Is the parental control part of this router similar to the Netopia Parental Controls where you can set up user accounts and restrict time of day etc.?

Our Netopia Patental Controls subscription isrunning out and we are looking at other options like this router (and the Zytel 100W which isn't available but they have a new one coming out this fall).

I know very little about the Netopia web filtering so I cannot really comment on their differences.

The Z100G filters all computers unless you specifically exclude a particular computer using its "Network Object". You can add user accounts with password to the Z100G and exclude that particular account from Web filtering. To bypass web filtering you have to provide the password for that account. I do not believe there is a way to set it for time of day.

I had a Netopia router & only just started using the Z100G this past week. For parental controls, the Netopia has far more options.

The main differences are the separate user accounts that the Netopia has whereby you can configure settings for each user. The Z100G puts all users into the same category (what is blocked for one is blocked for all). You can override the block with a password, but its not quite the same.

Since there aren't separate user accounts, one can't restrict access to specific times.

The Parental controls are a little disappointing. It was the main draw for me.

The ZA100 parental controls are mostly an all or nothing deal *at the moment*... Both of you may want to check out the EA (Early Avalibility) 7.5 Release notes.. Someone correct me if im wrong but i think you'll be able to make a time of day rule based on the computer the users at (still not separate accounts but it may do what you need)

Check Point ZoneAlarm Secure Wireless Router Z100G User Guide (Firmware version 7.5.x)

Realize this is not release quality firmware but will give you an idea where the parental controls features are going..

Well I'd advise Zonealarm to check out the Netopia Parential Controls as I think they are a very good approach to a family network. The home network is routed through an additional router in which the Parental Control is applied. I really like router based Parental Control and can't believe more people didn't use it over software based control. The problem we had was our kids plugging in their own computers into the CAT5 network. I tried to respect their computers as their own personal property and asked that they respect the internet connection as my property and abide by my wishes that they never rip off music etc. with P2P. They didn't do that so along came Parental Controls. The drawback to Netopia is no control of P2P apps and some chat programs my son found that out. I still had to shut off the DSL box to make sure nothing was going on after 10:00 PM. Now my second son has figured out that if a browser window is not disturbed it will run a game like Runescape past the Parental Control shut off time. That really bugs me.

ZyXEL offered a Parental Control router that had a time counter for internet use per day per user. That sounds slick as the internet access times would not be rigid like they are with Netopia. The ZyXEL had contorl of P2P, that is what they said anyway. They are supposed to be coming out with a new router/Parental Contols soon.

So I'm pretty much sold on router based control with user accounts like Netopia but would like the timer function like ZyXEL and control of P2P. From what I have read P2P is a tough one.

ZyXEL HomeSafe Parental Control Gateway

Netopia Parental Controls is a stepchild of Motorola now and there doesn't seem to be much information or support for it any more. They do take money for renewal though.

quote:

Originally posted by Jesse:
Well I'd advise Zonealarm to check out the Netopia Parential Controls as I think they are a very good approach to a family network. The home network is routed through an additional router in which the Parental Control is applied. I really like router based Parental Control and can't believe more people didn't use it over software based control. The problem we had was our kids plugging in their own computers into the CAT5 network. I tried to respect their computers as their own personal property and asked that they respect the internet connection as my property and abide by my wishes that they never rip off music etc. with P2P. They didn't do that so along came Parental Controls. The drawback to Netopia is no control of P2P apps and some chat programs my son found that out. I still had to shut off the DSL box to make sure nothing was going on after 10:00 PM. Now my second son has figured out that if a browser window is not disturbed it will run a game like Runescape past the Parental Control shut off time. That really bugs me.

ZyXEL offered a Parental Control router that had a time counter for internet use per day per user. That sounds slick as the internet access times would not be rigid like they are with Netopia. The ZyXEL had contorl of P2P, that is what they said anyway. They are supposed to be coming out with a new router/Parental Contols soon.

So I'm pretty much sold on router based control with user accounts like Netopia but would like the timer function like ZyXEL and control of P2P. From what I have read P2P is a tough one.

Read the Early Avalibility notes.
1. Time of day (per PC IP or MAC address) I *THINK* is supported but not released yet
Im pretty sure Sofa will NOT set a port to route parental controls.. Just not their style

2. A good swath of P2P and chat protocols are supported for blocking *out of the box* but its a locked or unlocked deal, not really a part of parental controls so to speak...

Most of what you want is here, just not perhaps in the way your accoustomed to... I'd hold off a little longer for 7.5 to be released

The ZA100 takes a buisness approach to content blocking, its not true parental controls as your used to, but buisnesses do need time of day and blocking chat and web access...

Also realize that the ZA100 is a lighter version of their buisness offerings.. so your going to see blocking and content filtering done the way buisness does it, not per user... but there is blacklist/whitelist support of websites coming to the new firmware, and blocking by IP address or MAC address by time of day (please dont quote me, thats my interpretation of the documentation)

User accounts dont work for a corporate firewall.. youd have to have every user have an account on the firewall box and in a hardware solution such as the za100, thats not really practical.. If this router was just for (home user) and had a firmware made for (home use)... they are taking a buisness product and tweaking it for home use, not reinventing the wheel.. It also provides for relatively frequent updates for security issues.. Im pretty sure theyd have to rewrite most of the firmware and it wouldnt be compatible with their buisness products... part of how they are making back the cost of this router is that they dont have to start from scratch... instead they make tweaks and concessions for their prosumer version (the 5 node license being as loose as it is, is NOT like thier commercial offerings... But at least your accustomed for paying per seat/per user.. people here still dont get the concept...

Hello Forum
New to this forum, but I am in search of a program/router for our set up here at home. We have been using BSafe.com a software/download based filter. Very happy with it as it also now includes an "image" filter. We have time controls, etc. "But" they do not cover Macintosh which is the new computer that my daughter has brought home from school.

They "supposedly" have a server filter in the school, but I have had kids tell me they use "proxies" to get around that. So this will also be something I will be bringing up to the administration. But my first concern is that I found out that I cannot download "any" software to the computer for content filtering. So my daughter's computer is open to the world wide web right now. We are/were going to reset our current router (Belkin) to just not let her computer online while in the house and if she needed to do internet work, she can use my computer or her dads which have the filters. But that doesn't help us if she goes to a friend's house with wireless and no parental filters. WHICH I have discovered MANY parents DO NOT have in ANY form. UGGHH. It is just mind boggling that they are so ignorant of the facts.

We are going to the administration to get this resoved some way or another. But my biggest pet peave of the whole thing is that they never told us that we couldn't download anything and that our kids AREN'T covered when they leave the school building. I've discovered some parents "thinking" their kids are covered when they "leave" the school. Oh the horrors!

Because Lauren may/will take her computer to friends' houses for study sessions and the like, I would like to be more "software" based since she could take it along with her. I have only found 2 the cover Macs. BSafe is working on it. I'm looking here to this forum to see what is available and that I could bring with me as options for parents when I talk to the administration. I'm afraid that some of these "wireless" router type of filters won't be as strict as say, something like BSafe, where it is really geared towards families and they have many different kinds of controls that you can put in place. I don't mind a blanket type as I am the only one in the house with the password, not even husband has it. He doesn't want it either.

I hope this string continues with input from those that "know" about router filters. Thanks for letting me voice my concerns on this forum. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Karen
digimom

Karen,

I am not a Mac expert but I do recall a Mac guru telling me that OS X (Tiger) and the Mac Browser (Safari) have parental controls built in. You might poke around at Apple.com. It should also have a desktop firewall built in. Here is a URL I found http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/security/ to Mac security features. Notice the "Family" link on the right hand side in the screen in the panel. That talks about parental controls.

I also googled "Mac parental controls" and came up with this page of several: http://www.pure-mac.com/censor.html. I have no idea if they are very good or not, but the one that looks like it meets your needs is Content Barrier from Intego. http://www.intego.com/.

As for my Zonelabs Z100G router and firewall, I am very pleased with the security that it provides compared to anything else I have seen in this price range and if you have this unit then of course you protect anything on the back side whether its Windows, Mac, Linux, etc. The filtering is strong, but it has limited flexibility at this time. Many of us are beta testing a more robust version that will eventually make it to release. So far it works great. But, the hardware is only half of your challenge and you will still need to investigate the options for the laptop when she is out of your house.

You're right about the proxy servers. Kids have known about those for years and parents are clueless. One of the categories that the Z100G allows you to shut off is proxies. Because kids are so careless, there are many rogue proxy servers that attract the kids and then dump fishing and spyware software on the computers. Most schools might have older content software that doesn't block the proxy sites but it can be manually done if the firewall administrator knows what he or she is doing. Most schools will tell you that kids are responsible for how they use the internet. I know at both my daughters'' schools, the students and the parents have to sign an internet usage policy that puts the onus and liability on the student. Good luck with that one.

Rocket,

Thanks so much for that information. I will check that apple site and see what they say. You mention "intego.com" and that is the one that I would like to download onto the computer. But if I can't, I hope to see what is available through the computer.

I know many on the forum are asking when the new version is coming out. I'm glad that you are working on it and hopefully you will take what I am asking for and let them know that we would like this to be "family friendly".

What I'd also like to know is can I have the "router" filter and a software based filter on the computer? Will a software based filter compete with the school WebSense router filter?

I'm asking all these questions so that I will be knowledgeable when I go to the administration with our findings and recommendations. If we could be given the option of downloading only "Intego" software, I'd be happy, at least for now. We'll see.

As far as the proxy servers, by BSafe blocks them. Can you block as a category, proxy servers, on the wireless router at school? at home?

You guys are great. Thanks so much for your information and insights into this powerful subject. I wish more people had this knowledge or at least "cared" about their children.

Talk soon,
Karen
Digimom

There's no competition between the software on a router or firewall and a laptop. The most important thing is that laptops need protection on the system itself so you don't have to worry about how it gets to the internet.

Hardware devices are easier to manage and more robust because the work is handled by the device instead of the computer. One update can take care of all the computers at once.

Its interesting that you mention WebSense at the school. That's one of the best known and most sophisticated web filting applications out there for schools. They can certainly block proxy server sites with ease.

My take on any software based tools is kids will find a way to defeat it. That's why a router based tool is a better way to go.

I hear you on the problem of going to a friends house, but another common problem is neighbors with unsecure networks. So if I secure my wireless and put up parental control, the kids can just jump onto a nearby open wireless. I figure I;m going to have to go knocking on some doors to coach people into securing their wireless networks.

As far as a software tool and a router tool running at the same time i can't imagine it would be a problem. We often run a software firewall and a router firewall, or software anti-virus and router anti virus, right? It's just multiple levels of protection and is generally desirable.

quote:

Originally posted by bugeek: but there is blacklist/whitelist support of websites coming to the new firmware, and blocking by IP address or MAC address by time of day (please dont quote me, thats my interpretation of the documentation)

I'm testing the new firmware. And there is a blacklist/whitelist - option. But it doesn't seem to work with the Parental Controls - at least the way I want it to work. The problem seems to be in the order in which filtering takes place. The Parental Controls go first. If it fails there, it does not matter what you have in the whitelist. You still get the blocked message. I looked at the documentation and the whitelist seems to be targeted at firewall rules - not parental filtering. I wasn't too upset. If my kids want to go to a blocked site, I login and turn off the filtering and watch until they're done. Then I turn it back on. If I can't watch what they're doing, then it should be blocked.

Good Morning,
Thanks for keeping us up to date on the program you are testing. I'm still waiting on a reply from the school. I sent an email with my concerns to the Technology Administrator last Tuesday. I'll give until Monday and then ask why the delay.

I'm not quite sure what white list/black list is. Could someone explain? We currently use a software-based filter, BSafe, on our PCs and I mostly block by categories, I have some some sites individually blocked or unblocked. When I come across something that is blocked, I have a password that I use to get past it. Kids or husband do not have this. I will plug in if needed. I'd rather have too much blocked than not enough.

Also, see if this new filter can block "images" in case it gets past the text of "bad" sites. BSafe has this option.

I'll let you all know about what the school decides to let us do about filters on the kids' computers when I get an answer, hopefully soon.

Karen
DigiMom

Whitelisting is the sites you allow regardless of category and blacklisting is the ones you want blocked.

Examples for me are:

I block the category SOCIAL NETWORKING but I whitelist FaceBook for my older daughter.

I block gambling sites but allow access to the Texas Lottery site (my wife buys a lotto ticket when she gets gas for her van. I think I'll buy her an electric car. :-)).

I blacklist few sites, but once in a while I see something that I don't like so I add it.

Digimom,
if the school wants to do filtering right, the laptops (even Mac) need to be really locked down, and the district in north New Jersey that does give a laptop to each student forces them all to go through the school's web filter, even at home. Check out Pascack Valley High School for further info, or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PVHS

quote:

Originally posted by Texas Rocket:
Whitelisting is the sites you allow regardless of category and blacklisting is the ones you want blocked.

Examples for me are:

I block the category SOCIAL NETWORKING but I whitelist FaceBook for my older daughter.

I block gambling sites but allow access to the Texas Lottery site (my wife buys a lotto ticket when she gets gas for her van. I think I'll buy her an electric car. :-)).

I blacklist few sites, but once in a while I see something that I don't like so I add it.

Hey Texas Rocket,

When you mention that you whitelisted FaceBook for your older daughter, are you sill blacklistsing it for other users? If so, how is that done. Thanks.

No. The others can reach facebook, too.

However, you can do that if you allow just the selected PC instead of ANY.

Set up the one PC as a network object and in the process, select the bbox to keep the IP static.

Then under Security ---> Web Rules add the facebook URL and select the object (PC) from the pull down menu as the source of the request. Then, only that PC can use the rule.

Great. Thanks, exactly what I needed.