Smart DNS and BT Parental Controls

I wish to have parental controls turned on, but is there any way to allow Smart DNS to get through?
BT Parental Controls seem to block any DNS other than the BT DNS servers, but is there any way I can allow my Smart DNS service through?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_DNS_proxy_server
Many thanks for any help.

OnFire wrote:
I wish to have parental controls turned on, but is there any way to allow Smart DNS to get through?
BT Parental Controls seem to block any DNS other than the BT DNS servers, but is there any way I can allow my Smart DNS service through?
No, its not possible. BT have done it that way to ensure that people cannot bypass the Parental Controls by using different DNS servers.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Similar Messages

Netboot and a Parental Control managed account

I am trying to set up a group of kiosks (Mac Minis) using NetBoot off of OS X Server 10.5.2. I've created a netbootable disk image with two accounts. One is an admin account, the other is a managed account with Parental Controls.
My thinking was that I could lock down the managed account and limit the websites that can be visited as well as apps that can be launched using Parental Controls. Everything seems to work fine except one important piece. Neither Firefox or Safari can actually access the internet. I always get a connection error from the browsers. If I run network diagnostics, it returns green on all levels. Similarly, in a Terminal window under that same account, I can ping the webservers I'm trying to get to.
Does anyone have any ideas why Parental Controls on that account seem to limit the ability for the browsers to see the Internet? It works fine when the original image is booted locally. Are managed Parental Control accounts not compatible with NetBoot? Any suggestions?

Ok, this gets more interesting. Based on more testing, I believe there is an incompatibility between Netboot and a Parental Control account. I tried doing a port scan using Network Utility (ports 0-1000) in a variety of accounts both local drive boot and Netboot. The results are further below.
For some reason, the Parental Control account on the Netboot device does not see port 80 (http) off the computer it is scanning. As you can see there are three different cases. The http and https protocols are where the discrepancy occurs. Anyone know if this is by design or a bug? I find it hard to believe I'm the only one trying such a solution but this seems to be a pretty significant roadblock.
*_Netboot Parental Control account results:_*
Port Scan has started ...
Port Scanning host: 10.16.31.84
Open TCP Port: 22 ssh
Open TCP Port: 88 kerberos
Open TCP Port: 139 netbios-ssn
Open TCP Port: 443 https
Open TCP Port: 445 microsoft-ds
Open TCP Port: 548 afpovertcp
Port Scan has completed ...
*_Original HD/OS that is the source of the Netboot image in Parental Control account:_*
Port Scan has started ...
Port Scanning host: 10.16.31.84
Open TCP Port: 22 ssh
Open TCP Port: 80 http
Open TCP Port: 88 kerberos
Open TCP Port: 139 netbios-ssn
Open TCP Port: 443 https
Open TCP Port: 445 microsoft-ds
Open TCP Port: 548 afpovertcp
Port Scan has completed ...
*_Other instances results:_*
*(Includes Netbooted Admin account,*
*Netbooted Standard account,*
*3rd machine hard drive boot as an additional example)*
Port Scan has started ...
Port Scanning host: 10.16.31.84
Open TCP Port: 22 ssh
Open TCP Port: 80 http
Open TCP Port: 88 kerberos
Open TCP Port: 139 netbios-ssn
Open TCP Port: 445 microsoft-ds
Open TCP Port: 548 afpovertcp
Port Scan has completed ...

How to enable and edit parental control in mac OS X programmatically

I want to create an application for editing Parental Control settings. Application will be running in background and it will get the command from server. On receiving the commands it will change the setting of parental control. Can any one tell me how to achieve this. I want the information like, whether this is allowed by apple or not, if allowed which framework/API's to use. I want to do basically web content and app filtering.

Up!
I am very interesting in this case too!

Switchboard on startup and with parental controls

CS5 Design Standard, OS X Snow Leopard
I have a user account with parental controls, and when the user opens, there is a message to the effect that "you don't have permission to open switchboard"
My questions are:
Is it necessary to have switchboard open on login? I don't see an application or launcher in the normal places that opens switchboard, the only place is in the user Adobe preferences file. Is that where it is prompted to open on login?
Can I delete the file launch.switchboard to prevent open on login, but still retain the usability of the program?
What does switchboard do exactly?
Thank you.

..."I've allowed all Utilities, Applications, etc and no matter what, as soon as I turn on the "only allowed selected programs" option, it won't work."...
I'm not sure, but it is possible that allowing / disallowing based on the pre-defined categories may not work because the software that Wacom uses on my system is in an atypical location, and has an atypical structure - it actually has one application contained inside another. It may be necessary to approve the apps explicitly.
Perhaps try either:
i) Opening "/Library" > "Application Support" > "Tablet" and explicitly dragging any apps present there into the "Parental Controls" pref pane in the panel where the programmes are listed. On my system, the app is called "PenTabletDriver.app"...
or
ii) Logging in to the managed account (with application restrictions in place), and trying to launch the "PenTabletDriver.app" programme. If this generates the "application is not allowed" message, it should be possible to "always allow" with "admin" authentication to white-list it at that stage...

Xbox Live Video Marketplace and WRT54GS Parental Controls.

There is a funky error when using a WRT54GS with Parental Controls enabled and trying to download movies on Xbox live. This error code (8007000b) only appears when Parental Controls are on, and it only affects the Video Marketplace portion of Xbox live.
It might be Microsoft's fault, but just FYI..
-Chris

The parental controls prevent you from browsing the video marketplace completely.
I don't think that should be how it operates though. Usually the parental controls just let Xbox Live through.
Even so, I wouldn't expect the parental controls to affect the Xbox at all, as the Xbox has its own parental control system in-place.

Installing applications and changing parental controls

I have added 2 new programs to my client computers thru ARD with no problems, but would like to know how to set up parental controls for them. Currently when you click on each program I get a message saying that I need to modify the parental controls to +*Never Allow, Always Allow or Allow Once*+. I would like to chnege the access to Always allow from ARD and enable the command to *Modify the Dock* as well
Is there a Unix command for this?

You can copy and paste the settings in the PC pref pane in System Preferences. Make sure remote management is enabled on each machine. Control click on one in System Preferences (from the Admin Mac) and paste into each of the other machines.
Alternatively, you can do it with some UNIX commands:
It can be done using MCX settings. First (make sure all machines are logged out), configure ONE of the accounts with the proper parental controls. Than, in Terminal, use this command:
dscl . -mcxexport /Users/user1 > /path/to/file
*path to file is the path to the file you want to save the settings to. the file will be created. replace user1 with proper username
Now, copy that file to all the other computers to the same location (using ARD).
In ARD, run this command on the machine:
dscl . -mcximport /Users/user2 /path/to/file
*replace user2 with proper username. run as the user root
Now, make sure to delete that file off the machines. Login on a machine. The settings should be applied.

ICloud and BT Parental Control

If your Internet provider in the UK is BT and you have enabled BT Parental Control, you will need to add iCloud.com to your list of 'allowed' websites in order to use iCloud on your Mac computers and iPhones.

Hi OM1,
Thanks for posting. Sorry you're having problems with the pop up message. I can help with this. Drop me an email with the details, including what browser you're using. You'll get the 'contact us' luink in my profile.
Cheers
David
BTCare Community Mod
If we have asked you to email us with your details, please make sure you are logged in to the forum, otherwise you will not be able to see our ‘Contact Us’ link within our profiles.
We are sorry but we are unable to deal with service/account queries via the private message(PM) function so please don't PM your account info, we need to deal with this via our email account :-)

IChat, Parental Control and Bonjour

Rather than using AIM (and it's slowness), I was hoping to be able to use Bonjour on our internal network (which is firewalled and, obviously, not a threat) to chat/audio conference with our youngest.
I used the parental control to limit his AIM partners to the family but still wanted to allow him to talk on our network in the house. Unfortunately, when I go into iChat via his account the "using Bonjour instant messaging" is grayed out.
I tried turning it on in iChat on his account, going to my admin account and THEN enabling parental control, and trying again but no dice.
Any ideas?
Sure would be nice for home networks to have the option to iChat with everyone at Bonjour vs. AIM speeds (doubly so if you are on dialup!).

hi James,
Well I read this and thought "he can't be right" ?
So I went to test
Enabled Parental Controls and for iChat and Added one AIM/@mac buddy.
Looked for ability to add Bonjur or Jabber accounts but found nothing
Went to log in to that account.
Check to see if Bonjour window was available. Nope.
Checked iChat Preferences >Accounts and could not select Bonjour.
Took off Parental Controls - Appears in iChat, Bonjour and Jabber windows.
Selecting and deselecting Parental Control Logs iChat in and out of AIM.
I must admit to thinking this is a big Opps by Apple
Ralph

Safari, Secure connection to sites, and Parental Control

I'm setting up Safari for a child, and have Parental Controls enabled and am customizing the list of sites that can be visited. I'm allowing Netflix.com and have multiple http and https Netflix URL's allowed. However, when I test accessing this site, Safari gives an error stating that it cannot establish a "secure connection".
The same computer, with a different account, can access the same URL without the error. My assumption would be that since I specifically allowed several Netflix.com URL's, that this would work just fine. By granting specific access, you are bypassing Parental Controls in a controlled way.
What's causing this to not work?
Thanks for your help.

Netflix only provides HTTPS when loggin in or visting the main site, not for the content or it would have to encrpyt the video stream (expensive).
It also sends one to another site (with another name "movies.netflix.com" here) to view the content, perhaps you have to access the account from another machine, grab the URL it directs you too and enter that into Parental Controls.
Silverlight also has to be updated, check your Flash too.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/
I did see the thread about using the IP address for HTTPS sites, but wouldn't there be a large number of IP addresses associated with a Netflix type of site due to all of the streaming video feeds available?
If that wouldn't be a problem, does anyone know how to determine the IP address of Netflix?
The video streams are not encrypted, and IP addresses are just the physical buildings of the servers themselves, the buisness name (URL) can change locations and that's what the Domain Name Server is used for to resolve those IP numbers for you in case they do change.
Netflix log in and content delivery have different IP addresses, the content delivery may use IP's of servers closer to your location, so it would not assist you for me to give those out.
You can install Firefox web browser and a add-on called FlagFox, which displays a little country flag in the URL address bar of each website you visit which you can right click and "Copy IP" if you so need it.
I don't advise using the IP, as that can change, use the URL so the Domain Name Server of your ISP can provide the correct IP address so your comptuer can connect.
Also Firefox has more add-ons for control and a nearly completely customizable web browser that may be a better choice for children/special needs (big buttons, type etc) than Safari.
There is Public Fox which can lock down certain aspects of the browser (prevent downloads for instance or changing things.)
Theme Font & Size Changer which can enlarge the type of Firefox itself, there is NoSquint which can auto-zoom all web pages etc.
There are Firefox Personas and Themes that can dress up or "childize" the browser so it's more fun for children.

Parental control - desired features

I posted the message below to apple TV feedback page and I though I'd share it with you too, and get a penny for your thoughts; perhaps even brainstorm a bit more on the parental control issue, because WE (parents with young children) need a better and easier parental control...
quote:
"With great power comes great responsibility"... bringing so much digital content to the living room space: movies, music, youtube videos, etc is a quantum leap in our digital entertainment, but this space we share with our young children, thus they need to be effectively protected. Doing this elegantly as well is an art. We want to be able to filter out explicit content (or access to certain rated material, or certain services) easily, securely and hassle free. As of now (version 2.0.2) I can think of TWO reasons why I absolutely don't want the parental control ON (despite the fact that this leaves my young children exposed):
- First, the password has to be enter EVERY time I access something restricted. You would say that this is quite normal, however I'd say it's quite a hassle. If I am the adult ready to access restricted content, I have the option to either turn off the parental control temporarily.. with the hassle of having to set the pin again after I am done... or, I have to enter the pin every time. If i access the restricted material now.. it makes sense that I will also be the one accessing the next restricted material in 5 minutes from now. It's a reasonable time-locality principle. Apple TV should be "smart" enough to know that I just entered a pin to access something a minute ago.. thus not needing to ask for the pin again. This smartness doesn't have to be necessarily implicit.. it could be explicit: apple tv can ask me for how long should it remember the entered pin.
The solution that I have in mind is a Comcast-like parental control that inhibits the parental control for a period of time. Say, i am planning to use the apple tv for an hour.. then I should be able to inhibit the parental control for that given time. This way, I won't be asked to enter the pin over and over again for everything that is restricted. The implementation that I have in mind is: whenever I want to access something restricted.. i will enter the pin.. then instead of just selecting DONE.. I can have the options to unlock for 1 hour.. 2 hours, 4 hours.. and once. These could be easily accessible via the up/down/left/right buttons on the remote (or browse-able)
- The second BIG BIG reason why i don't want the parental control ON.. is that the pin is VISIBLE! If we are all planing to watch something (buy a movie, which is a restricted service, let's say) I will have to enter the pin in visible for my young children to see. Of course this pin will have to be changed later on to something else to make sure the parental control stays what it's meant to be.. a parental control. What good it is a parental control with a public pin?
Solution: instead of visible password.. you can allow the option to click the five buttons left/right/up/down/center in a specific order. How many permutation of 5 buttons can we have? 5! = 12*3*45 = 120, but wait... we can press a button multiple times.. so the total number of codes we can enter is.. whatever you want. e.g. if the codes should have 4 "digits", the number of combinations is 5^4 = 625. Anyway, you get the idea. You should absolutely find a way to replace the visible pin with an invisible one.. using the key combinations is one such solution.
Looking more into the future... a biometric sensor on the remote that will unlock the restricted material instantly by just pressing the finger (fingerprint) on the remote would be awesome. Perhaps this won't make it to the next apple tv remote iteration but it is something that apple is aiming for... ultimate simplicity.
Also an accelerometer based remote would also make the browsing the apple tv content a LOT faster and smoother than clicking buttons (wii-like remote perhaps?). Clicking and holding buttons (quite hard to press for my taste) to go down to the bottom of a 200 song list is quite painful.
Also.. one more thing.. it would be nice to have a HOME button similar to the iPhone home.. One click and i'm back to the main menu. Perhaps a double click on the menu button? I hate having to click 5 times to get out of a music location to get to the main menu. Quicker access please!??
all the best and hope to see these new features soon, so we can ALL enjoy our newly purchased Apple TV.
Thanks.
marius giurgi

I posted the message below to apple TV feedback page and I though I'd share it with you too, and get a penny for your thoughts; perhaps even brainstorm a bit more on the parental control issue, because WE (parents with young children) need a better and easier parental control...
quote:
"With great power comes great responsibility"... bringing so much digital content to the living room space: movies, music, youtube videos, etc is a quantum leap in our digital entertainment, but this space we share with our young children, thus they need to be effectively protected. Doing this elegantly as well is an art. We want to be able to filter out explicit content (or access to certain rated material, or certain services) easily, securely and hassle free. As of now (version 2.0.2) I can think of TWO reasons why I absolutely don't want the parental control ON (despite the fact that this leaves my young children exposed):
- First, the password has to be enter EVERY time I access something restricted. You would say that this is quite normal, however I'd say it's quite a hassle. If I am the adult ready to access restricted content, I have the option to either turn off the parental control temporarily.. with the hassle of having to set the pin again after I am done... or, I have to enter the pin every time. If i access the restricted material now.. it makes sense that I will also be the one accessing the next restricted material in 5 minutes from now. It's a reasonable time-locality principle. Apple TV should be "smart" enough to know that I just entered a pin to access something a minute ago.. thus not needing to ask for the pin again. This smartness doesn't have to be necessarily implicit.. it could be explicit: apple tv can ask me for how long should it remember the entered pin.
The solution that I have in mind is a Comcast-like parental control that inhibits the parental control for a period of time. Say, i am planning to use the apple tv for an hour.. then I should be able to inhibit the parental control for that given time. This way, I won't be asked to enter the pin over and over again for everything that is restricted. The implementation that I have in mind is: whenever I want to access something restricted.. i will enter the pin.. then instead of just selecting DONE.. I can have the options to unlock for 1 hour.. 2 hours, 4 hours.. and once. These could be easily accessible via the up/down/left/right buttons on the remote (or browse-able)
- The second BIG BIG reason why i don't want the parental control ON.. is that the pin is VISIBLE! If we are all planing to watch something (buy a movie, which is a restricted service, let's say) I will have to enter the pin in visible for my young children to see. Of course this pin will have to be changed later on to something else to make sure the parental control stays what it's meant to be.. a parental control. What good it is a parental control with a public pin?
Solution: instead of visible password.. you can allow the option to click the five buttons left/right/up/down/center in a specific order. How many permutation of 5 buttons can we have? 5! = 12*3*45 = 120, but wait... we can press a button multiple times.. so the total number of codes we can enter is.. whatever you want. e.g. if the codes should have 4 "digits", the number of combinations is 5^4 = 625. Anyway, you get the idea. You should absolutely find a way to replace the visible pin with an invisible one.. using the key combinations is one such solution.
Looking more into the future... a biometric sensor on the remote that will unlock the restricted material instantly by just pressing the finger (fingerprint) on the remote would be awesome. Perhaps this won't make it to the next apple tv remote iteration but it is something that apple is aiming for... ultimate simplicity.
Also an accelerometer based remote would also make the browsing the apple tv content a LOT faster and smoother than clicking buttons (wii-like remote perhaps?). Clicking and holding buttons (quite hard to press for my taste) to go down to the bottom of a 200 song list is quite painful.
Also.. one more thing.. it would be nice to have a HOME button similar to the iPhone home.. One click and i'm back to the main menu. Perhaps a double click on the menu button? I hate having to click 5 times to get out of a music location to get to the main menu. Quicker access please!??
all the best and hope to see these new features soon, so we can ALL enjoy our newly purchased Apple TV.
Thanks.
marius giurgi

Google Chromecast stopped work - Parental controls...

Hi
I have been using a Chromecast to watch Netflix on my Sony Bravia TV and it has worked fine for several months. Now it has stopped working and I see the message "Chromecast connected to -BT Hub name- but can't access the internet":
The only thing that I can think of that has changed is my I'm on hte BT Parental Controls trial. This allows me to restrict internet access at hte household/router level. I've disabled these completely (see screenshot below) and reconfigured the Chromecast, including a factory reset, but I can't seem to get past this message.
All other internet access works fine - nothing is blocked. I've even unboxed my 2nd Chromecast and set that up and it has the same issue.
Could it be that the Parental Controls have changed hte settings in the Hub? Maybe somethign to do with UPnP?
Any help welcomed.
Richard

Hi,
I have had the same problem and have been tearing my hair out trying to solve it!!
The solution I found was as follows:
go into hub manager and do the following
turn off smart set up
switch off Upnp control
Then log into My BT and turn off parental controls and delete parental control settings.
This last action is the most important part as I already guessed ti was the parental controls stopping the Chromecast from accessing the internet, but turning off the parental controls didn't work alone!
although this doesn't help with keeping your children safe, there are other means to control what they access on the internet and until BT sort out this problem I won't be using their parental controls.
I hope this helps
My kids are happy now they can watch Netflix and Play films.

Parental Controls app settings keep changing on their own

I manage a lab and have setup Parental Controls to allow certain apps. However, later students will launch an app. that I have enabled and get the dialog box saying it isn't allowed. I go back and check parental controls for that computer and the app is now unchecked.
1) how can I keep this from happening?
2) is there a preferences file somewhere that I can save and then just upload from time to time?
Thanks,
Craig

Tsaxman wrote:
I manage a lab and have setup Parental Controls to allow certain apps. However, later students will launch an app. that I have enabled and get the dialog box saying it isn't allowed. I go back and check parental controls for that computer and the app is now unchecked.
1) how can I keep this from happening?
2) is there a preferences file somewhere that I can save and then just upload from time to time?
Thanks,
Craig
I suspect your students are smarter than you think they are
Be sure nobody knows the admin password. Change it to be sure and make sure nobody is looking.
Be sure nobody has a Leopard DVD handy.
Be sure all users are non-admin types.
Check all 3rd party apps installed on the machines.
You can also check the console logs on the machines to see how and when the change occurred.

Parental Controls on WRT1900AC

Hooked this up and love the speed boost at home. Question is: every review said there was an option to set time frames and time limits on devices under Parental Controls. This was one of my main reasons for getting it. Unfortunately it looks like there is just an on/off switch. Am I missing something? If not will this be coming in an update?? If not can you please add it to your list?!
Thanks!

To set time frames and time limits on devices under Parental Controls, you need to access your Linksys Smart Wifi Account then click and enable Parental Control. After that, select the device that you want to restrict access from the Restrict Internet access on list and click "Specific Times". Here's how to do that: http://kb.linksys.com/Linksys/ukp.aspx?pid=80&vw=1&articleid=25627

DVD parental controls started on their own

Some time ago -- maybe after I installed Lion, and continuing now with Mountain Lion -- I started seeing this message whenever I insert a DVD movie into my MacBook Pro:
Allow the media "(name)" to play?
Parental Control is on. To play this media, you will be asked to enter an administrator name and password.
[Always Allow] [Cancel] [Play Once]
This happens with every DVD, either commercial discs rented from Netflix or purchased, or discs of my own material created in iDVD.
I'm the only user of this computer, so I have no need for, and have never configured, Parental Controls. When I go to the Parental Controls control panel, there doesn't seem to be any settings to turn off. The only user listed there is Guest User (see screen shot). I'm logged in as an administrator.
I don't see any relevant settings in DVD Player, or in the CDs & DVDs control panel. Can anyone guess why this functionality started, and more importantly how I can turn it off?

Tsaxman wrote:
I manage a lab and have setup Parental Controls to allow certain apps. However, later students will launch an app. that I have enabled and get the dialog box saying it isn't allowed. I go back and check parental controls for that computer and the app is now unchecked.
1) how can I keep this from happening?
2) is there a preferences file somewhere that I can save and then just upload from time to time?
Thanks,
Craig
I suspect your students are smarter than you think they are
Be sure nobody knows the admin password. Change it to be sure and make sure nobody is looking.
Be sure nobody has a Leopard DVD handy.
Be sure all users are non-admin types.
Check all 3rd party apps installed on the machines.
You can also check the console logs on the machines to see how and when the change occurred.

Turning off parental control

Parental control will not let me connect to various websites. (eg. Met Office) I've updated my DNS TWICE and turned Parental Control off TWICE, but it still won't connect me, because of Parental Control! Received an email from BT saying that I have CANCALLED Parental Controls, then I try to get a regularly used website and still get this message "
You're seeing this page because BT Parental Controls is active and you are attempting to connect to a DNS server outside of our network.
You may have selected a different server in your network settings or installed an application that uses an alternative service."
Ready for throwing the computer out of the window!
Solved!
Go to Solution.

You will have to actually uninstall Parental controls, and not just turn them off.
Also make sure that all devices get their DNS setting automatically, or make sure the DNS setiings are set to 192.168.1.254.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Smart DNS and BT Parental Controls

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