Blocking Android Apps

[jpinks]

I want to limit my kids usage of there android apps on the internet. I tried blocking they urls youtube.com etc and the other 3 or 4 I found. Same with Netflix. But no matter what I have tried I cant get it blocked. I have the Net Gear Nighthawk 7000. Does anyone have any tricks?? My only idea left is to have the router shut down the wireless on a schedule but my wife wont like that. Would appreciate any ideas!!!

 

[stevech]

I want to limit my kids usage of there android apps on the internet. I tried blocking they urls youtube.com etc and the other 3 or 4 I found. Same with Netflix. But no matter what I have tried I cant get it blocked. I have the Net Gear Nighthawk 7000. Does anyone have any tricks?? My only idea left is to have the router shut down the wireless on a schedule but my wife wont like that. Would appreciate any ideas!!!

Parental direction and rules. With heavy consequences.

 

[Nullity]

Can you create a wireless guest network for the kids then put it on a schedule?

There's probably a better way... I will post if I find one.

 

[azazel1024]

JUST for your kids? Does the R7000 support blocking based on IP address of the client? Then just setup a rule for the IP addresses handed out to your kids Android devices to block the IP address ranges you want blocked.

Blocking netflix.com won't do anything, as that is not the IP used by the actual app itself.

First of all, parental rules to uninstall apps you don't want your kids running. If it is a browser issue, block the IP address RANGES for the services you don't want them visiting (Netflix has more than one IP address).

I'd do a combination of that, strict rules as well as guest network that their devices reside on that gets shut down on a schedule.

Frankly I just take my kids devices away when they aren't permitted to use them. I'll grant it works on a 7 year old, maybe not as much on a 14 year old. That said, my friends have 4 kids ranging in age from 15 down to 5. The older girls (15 and 13) they take their phone and iPod touch away every night and put it on their own bedside table.

I put my kids android tablets up on my dresser when they aren't supposed to be using them (which is anytime I don't explicitly tell them they can be using them). When they are older I'll probably switch to guest network for them combined with shutting it down at certain times. I am a little less concerned about them playing games at night or something than I am spending on all night watching netflix or texting friends (which is also why I am going to resist letting them have a full on phone until they have a legitimate NEED for one, like they are driving or doing sports where my wife or I need to drop them off and pick them up).

 

[jpinks]

I was thinking of using the Guest Network for that, but I just dont trust it to shut down. I tried using that on our old DLink router and it either didnt shutdown (guest network) or it shutdown all the wireless. First time it did it I was out of town on business and got an earfull from my wife

 

[stevech]

I was thinking of using the Guest Network for that, but I just dont trust it to shut down. I tried using that on our old DLink router and it either didnt shutdown (guest network) or it shutdown all the wireless. First time it did it I was out of town on business and got an earfull from my wife

No matter what you do, kids will get around it. Techniques get shared. You could lock up the ISP modem powered off and they'd find a way to get on a neighbors' WiFi (assuming the devices don't have cellular).

Several of our relatives just don't allow PCs or handhelds in the kids' rooms unsupervised until an age of maturity. No exceptions. Whine and snivel, argue like lemmings, to no avail. A few years later- this parenting shows it paid off well.

 

[Nullity]

No matter what you do, kids will get around it. Techniques get shared. You could lock up the ISP modem powered off and they'd find a way to get on a neighbors' WiFi (assuming the devices don't have cellular).

Several of our relatives just don't allow PCs or handhelds in the kids' rooms unsupervised until an age of maturity. No exceptions. Whine and snivel, argue like lemmings, to no avail. A few years later- this parenting shows it paid off well.

There is no "right way" to raise a child, but there are definitely wrong ways.

Can we keep "this is the best way to raise a child" out of this thread and stick to solving the wireless networking problems?

 

[azazel1024]

Is it that hard to test to see if the guest network gets shut down properly at the right time? That is what I'd go for still.

 

[sfx2000]

I want to limit my kids usage of there android apps on the internet. I tried blocking they urls youtube.com etc and the other 3 or 4 I found. Same with Netflix. But no matter what I have tried I cant get it blocked. I have the Net Gear Nighthawk 7000. Does anyone have any tricks?? My only idea left is to have the router shut down the wireless on a schedule but my wife wont like that. Would appreciate any ideas!!!

When I saw the subject line - I thought it was about blocking Android from installing apps - this can be done, as Android does support policies, but it is also fairly easy to work around them.

If the Apps are already installed - well, you can use things like OpenDNS to restrict usage, but really...

Technology is not a babysitter - as Parents, we need to have that "talk" with them, show them right and wrong, and establish trust... and back it up with a big stick (just kidding).

I think it's pretty cool that Kids embrace technology, but with anything, there is good and bad - it's up to us, as Parents, to sit down and explain what is appropriate - and what is not...

And when it is not, there are consequences - my preference is a 5lb hand sledge... which is currently out of stock, but the 2lb Hardwood Engineer's Hammer is a good substitute...

http://www.harborfreight.com/2-lb-hardwood-engineers-hammer-69226.html

sfx

 

[stevech]

Agree 100%

I could go on but Tim will yell at us for non-geek talk.
I will say: my close relatives made their maturing son use the PC in the family room where everyone else was. He is in grad school now and is a wholesome non-druggie, non-boozer, non-hookup.

 

[System Error Message]

personally i wouldnt block apps but i would block the ads for the usual safety reasons. To actually block apps you need an L7 firewall because of the way android works. You dont really know what websites or places the apps will access but you can know the android API and block that instead.

Whats to stop them from using mobile data to access the net?

 

[sfx2000]

personally i wouldnt block apps but i would block the ads for the usual safety reasons. To actually block apps you need an L7 firewall because of the way android works. You dont really know what websites or places the apps will access but you can know the android API and block that instead.

Whats to stop them from using mobile data to access the net?

Layer 7 is beyond the scope of most Home/SOHO LAN's - this requires a degree of policy management that most folks don't have.

Also, just because it's Android doesn't mean that the devices have WAN capabilities, there's a lot of WiFi only tablets out there, and with SmartPhones, this assumes that the device actually has a 3G/4G subscription... which may not be true.

Androids are kind of a pain - the primary user account (if not root) has admin privileges as a default for most people, which means not only can one install apps from the Google Play Store, but also add other app stores with perhaps questionable Apps...

 

[Nullity]

If the apps communicate using encryption, a layer 7 firewall is useless (without the encryotion key) since layer 7, the application layer, will be encrypted. You can still filter by destination IP/port though, or any other layer that is not encrypted.