How to Set Up Parental Controls on a Router

Set Up Parental Controls on a Router:

Setting up parental controls is very necessary for you as a parent as you don't want your child to get induled in any wrong activities. Whenever you block any site on the router, that block is applicable on every device at your home including the one that you are using. 

If you are able to block a website like YouTube on a router successfully, then you will be able to block that website on every device at home. It does not matter which method or browser will be used to access it. 

How to Log in to the Administrative Console of Your Router?

A lot of the consumer-grade routers allow configuration using an internet browser. In order to have access to the configuration settings of the router, you are required to open the browser window on a PC and enter the address of your router. This address is particularly a non-routable IP address, which is not visible on the internet. The examples of a router address include http://10.0.0.1 and http://192.169.1.1.

Apart from the address, there are a few routers which ask you to connect to a particular port to have an access to the administrative console. Add the port to the end of the IP address if needed by using a colon after a port number. 

Once you are done entering the right address, you will be asked to enter the administrator username and password. The default username and password will be present on the website of the router maker. In case you have changed the password and you can't remember it, then you will have to reset your router to the factry default settings. This can be done by pressing a small reset button on your router's bback for the next 30 seconds. The period for pressing the button can be more than 30 seconds depending on the brand of the router. 

Steps to Block Access to a Specific Domain? 

Every router is different and your router may or may not have the feature to set up parental controls in the section of access restrictions. Mentioned below is the process that you need to carry out in order to prevent your kid from having access to a website. 

Step 1: First of all, log into the administrator console of your router by launching an internet browser on your PC. 

Step 2: After that, start searching for the Parental Controls or access restrictions page if there is one. There is a possibility that you may see the restrictions page located on the Firewall page but certain routers have it in a different area. 

Step 3: Start searching for the section called Website blocking by URl Address, Website Filtering. There, you are required to enter the domain of the website for example YouTube.com or some other page. In case you wish to form an Access Policy for blocking a particular website that you don't want your kid to open. 

Step 4: If asked, then you are required to enter the access policy by typing in a title like Black YouTube in the field of Policy Name and select Filter as the type of policy. 

Step 5: There are certain routers that allow the users to do scheduled blocking. This means that you can block a website for a certain number of hours such as the time when your kid is supposed to do is homework. In case you wish to use the schedule option, then set the times and days when you want the website to be blocked. 

Step 6: Enter the name of the website which you are interested in blocking. by going to the Website Blocking URL Address area.  

Step 7: Select the option of Save and then Click on the Add button which is given at the end of the rule. 

Step 8: Select Apply in order to enforce the changes made. 

After that, you will be required to restart to enforce the newly formed rule. It is going to take a few minutes.