Parental Controls

kippy

Hi,
I've been doing some brief research into parental controls on broadband connections that allow parents only allow certain site from certain devices or timelimit internet access on certain devices based on MAC address.
I have found a few options but most controls seem to block by keyword or domain which can take ages to set up and all bar Virgin (which isnt an option) dont appear to allow access profiles by MAC address.

Has anyone any experience in this area and any recommendations on what provider has the most useful controls?
There are numerous devices in the house and different operating systems so maintaining different software on them all could be problematic.
Any opinions appreciated.
Please feel free to suggest move to more appropriate forum.
Thanks,
Kippy

kippy

kippy wrote: »

Hi,
I've been doing some brief research into parental controls on broadband connections that allow parents only allow certain site from certain devices or timelimit internet access on certain devices based on MAC address.
I have found a few options but most controls seem to block by keyword or domain which can take ages to set up and all bar Virgin (which isnt an option) dont appear to allow access profiles by MAC address.

Has anyone any experience in this area and any recommendations on what provider has the most useful controls?
There are numerous devices in the house and different operating systems so maintaining different software on them all could be problematic.
Any opinions appreciated.
Please feel free to suggest move to more appropriate forum.
Thanks,
Kippy

Anyone with an opinion on this topic?

homer911

MAC address control is going to depend on your router, which can control access times, but I haven't seem ones which support parental controls by mac address.


Personally I use OpenDNS for all router traffic and live with any restrictions it imposes on me. OpenDNS enables you to filter content by category and also lets you set limited additional blacklists but also whitelists (with their free version). Pay them a few quid and you can extend this list.


Their categorization is not foolproof, but its the best I've seen which does not rely on the device os/additional applications

To allow for changing IP addresses, I use the IP address updater on the family PC to keep things current

sparky63

eirs F2000 modem has parental controls which control internet access times by mac address. Very easy to use.

Kilteragh

Digiweb's device by device and time limit settings are great and very easy to apply. Did it just last weekend. My kids have rediscovered how to interact with their family :-)

kippy

Cheers for responses. Opendns has changed a lot since I last used it but it looks like a workable solution.