[SOLVED] Parental Controls do not work with RAC2V1K Askey Wave 2

[ChessKnight]

I am using a RAC2V1K Askey Wave 2 router from Spectrum. Its "Parental Control" functions do not work. The router simply does not filter any URLs. Does anybody have this problem? Can you suggest me any workaround? If I buy a new router can I use it with Spectrum? Or can I use another firmware like DD-WRT with this router?

 

[bill001g]

A lot of those tools are outdated. They used to try to block URL by looking at the headers in the URL code. That is now impossible because almost all sites use HTTPS. Some of the newer routers attempt to intercept the DNS calls but this is hit and miss how well they work. The newest versions of chrome and firefox now have the ability to run the DNS via HTTPS. I am unsure if this works automatically but it is designed to prevent the ISP from seeing what you are doing but it prevents any form of parental filtering from working.

DD-wrt has a more advanced form of filters. It may or may not work better the data is still mostly encrypted. Does your router support dd-wrt. If it includes any form of modem it likely does not work.

 

[ChessKnight]

Thank you for your reply. In this case, how people do use parental control at their homes? Is it even possible to use parental control via router under these conditions? Do they use device-based solutions?

 

[bill001g]

Pretty much because of the abuse by ISP and the government everything is moving to full encryption.

All the fancy content filter boxes that large companies used to use are pretty much out of business. You can no longer look inside the packets to see what is really going on. All that is left is the DNS and IP addresses. This only gives a very rough indication. A site can have lots of different content and IP addresses can host multiple servers.

The host based ones are a better but what you are really paying for is all the poor guys that have to surf porn all day . Actually it is the huge amount of data collection to try to keep track of for example the IP blocks the large VPN providers use or maybe some of the IP addresses certain game sites etc. It is not so much the appliance it is the subscription to the database.

Unless the kids are really young content filter is a waste of time. Even a 10yr old will quickly find how to install vpn software. There are partial vpn built into the chrome browser even.

The only real use of parental controls is things like time limits where all internet access is blocked at certain times. You could I suppose try the block everything and then try to get lists of what is allowed but if you have ever run a script blocker in a browser you will know how massive a issue with all the web sites being accessed behind the main page.

 

[ChessKnight]

I see... I am enlightened... I will not waste my time anymore with router based filtering in this case. I will try to set up device-based or software-based solutions... Thanks again!

 

[bill001g]

Yes the best options are to load software onto the devices themselves. These intercept the data before it is encrypted. The software I used to like was called K9 but I don't know of its status. This was given away by one of the large content filter appliance companies called bluecoat. They went out of business or sold themselves when the market for these type of content filter boxes disappeared.
A user group continued to support the tool but key was the database it ran on. It was actually a free subset of the commercial version and I don't know what that was replaced with.

 

[palmoyas]

I've had good luck with Circle (Disney?) that came with my Netgear router.