Parental Control - Alternative?

[aircoreboy]

Considering the inconsistent nature of Asus' parental controls, is there an alternative way to achieve the same results, for example, using network services filtering?

 

[Lost Dog]

Considering the inconsistent nature of Asus' parental controls, is there an alternative way to achieve the same results, for example, using network services filtering?

What are you trying to achieve? Have you looked at using something like OpenDNS for parental controls?

 

[aircoreboy]

Just to put time limits on devices used by my children, all devices they use have parental control software on them!

 

[FireWire76]

Just to put time limits on devices used by my children, all devices they use have parental control software on them!

I am also looking for a solution for this. I don't get why Asus can't change the built in parental control to be able to set times for blocking IE access only, not block all network traffic as the current parental control does. I even e-mailed Asus about this. But didn't get a response from them.

I would have liked a solution were it's possible to chose between "Block IE access" or "Block All network traffic" per device.

To bad Merlin have to much to do. Would have been awesome if a solution was implemented, because I believe many users of these routers, are parents or have use of this for other reasons. For example blocking certain devices to reach internet, but still allow them to access the internal network etc.

 

[sinshiva]

I am also looking for a solution for this. I don't get why Asus can't change the built in parental control to be able to set times for blocking IE access only, not block all network traffic as the current parental control does. I even e-mailed Asus about this. But didn't get a response from them.

I would have liked a solution were it's possible to chose between "Block IE access" or "Block All network traffic" per device.

To bad Merlin have to much to do. Would have been awesome if a solution was implemented, because I believe many users of these routers, are parents or have use of this for other reasons. For example blocking certain devices to reach internet, but still allow them to access the internal network etc.

hm, that's asking for kind of a lot; you could probably achieve this with something like a cron job + iptables with asuswrt-merlin

this would prevent browsing the internet, but still have local network access, by filtering ports 80 and 443 for specific ip's on your lan

 

[krum]

If you really need Parental Controls; There is a good alternative, Tomato

ASUS (Beta Test Versions V1.2x). Models

http://www.victek.is-a-geek.com/downloads.html

Chris

 

[FireWire76]

@sinshiva

I am not that advanced, so doing what you suggest would be hard for me. I don't even know what a Cron job and IP-tables is...
And to be clear, I don't claim that Merlin should do this, I just said it would have been nice if this sometime would have been implemented.
And if you meant it would have been asking to much of Asus, I disagree. This is a standard feature of a majority of other brands of routers. Have had both D-link and Netgear routers, and both this brands have that as a standard feature. So it's rather a miss from Asus to not have this in the router software.

@krum

I ran Tomato a long time before, and Tomato is by far much better than the software Asus provides. BUT, the reason I changed back to Asus(Merlin's mod) is that Tomato doesn't work with the speed I currently have on my internet. And it seems that there is no fix to have Tomato working with high speed internet. I have 250Mbit Download/100Mbit Upload, and Tomato only gives me 50-70Mbit at max. I think it got to do with the hardware acceleration that is removed from Tomato.
If this wasn't the case, I would have used Tomato immediately.

 

[krum]

@sinshiva

I am not that advanced, so doing what you suggest would be hard for me. I don't even know what a Cron job and IP-tables is...
And to be clear, I don't claim that Merlin should do this, I just said it would have been nice if this sometime would have been implemented.
And if you meant it would have been asking to much of Asus, I disagree. This is a standard feature of a majority of other brands of routers. Have had both D-link and Netgear routers, and both this brands have that as a standard feature. So it's rather a miss from Asus to not have this in the router software.

@krum

I ran Tomato a long time before, and Tomato is by far much better than the software Asus provides. BUT, the reason I changed back to Asus(Merlin's mod) is that Tomato doesn't work with the speed I currently have on my internet. And it seems that there is no fix to have Tomato working with high speed internet. I have 250Mbit Download/100Mbit Upload, and Tomato only gives me 50-70Mbit at max. I think it got to do with the hardware acceleration that is removed from Tomato.
If this wasn't the case, I would have used Tomato immediately.

The version Parental controls worked in was .270 old build but it worked.
Merlin still has it posted on his web page if you want to go back to 3.0.0.4.270.26b. I know that one worked. after that it was a hit and miss. sometimes I go back to that build. I have kids that needs to be checked every once in awhile. (College age; Breaks while not in school) I hate it when they play all night and sleep all day.

chris

 

[FireWire76]

The version Parental controls worked in was .270 old build but it worked.
Merlin still has it posted on his web page if you want to go back to 3.0.0.4.270.26b. I know that one worked. after that it was a hit and miss. sometimes I go back to that build. I have kids that needs to be checked every once in awhile. (College age; Breaks while not in school) I hate it when they play all night and sleep all day.

chris

Do you mean that the old version only blocks IE access not internal network access, because that's the problem I have with Asus solution. That it blocks all access to the network.
The thing is that I have devices that should be blocked from internet but should be allowed to access the internal network. And Asus software doesn't allow me to use Parental control and Network Services at the same time, if so the current solution would have worked. But it doesn't... If Network services is used, the parental control don't. And that's is a conflict because they both use the same part of the firmware. So I get that this is hard to bypass, that's why I want the parental control to be able set which type of block is wanted(IE access only or ALL access).

 

[krum]

Do you mean that the old version only blocks IE access not internal network access, because that's the problem I have with Asus solution. That it blocks all access to the network.

So I get that this is hard to bypass, that's why I want the parental control to be able set which type of block is wanted(IE access only or ALL access).

So you are after to block IE access ? Port numbers or IE Program ?
if you wan to block IE access port 80 you can use the Firewall function instead of Parental controls.

Chris

 

[FireWire76]

I see you are missing the point, I may have been unclear.
I will try to sum the options up:

Parental Control:
- Blocks all network traffic
- Possible to control time per device

Networks Services(Firewall):
- Possible to block IE access only
- NOT possible to control time per device(only possible to set time for ALL devices in the list)

So to sum it up, I need one thing from each of these services(in bold red color).

And that's what I mailed Asus about, because it would be rather simple for them to either change the parental control and implement a choice for the user of which type of block is preferred, OR change the Network Services filter to be able to control time per device.

//FireWire

 

[krum]

hm, that's asking for kind of a lot; you could probably achieve this with something like a cron job + iptables with asuswrt-merlin

this would prevent browsing the internet, but still have local network access, by filtering ports 80 and 443 for specific ip's on your lan

Since FireWire76 explained.

CRON and IPtables will work just fine, I just tested it out seems to work..

Chris

 

[FireWire76]

Since FireWire76 explained.

CRON and IPtables will work just fine, I just tested it out seems to work..

Chris

Ok, and can you share how you achieve this? I don't know what CRON-job is and neither IP-tables. So please give us newbies a tutorial on how to do.

//FireWire

 

[aircoreboy]

Just found this post,

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=12357&highlight=parental+control&page=7

, and parental controls are now working perfectly, so many thanks @masseth!

Additionally, from this post,

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=12596&highlight=parental+control

, any device that requires one, one hour time slot to be added can still have that hour blocked using network services filtering, resulting in a 24/7 block but with parental controls still working, so many thanks @DRY411S!

 

[FireWire76]

Just found this post,

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=12357&highlight=parental+control&page=7

, and parental controls are now working perfectly, so many thanks @masseth!

Additionally, from this post,

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=12596&highlight=parental+control

, any device that requires one, one hour time slot to be added can still have that hour blocked using network services filtering, resulting in a 24/7 block but with parental controls still working, so many thanks @DRY411S!

I appreciate the tips, now it's possible to use Network Services filter and Parental Control at the same time. Only thing lacking now is the possibility to schedule time per device to block IE access. But this is at least one step in the right direction.

To help others so you don't need to read the posts above, I can sum it up. The devices you need to filter through Network Services filter needs to be added in the Parental Control. Just add the devices and set it to be allowed access all times every day, then you can use the Network Services filter as usual to block your preferred ports, services etc. So the important thing is, all devices in Networks Services filter needs to be present in Parental Control with at least 1hour enabled(but you probably want to set it to all the time all days, if you don't want to block access to internal network too).

 

[aircoreboy]

Completely agree FireWire, it does seem that Parental Control and Network Services Filtering are trying to achieve the same thing to some extent, which does leave me slightly perplexed that they are seperate features in the firmware, it does seem that it would be better if both features were amalgamated into one, with like you say, the ability to control services per device, per time.

 

[SjoerdNLD]

Fritzbox does a far better job.
And also works for IPv6

Quote from their changelog for version 6.01:

The FRITZ!Box parental control functions have been extended to the wireless guest access and the new private hotspot. This can restrict use of the Internet to only services like surfing and mailing. Also new: There are now standard rules for Internet access which are applied automatically to devices connecting to the network for the first time. In addition, time limits can now be assigned jointly to all of an individual user's devices, for instance a playstation and a notebook, to limit your children's online time.

 

[FireWire76]

Fritzbox does a far better job.
And also works for IPv6

Quote from their changelog for version 6.01:

Yeah, and that helps how?
This is a forum thread about ASUS Routers/Firmware and not the place to advertise for other Brands of routers. We who own an Asus router want a solution for our current router, not to go out and buy a new one. And I think promoting other products, when no one asked for such suggestions, it's rather offensive.

 

[aircoreboy]

Yeah, and that helps how?
This is a forum thread about ASUS Routers/Firmware and not the place to advertise for other Brands of routers. We who own an Asus router want a solution for our current router, not to go out and buy a new one. And I think promoting other products, when no one asked for such suggestions, it's rather offensive.

Well said FireWire!

 

[M1ch43lk]

Is there a way to disable the wireless just for certain hours? using cron? I find the "Enable wireless scheduler" in the Wireless=> Professional section not so flexible...