What's the best router with parental controls?

a5ian300zx

Hi All,

Just wanted to get opinons on routers with parental control features like the Asus, netgear etc.

Current setup:
Multiple wireless devices (10 ) both bands 5ghz,2.4ghz
Multiple Wired devices (nas, pc, media players)
OpenDNS for parental control filtering.

Hardware.
Draytek 2860ac wireless modem/router.
Single unifi ap (3 bed house)

I looking for a router with great parental control and great WiFi signal.

Was looking at asus router with custom merlin firmware but do not know how good that will actually be.

Any feedback appreciated.

Thanks

psychopomp1

The Netgear D7800 would be a great choice.

a5ian300zx

thanks for the reply,

Seems like it uses OpenDNS which is free to use with any router once you have account setup.

I'm looking for more time schedules and limits etc.

don't mind having separate modem and router.

Thanks

mickevh

OpenDNS is trivially easy to avoid - quite literally a child could figure out how to do it. I wouldn't bother.

Instead I'd look for something service based. A bit like the VPN services that are nonsense-du-jour, but one that includes the sort of censorship might wish for implemented at/by the service provider their end. Or an ISP that offers such (don't BT offer it?)

Some time ago there were routers that integrated with services such as SurfControl (long gone - they were bought out by someone - IIRC it was WebSense) which gives a bit of a hybrid of both. The latter worked by having a "agent" running on or integrated into your router which was in more or less constant communication with the service provider to keep the content filters up to date.

Content filtering is surprisingly difficult to do - in enterprise environments we have to spend some pretty serious amounts of money on it, and not just for the kit to run it on to facilitate a large user base. Of course, anything is better than nothing, but I wouldn't expect the same level of protection from a 50 quid router that I get from a solution costing thousands.

Wi-Fi transmit power is limited by law and most kit is, and always has been, at or very close to the permitted max. What differences there are, are not worth worrying about unless you are a radio hamm.

In any case, there's no such thing as "Wi-Fi signal" as most people conceive it. Wi-Fi is a two-way radio "conversation" like walkie-talkies, not a one way radio "lecture" like television. Any improvements in coverage achieved by a "much better router" would need to be paired with "much better clients" (phones, tablets, laptops, etc.)

The best way to improve Wi-Fi coverage is to put up additional Access Points nearer to your clients rather than look for some mythical uber-router with "much better signal." On large sites, it's not for nothing we put up hundreds of AP's. We've discussed the topic many times here over the years and doubtless we'll be happy to do so again if you want to get into the details of it.

psychopomp1

In that case consider something like the Draytek 130 vdsl2 modem paired with a Netgear R7800. The R7800 sits at the top of router charts on smallnetbuilder.com for wifi coverage/range. It should meet most of your requirements but you have the option of installing third party firmware such as DD-WRT or Voxel on it in order to get advanced features. I would only consider additional APs if the R7800 doesn't give full wifi coverage in your home. In my 4 bedroom, 2 storey, detached home, a single router easily covers every nook & cranny with full wifi. But of course YMMV

@mickevh
All routers are NOT the same wrt wifi performance despite radio power limits. For example the high end routers are 4x4, support MuMimo, support beamforming, allow high powered (1W) DFS channels to be used legally, use a powerful CPU with high RAM & can handle many more wifi clients simultaneously etc and this is reflected in the cost. At the same time, no router - no matter how good it is -  can change the laws of physics but unless folks have very thick walls and/or live in a huge home, they should try a single  router/AP first and see how they get on. You can't compare a 'typical' domestic 2-4 bedroom home with an office/corporate building wrt wifi solutions as they are totally different environments, ie its like comparing oranges v apples.

mitch23

When it comes to the best brand, Netgear is my best bet. Of course, I also check out other brands. After all, the Router is also a form of investment.

So when it comes to buying a new one, I take time to research on updated recommendations and reviews. In that way, I'll be abreast with the latest brands/models and technologies there is. For me, buying the wrong item is a total waste of time and money.

mickevh

Paradoxically, I used to have a T2 supplier who refused to sell NetGear - IIRC is was more to do with they way they ran their commercial operations than the kit itself.

I'm rather wary of a lot of the "reviews" and so forth appearing on the Web: There's an awful lot of "guff" out there, even amongst the trade press, which may be well meaning, but well meaning nonsense is still nonsense. Some web sites are just outright shills for the suppliers and are little more than vehicle to cick-bait you in, then hand you off to the retail store whilst they bank the referral fee and the ad revenue.

Old lags like me, tend to prefer to rely on our own expertise and experience  (it's hard won and there's no short cuts to acquiring it) and trawl the datasheets and manuals for actual claims of the manufacturer rather than rely on third party "opinions" - though they have there uses sometimes.

That said, for SOHO gear there's a semi-amateur/hobbyist who created and maintains a site called SmallNetBuilder focused on the SOHO market who I like.  I haven't spent much time there recently, but Tim at SNB does a better job than most of devising and using an objective testing regime which (most importantly) he publishes his testing methodology. This is more akin to "proper" science/engineering discipline. There very worst - even in the trades - is the "group test" akin to HiFI mags that goes something like "this month we took the 5 latest new routers and Dave took them home to try them out one weekend" - you may as well stop reading at that point. One of the other nice features of SNB (apart from the fairly large amount of kit he gets through) is he tabulates his results in tables that you can sort by various metrics depending on what you're interested in e.g. WAN-to-LAN routing throughput, Wi-Fi throughput, etc.