.  Create the schedule (days to block) Click all days

6.  Select the time the rule will be active.  1am to 1am will block all the time

7. Create rule name and save.  

Not sure if the same steps apply in other routers VZ provides but hopefully this helps.

The steps above currently block facebook and formspring

Let me know if this helps.

Jim


Jim,

I don't believe anyone is bashing you in their response!  One MAJOR thing you need to consider is you are using a totally different router than what the OP is referring to.  We are discussing the parental controls in the Westell 9100, not the Actiontec router.  They are two totally different routers, even though they both offer similar features.  I have had the router YOU are referring too, and had no problems in configuring parental controls either via keywords, or specific domains with the Actiontec.  However this feature doesn't work in the Westell 9100 router provided by Verizon.  I have tried the steps you suggested, and still no dice.  Like the OP stated even setting the router to block specific IP's whether the computer is setup for static or dynamic IP it still does not completely block the PC from accessing that content only times out the browser.  The scheduling rules for blocking internet activity to certain times of day work, but not filtering certain domains.  If I set a rule for facebook.com no matter what IP address that domain is pointed too it should be blocked and is blocked by the Actiontec, but not the Westell router.  I guess that's Verizon's way of getting people to sign up for their Security Suite.

We all know there are many different types of Web filtering software that can be configured at the PC level to filter or block content, but we should be able to do that at the router level instead of having to configure this on each individual PC in the home.  OpenDNS is a good source for blocking content that is harmful such as malware and malicious sites, but doesn't allow blocking specific computers from certain domains unless you purchase it.  Verizon should seriously consider addressing this issue in a firmware upgrade for the Westell 9100 and that would solve the problem.

Re: Problems setting up parental controls on 9100EM router
Hubrisnxs
Legend
The family protection software is free. www.verizon.com/freetools. They aren't trying to get you to but anything for that
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