Review on Blocksi Parental Control Router: 2-Year Subscription with Enhanced Screen Time Control, Advanced Web and YouTube Filtering, and Secure Search by Matthew Guiney

UPDATE: I bought this router in January 2016. I have been in the networking and security industry for over 20 years so I have a solid technical background. I researched everything to look for a good parental control device and this seemed to fit the bill. I connected it to my ISP's router, connected my LAN and set the SSID to 2.4 and 5 GHz. My experience with 5GHz on this device is that it had significant range limitations compared to the 2.4GHz wireless signal, so I decided to switch all devices to 2.4GHz when Wi-Fi was needed. Unfortunately, I had some issues with Wi-Fi that just turned it off and no devices could connect. My ISP's service was still up and I could get online, the problem was blockages and it happened randomly (sometimes once a week, sometimes once every few months). The only solution was a hard reboot (power cycle) of the device. I contacted Blocki about 6 months after purchase and they did some troubleshooting and then sent me a new block thinking it was defective. On the new one I restarted everything right away and after about 3 months I had the same problem. I contacted Blocki support again who first updated the firmware but that didn't work as the problem came back. Then leave logging enabled in hopes of catching some errors or root cause indicators when the problem occurred. Unfortunately, the problem reappeared during their acquisition, but unfortunately this did not provide any real cause. The support rep pointed out the disagreements in the 2.4 band and suggested moving everything to 5GHz. I explained my earlier fear of 5GHz (short range, etc.) but went further. After dealing with this issue for a year and not finding a solution, I simply informed the support team that I would be mailing these items and requested a refund, which I hope they will provide . Their support was responsive, but unfortunately their product suffers from basic networking capabilities (compared to other devices in my experience). Parental control offers a number of advantages. I liked the ability to turn off the device at a specific time (for my kids' devices). I also like the scheduling per app (only allow Netflix, Minecraft, etc.) for a specific duration, date and/or time, although it didn't work properly 100% of the time (sometimes it even stopped my kids from doing it). to use their device all day, and on the other hand it doesn't stop the device when the limit is reached). I ended up disabling this feature, but the idea is great. One more point, I still have/use the original devices that had the issue and I have a single device connected to Wi-Fi 2.4 and even with that one device it still needs to be restarted as the Wi -Fi just turns off. So I pull out both devices and go back to the drawing board for a parental control solution. ========================= This router is great if you're interested in more flexible parental controls. Connecting an internet line to your home has unintended consequences. The Blocksi router, when used correctly, gives parents the ability to view their network traffic in an easy-to-use dashboard, as well as the ability to block websites/content, block the entire internet on a schedule, block specific mobile apps, perform safe search and more. No solution is the answer to blocking and moderating all internet access, but this device can and will restrict your internet content at home to meet parenting needs.