Weird problem with parental controls disappearing on T3200M

[jujubehead]

I'm trying to use the parental controls on the T3200M.

Looking in the "Advanced Settings" screen, the menu item on the left for parental controls was not there at all.

The admin home screen showed "Filtering/Blocking: Disabled", so I contacted Telus Support and they suggested resetting the router to factory settings. We reset the router and the home screen changed to "Filtering/Blocking: Enabled", and the parental controls menu item in the advanced settings was available.

I fiddled with it for a bit, only to come back the next morning and find that it had gone back to "Disabled" and the parental controls menu item disappeared again. No way to enable it. Super frustrating!

Anyone know what's happening here? How can I get access to parental controls?

(No one else would be messing with it, my kids aren't old enough to know what a router is)

Thanks.

[amam]

The same thing happened to me just today!! I logged on and out several times and turned the modem off and on. Nothing. Called tech support and they did a factory reset. I have it back now but this is often telus' common fix for almost everything. It's frustrating because it knocks out all the parental controls etc. Resetting modem should be a last resort, not the first solution.

[amam]

The parental controls have disappeared once again, even after the factory reset. This is now the second time in less than a week. I just spoke with tech support again and she said this is the first time they've ever heard of it and nobody has reported this issue before! So I guess jujubehead and my report didn't count! Anybody else's parental controls disappeared in their GUI advanced setup?

[worldtel]

I have also lost the parental controls.  I have actually lost all the Blocking/Filtering section seen here circled in yellow:

I am currently on the phone holding in the 1 hour support queue to see why this is happening and if it can be resolved.

Once thing I noticed under my Upgrade History was that my T3200M's firmware was upgraded in September from 31.164L.18 to 22.  This could be the culprit:

09/23/2020

12:43 AM

ACS

Complete

31.164L.22

I will keep you posted.

[xray]

Looks like firmware 31.164L.22 may be the culprit. I'm still on 31.164L.18 and I see the settings.

[T-Man]

Any update on this issue? I have the same problem.

[worldtel]

I am working with a TELUS support manager and higher tier support resources on the issue.

They have confirmed that this is an issue and that the Blocking/Filtering section with the Parental Control service should still be available. 

The TELUS support agent also confirmed that the issue is not firmware related, or not directly related, as they are running the latest .22 and still have the Parental Controls available.

One thing I have noticed is that there is a newer Parental Control service available in the TELUS My Wi-Fi app which works if you have the TELUS Boost Wi-Fi boosters connected to your T3200M modem.  It allows, scheduling and parental content control and has served as a partial work around. The only limitation to this control is that it cannot control devices hardwired with ethernet on your network.

TELUS has asked me to perform a factory reset to restore the Filtering/Blocking and Parental Controls service in the modem,  If that fails they have offered to replace it outright.

I will keep you posted on my progress.

[cwant]

I installed the Telus My Wifi app yesterday, and the blocking/filtering controls disappeared. I wonder if these two events are related? Do others having this problem also have the My Wifi app installed?

[cwant]

Would love to get this stuff sorted out. With kids at home for school due to COVID, it's less the adult sites that need blocking, and more the distractions (youtube, games, Pokemon, etc.). Having some control over this would be great (whether it is with the Actiontec modem, or with the My Wifi app, don't care which, as long as it works).

[worldtel · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

I have an update. Working with a couple resources from TELUS support management and development they have confirmed that the TELUS My Wi-Fi app is the supported replacement for the parental controls in the T3200M modem. This change is effective with the last firmware upgrade to the modem, version 31.164L.22.

Reverting to firmware 31.164L.18 or lower, through a factory reset of the modem, will restore the original Blocking/Filtering section with parental controls in the T3200M modem, however the workaround would be temporary as the modem will continue to pickup the latest firmware from TELUS and perform an automatic update.  The new firmware is more secure than .18 so this is likely not a recommended solution.

The parental controls in the TELUS My Wi-Fi app have some know limitations compared to the original T3200M-based controls:

1. Scheduling: Some devices cannot be paused or included in the child profiles  (Ex TELUS Optik STB). TELUS Optik PVRs work fine. 
2. Filtering/Blocking: There is no definable web or protocol filtering, other than the generic option to filter out Adult content based on age ratings.

To filter specific apps, such as YouTube, TikTok or Pokemon. If you own an Apple device with Family Sharing setup, there is a relatively new setting called Screen Time that has proven to be an absolute life savior for our family's balancing of digital time: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT208982

There are similar options provided by Microsoft for Windows and Android (https://support.google.com/families/answer/7103340?hl=en), but I am less familiar with them and do not want to stray to far off thread here.

Hope this helps.

[Spinach]

I cannot find the parental controls in the app...could you point me in the right direction?

Thanks for sharing all your research on this. I've been super frustrated with the changes they made to the modem, blocking and filtering wasn't even great to begin with. I'm considering going to shaw over this issue.

[BrianF]

Same Problem. The entire Blocking/Filtering section at the top of Advanced Setup is simply gone on new firmware.

These features are extremely important!

[BrianF]

More info (can't edit previous post):

This problem exists on a Windstream T3200 (no M) using firmware WST3K-31.165L.38

[jmsears]

I just tried to do the same thing today (Dec 4) and encountered exactly the same issues. As mentioned, I had set parental controls back in March, at the start of Covid, to control specific websites on my kids' devices. So you are not the only one. We now use chromebooks and Windows machines. The Telus My WIFI app is unhelpful, as it only allows me to block a certain device, which is not my goal. My goal is to let my kids play games on their ipads, without them being able to google search or You Tube watch, without my direct supervision. And as parents, one keystroke misstep, can bring up some nasty google search stuff. I am now waiting for tech support see the next steps .

[AbBowhunter]

There is another option. Use a 3rd party router. Ever since I got rid of the Telus modem alot of issues just disappeared.....

[Spinach]

Do you have one you'd recommend?

[bjon]

Try using a VPN and then whatever Family Monitoring app you use.

If it works please let us all know.

It worked for me.

If it works for you it's an issue with the Modem and Telus can't keep giving us the cold shoulder.

Regards