Help with my "Pandemic Family Firewall" solution

[Shaunobi]

Hi all! I have a medium-sophisticated router setup that helps my kids stay "motivated" to do their schoolwork. (I'm running an AC5300 + Merlin, Diversion, SkyNet, some custom scripts I wrote, etc.) However, I need help setting up our friends with an easier solution to manage their kids' network time.

Here's what I'm after - a solution that can:

• Blacklist specific sites using some kind of IP Chains based solution, like Diversion, but easier
• Setup times for certain computers to be selectively blacklisted, from certain sites (this is hard - I don't know of a way to do this even with Merlin / Diversion without custom scripting.) This will be used for things like "block Roblox.com, but allow it from 3-5 PM".
• Be managed via smartphone app
• Can spit out reports easily, so you can review them and see what kids were doing, when

I'm thinking about recommending they buy a Nighthawk R8000P, and use it with a Disney Circle subscription. My friend said they are more than willing to spend whatever they need to, so although that's an expensive solution, I think it isn't THAT expensive, and will work well.

Anyhow - really interested in what people can recommend! Being our kids' homeschool teachers can be rough, but I've found a good firewall can really help! (My wife and I both work from home full time, and it's the same for our friends. I just can't keep an eye on the kids during the day.)

 

[Trip]

Circle + a discrete router may work well enough. Another possibility to look at if they need scalable wifi would be Gryphon.

 

[Shaunobi]

Trip, how granular are the parental controls on a Gryphon vs. the Circle? For what I’m describing above, do you know which is more applicable?

 

[Trip]

Granularity is just about the same, with the slight edge going to Gryphon. The main challenge I see is specific sites at specific times and historical reporting. I'm not sure if either Circle or Gryphon can do either one. You'll have to look into their literature and perhaps reach out to both to confirm. It appears RouterLimits by Bark can do both. You can buy either as the CleanerNet Mini appliance and use with a router of your choosing (like Circle) or it comes included on select routers.

The entire product segment is still a bit underwhelming, unfortunately. There really isn't a product that is going to have the power and granularity of something like real firewall setup, be that Untangle, Fortinet or what-have-you, but also have the usability of a consumer device. At least, not yet...

 

[Shaunobi]

Got it, thank you. I have a friend using Gryphon and he reported it's not as granular as he'd like it.

I had heard of RouterLimits, but didn't know much about it. I'll definitely look into RouterLimits further and report back depending on what I find.

One thing about routers with Circle support from the factor is that users get a nice phone app, which will be good for our friends. Does anyone have direct experience with Circle that can chime in here?

 

[AndreiV]

Hi all! I have a medium-sophisticated router setup that helps my kids stay "motivated" to do their schoolwork. (I'm running an AC5300 + Merlin, Diversion, SkyNet, some custom scripts I wrote, etc.) However, I need help setting up our friends with an easier solution to manage their kids' network time.

Here's what I'm after - a solution that can:

• Blacklist specific sites using some kind of IP Chains based solution, like Diversion, but easier
• Setup times for certain computers to be selectively blacklisted, from certain sites (this is hard - I don't know of a way to do this even with Merlin / Diversion without custom scripting.) This will be used for things like "block Roblox.com, but allow it from 3-5 PM".
• Be managed via smartphone app
• Can spit out reports easily, so you can review them and see what kids were doing, when

I'm thinking about recommending they buy a Nighthawk R8000P, and use it with a Disney Circle subscription. My friend said they are more than willing to spend whatever they need to, so although that's an expensive solution, I think it isn't THAT expensive, and will work well.

Anyhow - really interested in what people can recommend! Being our kids' homeschool teachers can be rough, but I've found a good firewall can really help! (My wife and I both work from home full time, and it's the same for our friends. I just can't keep an eye on the kids during the day.)

Look at https://www.kaspersky.co.uk/safe-kids it works very well.

 

[Trip]

https://usa.kaspersky.com/safe-kids

Good idea, but I don't think it's quite as granular as @Shaunobi is looking for, and in order to apply control, it requires a locally-installed agent. Potentially easy enough to defeat via rogue devices (friends' phones, etc.).