Hi all, hoping someone can point me in the right direction because I'm about ready to throw the router out the window. We set up parental controls on our Nexora broadband yesterday for the kids, but now it's blocking random stuff like BBC Bitesize and a maths homework site. I assumed it would only stop the obvious bad stuff. I've tried turning the filter from 'strict' to 'standard' but it still seems over the top.
Is there a way to whitelist certain sites? Or is the only option to switch it all off, which seems a bit pointless. We're on the Home Fibre 500 package if that matters.
Hi Megan, sorry about that. You should be able to allow specific websites while keeping parental controls active.
If you're using the Nexora app, go to Broadband > Parental Controls > Allowed sites and add the homework site URL there. If you're on the web portal, it should be under Settings > Family Safety > Exceptions.
A couple of things to check:
- make sure the site address is entered without a typo
- allow both the main domain and any subpages if needed
- if the device uses a separate DNS setting, that can sometimes override the filter
If you want, reply with the exact site name rather than the full address and I can tell you whether it should be accessible under standard settings.
We had the same with our son's school portal. What fixed it for us was adding the site on the app and then fully restarting the hub. Just changing the setting didn't seem to take straight away. Bit annoying, but it did work after about 10 mins.
Thanks both. I can't see an 'allowed sites' option anywhere in the app though, only time limits and bedtime stuff. Am I looking in the wrong place? The app version is definitely up to date, I checked that first because I know these things like to hide themselves for no reason.
That's odd, Megan. On some accounts the option only appears after the family profile is fully created, not just the device schedule.
Could you check whether the child profile has been set up with a specific age range? If it has, try editing the profile and looking for 'Web filtering'. That's where the allow list sits for most customers.
If you still can't see it, the feature may not be active on your account yet and we may need to refresh it from our side.
Not sure if this helps but on mine the 'homework' category was being caught by the safe search bit, not the site block. I had to change the search setting for the kid's tablet as well as the broadband setting. Took me ages to work out it was two different things.
Right, that might be it actually. I changed it on the hub but not on the tablets. Bit confusing that there are two places to do it. I'll have another go tonight when the kids are not already shouting that the internet is broken. If I still can't get it working I'll come back.
No problem, Megan. Yes, there can be separate controls on the broadband account and the device itself, which is why it can feel a bit muddled.
If the issue continues after checking both, reply here and we can look at whether your account needs a settings refresh. I've marked this as the likely fix for now, but happy to help further if needed.
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