Designing your Netgear LPC security rules

There are a couple of ways to design your security set-up using Netgear Live Parental Controls (LPC). It's important to consider your options before starting or you could find that some of your devices have too much or too little freedom to do what you want.

When setting up my system, I actually got it wrong the first time and had to change it. While that was a bit of a pain, the overall amount of lost time was minimal as making changes to LPC is very straightforward.

The most important concepts are these:

1. You have a base security level for your whole home
2. You designate specific devices to have different/special security levels

The trick is that for step 2 you need to use Netgear Genie, a piece of software that runs on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.

So let's step through 2 approaches...

Default Closed

I think that this is most people's default approach to security. Lock the whole thing down and then just allow individuals to do what they need on an approval basis.

In this scenario we:

1. Make the default network very secure (few or no permissions by default).
2. Allow specific devices to have lower security.

So let's say we have a family with 2 Adults and 2 Children (look, just like mine!). They each have 1 device and there's also a SmartTV in the house (or Sky+ box, Playstation, Wii, XBox, or other media streaming device). We want the Adults to have full Access and the Children to have limited access.

Here's what it looks like...

So this is working pretty well. The whole network is shut down and the children and adults are given appropriate permissions using Netgear Genie. The only potential challenge is that the SmartTV is restricted using the house defaults. If you want to ensure that your kids can't watch particular types of content on this device, that's great. If you want to be able to watch content freely on this device, it's not great.

Also, if you have a guest come to visit, they'll automatically inherit the closed default network unless you install Netgear Genie on their device and configure it for Child or Adult access.

This is how I initially set up my network. I realised its limitations pretty quickly and switched to the next option...

Default Open

Here we keep the overall network open and then lock down specific devices. Specifically:

1. Make the default network very open (none or few limitations by default).
2. Lock down specific devices to have higher security.

Same scenario with 2 Adults and 2 Children. This time it looks like this:

Here the Children and Adults end up with the same capabilities but any other devices on the network are automatically open. So streaming media will continue to work and any house guests will be able to access the Internet without hitting blocks.

Summary

The reality here is that Netgear LPC is totally dependent on Netgear Genie being installed on a device in order to establish an exception on the network. If you can't install Netgear Genie, then that device must use the default security of the network.

So if you have 2 SmartTVs, one in the Adult's room and one in the Children's, they can't have different security settings. Period.

This is a limitation of the system, but probably only a small one.

I'm using the Default Open setting at my house and it's working just fine.

What do you need to run Netgear LPC?

If you want to use Netgear Live Parental Controls (LPC) you need a few specific things…

• A broadband connection
• An LPC enabled Netgear router
• Netgear LPC Management Utility
• An account on the Netgear OpenDNS site
• Netgear Genie software (available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android)

I’ll step you through these in turn.

A broadband connection

Well, I hope this is obvious. I’m using a Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) connection that gives me about 72Mbps down and 12Mbps up. BT call this service Infinity but I get mine through the awesome Zen Internet.

My service is provided through a special FTTC modem that I plug into the router. If you have standard broadband, then you probably connect directly to the ADSL dongle attached to your phone jack.

Bottom line is that you ultimately need to be able to connect your router to your broadband via a standard RJ45 connector. You’ll have seen them before. They look like this.

 

You should be able to replace the router that comes with your broadband service (like the evil BT Home Hub) with another router without too much difficulty.

An LPC enabled Netgear router

LPC is specific to Netgear, but other router providers with similar systems are available.

I opted for a Netgear R6300v2. It’s a slightly higher end router with a stronger Wi-Fi signal that can cope with my 3-story, thick-walled Victorian house.

You can pick up one of these or other Netgear router from most high street computer shops and all the normal online stores, usually at a bit of a discount.

It’s important to note that not all Netgear routers support LPC. While most do, you will want to ensure that the Netgear router you’re considering does support LPC. Netgear puts the information right on the box (see below) and you can find it on their web site in the Features/Security section for each of their modems.

Netgear LPC Management Utility

As part of the installation of LPC, you’ll be instructed to install the Netgear LPC Management Utility.

It will help you to set up basic settings for LPC including:

• Turning on LPC on your router
• Creating a Netgear OpenDNS account
• Setting the default (basic) settings for LPC

I’m still not clear why it’s needed as you can do all these things without it. It’s recently disappeared from the LPC web page, so perhaps being deprecated by a combination of the Netgear/OpenDNS web site and the Netgear Genie software.

An account on the Netgear OpenDNS site

You’ll need an account on the Netgear OpenDNS site. This is where you set up all your default and custom settings for you and your family members, determining what and when individuals can access on the Internet.

It’s actually a subdomain on the OpenDNS site at netgear.opendns.com.

Netgear Genie software (available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android)

Netgear Genie is the new software used to configure both your router and specific device access. You might find references to the Netgear User Utility on web sites and forums, but this is no longer available and has been replaced by Netgear Genie.

You can download the current version on the Netgear LPC page.

This tool is a little peculiar and seems to cause a lot of people confusion. That’s because it does multiple things. The 6 main functional areas shown allow you to:

• Internet – see the status of the current router internet connection and recent usage, run a speed test against the netgear.com site (available to anyone)
• WiFi Connection – manage the local machine’s wifi connection (available to anyone)
• Router Settings – configure router settings (available to router administrators only, password protected)
• Network Map – review and name any devices on the local network (available to anyone)
• Parental Controls – configure basic parental controls with a link to the OpenDNS site for more detailed control (available to router and opendns.com administrators only, passwords required)
• ReadySHARE – Manage sharing of USB storage and printing devices via the router (available to router administrators only, password protected)

Installing and Using Netgear Live Parental Controls

I recently reached the point where I decided that being able to control my children's Internet use more closely would be a good idea.

My boys are 11 and 13 and access the Internet using a Windows 8 computer, Amazon Fire HD tablets, and Samsung Galaxy Ace phones.

The computer has always been installed with both desktop security (limiting software installation) and Microsoft Family Safety which allows me to monitor and control both application and browser usage.

But I found that after the boys had their mobile devices, the monthly broadband usage tripled. It seems they were quite enamoured of a few Minecraft specialists on YouTube and were spending huge amounts of time watching these videos, often when they were supposed to be doing other things.

In some cases we could just withdraw their devices, but both need them for communicating with friends (sometimes about homework) or for doing research for homework.

What is Netgear Live Parental Controls (LPC)?

Netgear LPC (www.netgear.com/lpc) is a tool that's built into many Netgear routers. It's been around for a few years and has changed a few times.

At it's core it has the ability to limit people on your network from accessing particular sites on the Internet. It does this using about 60 different categories of site that allow you to do things like:

• Protect everyone from phishing sites
• Ensure that your kids don't access sites with "Adult Themes"
• Keep kids away from "Time Wasters" like YouTube during the hours they're supposed to be doing homework

The categories are provided by a company called OpenDNS who ensure that all the web site classifications are up to date and provide the ability to set up different roles and times that individuals can or can't access specific sites.

The protection is provided for specific devices, meaning that you can protect computers, phones, and tablets.

Do Netgear Live Parental Controls (LPC) work?

The bottom line is that, yes, they work and work well. It's comprehensive and extremely flexible, allowing you to give the access needed to individuals or groups, and ensuring that guests can use the Internet as needed when visiting.

But while LPC are a great solution, Netgear's documentation is not good.

• My router came without software and detailed instructions
• Online documentation is badly out of date and refers to tools that are no longer available
• Documentation on the tools is non-existent
• The tools are not highly intuitive

So I figured I'd write a few short articles here on how to set up and run Netgear LPC. If you have any questions, please drop a comment on the relevant article.

Following articles are...

• What do you need to run Netgear LPC?
• Designing your Netgear LPC security rules
• Using OpenDNS to set up Netgear LPC bypass accounts
• Configuring individual devices using Netgear Genie