Frustrated by flakiness and quite frankly broken-ness

Hi,

This is a bit of a rant, I know.

I have been using the Box 2 for a while now but its inconsistent and flaky behavior is driving me mad. The No. 1 reason I use it is not actually to protect my home (a happy side-effect), it is as a sort-of parental control unit. I am also not all that interested in filtering, I am mostly interested in time scheduling. I turn off the internet to wired (gaming) PCs on a schedule. The PCs also have Bitdefender Total Security installed (long time user and fan of the software).

At turn-off time, sometimes a white screen will come up on the PC saying that the parent has disabled the internet (or something to that affect) but sometimes that doesn't come up, and it just stops routing traffic to the internet. Either way, I can live with that even though I wish it would make up its mind (recently the white screen has not been coming up but today it appeared again out of the blue). This is the flakiness I am talking about.

Sometimes I want to extend the schedule. This is where it gets really broken. If a machine is past the scheduled "off" time and you try and turn it back on, it almost never works. You can release/renew the DHCP lease (if the white screen didn't appear), reboot the PC, nothing. The only way to get this "disabled" PC working again is to reboot the Box 2! Even if you remove the PC from the child profile and add it to a general/a.dult profile, it will not come back to life. It can see all machines on the local network, but the box simply will not route traffic. It's as though my phone app and the Box 2 don't talk, or at least don't talk all that often. Is that what's going on? Am I telling a machine at Bitdefender Central to tell my Box to route, and this can take a long time (as in many minutes - as in utterly useless)?

There's actually not a lot of info on the Box 2 out there (is obfuscation the key to security?). This is one of the most annoying consumer devices I have used. It's feels like it's a toy to Bitdefender, not a serious product. I guess I am in the market for another solution (again). I have tried a few and nobody seems to be able to do this one simple thing well...

Thanks

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Comments

Getafix

Hi - I believe the problem I was seeing is actually the BitDefender parental controls on the PC causing me grief. Perhaps one should only use one or the other (box or parental controls on PC)? Maybe when the box "turns off" the internet, bitdefender central can't get to the PC to tell it that the time has been altered (from my phone), and then you get stuck behind that white pop-up screen forever?

Anyway, this whole process was just too frustrating. I have taken off the parental controls and ditched the box for a Google WiFi. I am now onto my 4th piece of hardware in an attempt to get something as simple as being able to "schedule" internet availability, to work. That may sound extreme but I am absolutely determined to have family time with my teens and when this schedule stuff works, so does family time Here's to hoping Google has the answer.

TheWARNED1

What gets me is the malware that can still get through the box 2 and it breaking out of the blue i just maybe in the same boat with getting googles mcafee or one of the box 2's competitors a try please come back and let me know how your new device works for you

Getafix

Hi - for my specific needs, the Google WiFi is working exactly as expected. Turning on/off devices works immediately, effectively and without fail. Of course, no virus/malware protection with this, so I still rely on Bitdefender software to protect my devices.

I think if protection is your primary reason for having a Box 2, then the BOX 2 is probably a good solution. I was specifically looking for something to "turn the internet on or off" for specific devices, on a schedule. In this regard, the Google WiFi works and the Box did not work. Not for me, anyway. My Box 2 is now literally back in a box.

Thanks.