RT-AX88U Merlin Parental Control not working

[Honkoponko123]

Hello
Not sure when but Parental Control stopped blocking pornography and hazard websites. I updated to latest version available and still not working. Can access all tested website...
Tried to restart and re add PC/Phones included and still nothing
Is there any way to fix it???

 

[Tech9]

Parental Controls not working means the traffic goes around Trend Micro App filtering. You have to find why is this happening in order to fix it. Clients with DoH DNS encryption or running VPN will go through router's filtering.

 

[Honkoponko123]

Parental Controls not working means the traffic goes around Trend Micro App filtering. You have to find why is this happening in order to fix it. Clients with DoH DNS encryption or running VPN will go through router's filtering.

It was working before... i haven changed anything. PC don't have any vpn, encryption is also not used or was not on...i can open all pages in private mode of browser and normal...how can I fix it?

 

[Tech9]

Most likely your browser is doing DoH now automatically.

 

[makksi]

I also tried today to use Parental Control to block adult sites to my daughter PC and tablet and it is not working at all. Even enabling all the blocking categories, it does not block anything. I have an ASUS RT-AX88U router with the latest Merlin firmware 3004.388.8_4.
Is that a known issue?

 

[aru]

You can try the following suggestions shared by the helpful Tech9 for disabling all encryption methods, but I haven't tried them myself, so I'm not sure if this method will work.

RT-AX86U Pro Parental Control Question

Curious if this works or not. What if you put your routers MAC address as a Client Name in the Parental Control section for Web and Apps Filter. Would this block any of the content categories on the router?

www.snbforums.com

 

[Tech9]

so I'm not sure if this method will work

Tested.

 

[makksi]

Thanks, yes I could try one of the suggestion from Tech9, but I would like that if the PArental Control is in the UI it should work. Otherwise, better to disable it to avoid confusion and misunderstanding. The advantage of the Paraenta Control in the UI is that it is clean and easy to set (if it works). Just to understand if perhaps someone else has it working, or it was working in past version, or it never worked also in the past. I cannot say because I just enabled it 2 days ago

 

[makksi]

I also tried the DNS Director which allows to set the DNS per each client. There is a predefined list of DNS with blocking feature. I tried AdGuard Family, CleanBrowsing Family, OpenDNS Family and none of them are filtering the adult sites. Probably there is some setting preventing the router to use the custom DNS per client, but I don't know where.

 

[Tech9]

I tried AdGuard Family, CleanBrowsing Family, OpenDNS Family and none of them are filtering the adult sites.

All of them are filtering adult sites. You have clients going around your blocking efforts and this is what my old post was about - limiting the avoiding possibilities. In order to fix something you have to understand how it works first and identify the problem. Trying one or another method/setting may not generate satisfactory results.

 

[makksi]

Yes, as I explained I wanted to block adult sites, that choice was made in purpose.I reported these results so other people can confirm or not same behavior.
So you are saying in your opinion the problem is on the client?
I'm pretty sure it is not the case because so far I tried 2 Windows clients with 2 different browsers and also an Android client with two different browsers... no filtering at all. Can you suggest something to check to debug? Any other idea?

 

[Tech9]

So you are saying in your opinion the problem is on the client?

The problem is in the network administration. If you are the one doing it - you have to limit to minimum potential filtering avoidance. A method of doing it is described above.

 

[makksi]

I've checked the /etc/dnsmasq.conf file and in fact neither the parental control nor dns director touch this file at all.
I've found an easier way which is working fine to enable the parental control.
If you go in the router web UI to the section LAN->DHCP Server, you can force DHCP to assign to a client always the same IP. In the configuration you can put also an optional DNS for that client!
I put the IP of Cleanbrowsing Family filter (185.228.168.168) and finally it worked! Adult sites were not accessed from that client.
Now it should be nice to know why the web ui Parental Control instead does not work or it is supposed to work differently, but in a way that so far is not clear.

 

[Tech9]

LAN->DHCP Server... you can force DHCP to assign

No, this is offered DNS by DHCP, not forced. The client may use own DNS and go around your filtering.