We use it in our home and it's been fine. As I said in a previous review, I'm not sure how you review something that's main goal is to be 'invisible' (ie. it doesn't deliver a functionality that you notice most of the time).

It's had a couple small issues here and there, and the reality is, we could emulate most of it's filtering by using a dns service like opendns.

Personally, though, there's one reason I won't get rid of it until I find a better solution: It has the ability to schedule when the internet is on and off without effecting other network services (ie. streaming music between computers, file sharing, etc). This functionality allows us to schedule a technology sabbath on Sunday's in our home, which means the internet is always off and I'd actually have to log in and turn it back on if I wanted to break my sabbath. So, for us, that's an invaluable feature that I haven't seen elsewhere. If anyone else has seen this feature somewhere, let me know.

That last line reflects that, if I could emulate most of the functionality by using free or one time cost services or products, I would. Opendns is free for filtering and while not as good, it will be pretty darn good (along with some good parenting and computer setup). The yearly fee bugs me and I'd stop paying it if there were other options. But for now, it works just fine.

-Rob Feature
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.mustardseedmedia.com

I still think its a great product. I just dont use it anymore myself. I have OpenDns filtering enabled through my router now. My household network is now all filtered through that.
Its a solution that works good for me right now.

Bob - I have a Linksys WRT54GL router/access point at home which I've flashed with the open-source dd-wrt firmware. This alternative firmware affords you a *ton* of advanced functions, one of which is the ability to set up an internet access schedule like you do on the iBoss. I haven't taken advantage of that function yet, but your idea of a Sunday "tech sabbath" has me interested. Perhaps we'll try that this weekend.

Blessings!

--
Erik Anderson
http://andersonfam.org

What would stop me or my child from just plugging a network cable into the cable modem and thereby bypassing the router entirely? We use RoadRunner, and then run out into our router to provide internet throughout the house. Is there anyway to stop someone from just unhooking the modem from the router and running directly into the modem. Is there a way for the router to log when this happens, or anything like that?

Nothing is stopping them from rerouting the cables to circumvent your filtering. This will be the case with anything. If they are smart enough to do that this might be the least of your problems.

An option is to create a locked box. Have you cable connection go in one hole and the ethernet cables come out other ones with all cable modem and router locked inside. Just make sure to have slits in it for air flow.

Along with any kind of filtering option needs to be teaching. Eventually the kids will learn how to get around things and that will include places other than the home.

Matt Farina
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.innovatingtomorrow.net
www.mattfarina.com

Completely agree with you Matt. At the end of the day, we must be the ultimate parental controls and teach them so they learn and not only stop them from doing these things but teach them why its wrong. BTW, I am using the iBoss and do like it very much. Also, I was looking around for port locks and found this:
http://www.rjlockdown.com/?gclid=CIPgp_iT35UCFSAUa...
never used it but would assume it works.

We've got the iBoss and are happy with it. The only problem we've had is getting it to work well with the Tivo, but I haven't had a chance to talk to their tech support directly on that.

re: disconnecting and bypassing. You can configure the iBoss to email you if it detects a system outage, either no signal coming from your cable modem or if it gets powered down.

Of course, it can't send the email until it's powered back up and/or reconnected. But you get the idea.

That way you will know that something happened.

I also like the "internet sleep" option. The internet goes down in our house at 10 pm every night. I know that many temptations get stronger as the night wears on (and I'm old and need to get to bed). So my teens have learned to live with it.

We are considering upgrading to the new unit that includes a built in Wireless G router (with 4 hard wired ports). That would take one piece of equipment out of our network hardware.

Not sure about iBoss never used it but I use Safe Eyes for filtering and am happy with it. I am a single guy so I'm not filtering for a ministry or household. I was using another filtering option but they closed and the only reason I had that was because it was the only one I could find that automatically filters things like pornography without question. even as admin of the account I couldn't turn it off. After they closed it they sent me to www.internetsafety.com and Safe Eyes has an option to install it without having local control. Normally you could select everything you wanted opened and even turn it off. With this option I protect myself from me and my sin nature because it takes a big step to call someone on the phone and ask them to open a site I shouldn't be on. I had to open one site that was fine to be opened but mis catagorized but that was one time in the several months I have had it. Over all I am pleased with it. They also have a dialup service that is available where the filtering is done on there end so whatever computer is connect to the service is filtered. No broadband filtering on server side yet but their software works. I havn't tried to hard to bypass it but I did give it a try when I started it and most of the things I tried didn't work. I'm no hacker but I know computers a bit and I was only worried about defeating myself so it works good. Your allowed I think 3 computers per account so it covers my laptop my pc and my media center.

Jonathan Bowen
jbowen@lostministries.org
www.lostministries.org

we sell locking network cables & iboss routers in the uk so i think you will find the two solutions work well together also the iboss will send a tamper alert when it has been unplugged etc

we sell locking network cables & iboss routers in the uk so i think you will find the two solutions work well together also the iboss will send a tamper alert when it has been unplugged etc www.blocktheweb.co.uk

As mentioned above, the WRT-54G with DD-WRT (http://www.dd-wrt.com/) firmware adds a lot of options to the standard feature set. I have used their scheduling feature to selectively disable internet for my kids' machines at bedtime while leaving mine and my wife's machines connected. This can be done by either MAC or IP address based on time of day or day of week; it's been very handy.

I could see using this same set of features to enable a hot-spot at church and disable it at "closing time".

Regards,
Steve W.
http://twitter.com/DakotaGeek

Just an update here:

About a month or two ago, my iBoss stopped working. I could no longer connect to it through a browser. At the same time (or because of that) it would no longer function between my modem and router..just a blinking red light no matter what I did.

I was really surprised there was no reset button anywhere (for a factory reset). From what I could see (without digging through iPhantom forums or contacting support) there was no quick fix to get it back online. At that time, I just gave up on it because I didn't want the hassle.

After it sitting there inactive for a month or so (I disconnected it from my network hoping it would magically start working again) I finally called and cancelled my subscription with them. Why did I do that rather than contact support?

1. I had started using OpenDNS.com for my filtering and it worked just as well as the iBoss
2. I had hassled with the iBoss on my network over the past couple years on and off...and I didn't want the complication of hardware any longer
3. Honestly, it seemed from the beginning that paying for a filter like that shouldn't be a yearly fee, so I finally did something about it and cancelled

Overall, if you need a hardware filter it's a good product. But in my experience, unless your an office, school, or church who needs a hardware solution, OpenDNS may fill your needs at home. It did mine at least, so I finally cancelled my subscription and threw the iBoss in my crate full of "I used to use that technology" devices...

I have an internet filter on the pc before I got my mac, and we don't have an internet filter on it, otherwise we would have to pay for two different services. I should set up opendns on my router at home and maybe that should work better for us. I don't have to worry about children, because it's just my wife and I, but it's good to have something.

Have any of you tried IPCOP? I recently installed it on an old PC (Pentium I i think, with a 10gb drive and 64mb ram). My dsl modem plugs into a NIC on the IPCOP box and my switch and wifi hot spot connect to another NIC on IPCOP. So basically anyone on my network or wifi gets routed through IPCOP and traffic is filtered, monitored, restricted, etc.

To answer the person that asked what would happen if someone simply unplugged it to bypass, In my setup the modem is in bridge mode and the IPCOP box holds the credentials for the DSL login with the ISP so disconnecting it will just bring down the DSL Connection. It gives a really good and cheap solution, I've been very pleased so far, once I got it setup and config'd I never really have to touch it.

Its a little more involved to setup but worth it I think.

check it out: http://www.ipcop.org/

I tried ipcop on a flash and sadly it was not compatible with my hardware. (mini-itx system)
Instead I use ubuntu server with IPTables.
One day I might go back to findin' a small distro to run off of compact flash instead of a 2.5" hard disk.
For now, it all works well :)

I just noticed that G&G Forums look really different when browsing from home, more minimalist...

Then I noticed this:
http://geeksandgod.com/sites/all/modules/advanced_...

IPCOP was blocking all the images in the /naked/ directory, so I wasn't seeing buttons, icons and some images. Had to white list a christian site! And clean the logs ;)

Anyway, I just thought that was hilarious and ironic.

-jamie

I like the diversity of comments and the discussion looks great.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind regarding some of these solutions. With OpenDNS, the service is simply redirecting your DNS requests (conversion of names to Ip addresses). It is just too easy to bypass by either changing your DNS address or even quicker using a proxy. Any proxy website like proxify that uses direct Ip Addresses will completely bypass OpenDNS because DNS is not used when accessing the site directly by Ip Address.

The iBoss actually scans the traffic as it goes through and doesn't rely solely on DNS request redirecting. It makes it pretty difficult to bypass and sure does a great job of blocking those proxy sites.

For example, here's one link from proxify that completely bypasses OpenDNS with no workaround for blocking it:

Proxify:
https://207.44.237.144:4827

Also, with OpenDNS, if you put the DNS servers on your router, you do not get to apply different rules for each computer. Its nice to be able to give different levels of access to different computers as you can do with the iBoss.

In addition, I like to be able to have online games on a schedule with the iBoss which is not possible with OpenDNS. Also, there are just so many options for blocking things like .exe files which help with preventing viruses from getting on the computers.

I've contemplated using something like IpCop on an old PC. But after looking closely at the total cost, it just didn't make sense. I wondered what the power would cost to run the PC and after a little research on the web I found it could cost over $200 a year!

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000426.html

Also, I figured that since it is an older computer probably the power supply would go out at some point adding more cost. Those things are not cheap. Plus, being an older computer I'm assuming its not very power efficient and probably cost a lot more in power per year than newer PCs.

So, although some of the stuff I found was free in cost for the software, the true cost is much higher overall relative to the cost of the iBoss which consumes very little power (small box with 5V power supply and no moving parts) and only cost $59.95 a year.

I also think its good to do your part for the environment when you can so saving power (and money) is just a bonus.

The iBoss hooks up to their database making requests on the side for URLs which they maintain and keep up to date. Seems very fair for the price. Subscription wouldn't make sense if it was just a blacklist or something like that which was static. But in this case I think it is very justifiable.

I'm in IT so I'm always pretty critical. I've put these in a bunch of homes and have never been disappointed. I also use the PPPOE trick with the password to prevent disconnections even though the iBoss emails you when this happens.

I think overall the iBoss is a solid product and hard to beat when it comes to cost, features and performance. I had one of the older iBosses that they upgraded for me (to the wireless version) and have to say its very solid and wouldn't trade it for anything else.

f*** IBoss my grandpa uses it on sites that don't have s*** on them even kids websites(miniclip.com) it sucks it was his computer tech idea. he set up the wired as wireless my grand pa added on the his house and his router wouldn't cover the whole house. instead of just buying a N Router he linked up two and if one goes down the other one does. and the IBoss makes it almost impossible for a ameture to fix it. there are so many programs you have to go through to fix it. even if you only have ONE router. IBOSS F**** SUCKS!!!!

Sounds to me like the iBoss is doing its job with you on the Internet. If it could only help with your language...

I almost unpublished the comment with the vulgarities...but Mike's follow up was too funny.

And he had such command of the English language... Punctuation, word selection, complete sentences. It's a good thing he told us he was 18, or I would have thought he was in his 30s.

Tony

I have a question about restricting internet access via iBoss / OpenDNS for existing Windows / Mac computers and iPod Touch devices. Our Dell and Mac computers are connected via an Apple Time Capsule Router that has a hard drive for file sharing between the two computers, supports printer sharing between the two computers, and has a wireless N network. The wireless N Network was not a priority when the Time Capsule was purchased.

Recently my wife received an iPod Touch as a gift. Our teenager and younger children use it to play games and have started using it to access the internet via the wireless N network. I would like to block internet porn all the time and FaceBook or overall internet access hopefully on a schedule that might be different for the computers and iPod Touch devices.

Since we already have a wireless router (Apple Time Capsule) and are using it to network a Windows PC and a Mac for file and printer sharing it is not clear to me how an iBoss router could or should be incorporated into our existing system.

Please tell me if iBoss can distinguish between PC's and iPod Touch devices for selective internet access scheduling. If iBoss can not distinguish between PC's and iPod Touch we may not be able to create different internet access schedules even if we figure out how to incorporate the iBoss hardware. I am wondering if OpenDNS might be a reasonable option for us. We have a SpeedStream 4200 DSL modem for internet access and I believe I have found the correct fields to enter the OpenDNS server adresses.

Thank you for any advice you may be able to share.

Hey Kurt,
Here's a little bit that I know about what you're asking although I never tried it all, so it may not be 100% correct. Asking the iPhantom people would be your best bet. But here's some tips:

1. The iBoss ALWAYS goes before your router. It should sit between the modem and the router on all systems.
2. To block specific devices, you'll need to incorporate a switch into the whole process. This is the part I looked into but never did so I don't really know how it works. But basically, it will allow you to set different permissions/times, etc on different computers based on either IP or MAC address (not sure which, but I think it's MAC which would allow you to block iPods effectively).

Hopefully that's a starter for you...I don't really know much more so I'd hit up the iPhantom support and they can give you the specifics.

I believe iBoss has "tamper" technology which logs things like turning it's power off, loss of connection to the iBoss source that checks for content, etc.
So bypassing the router and connecting directly to the modem would disconnect the iBoss router from the internet, thus logging a "tamper" incident.

a

The iBoss is a neat idea but it will slow your internet down like crazy. It'll usually die within a few months too.

I'm not sure which iBoss you're talking about, but I had mine (little box with 2 ports on it) for over 2 years with no problem before upgrading to the wireless N version. I'm on Fios and am getting 30+ Mbps throughput which is limited by my Fios connection. I had the same speed with the 2 port version.

It makes sense as the data is not routed through the iBoss servers and instead through the local connection.

Does the iBoss interfere with VPN connections? I work at home and use a VPN connection to the corporate office.

Does the iBoss interfere with VPN connections? I work at home and use a VPN connection to the corporate office.

I would like to know how you are getting 30bps through your iboss. I had a 20 meg connection with Fios and could never get more the 12 through the iBoss. My Fios just go updated to 25, still only 12. Even if I flag a PC to be bypassed it is killing my performance.

The iBoss Home G gave me about 12Mbps like you. The iBoss Wireless N gives me over 35Mbps although I can't test faster as that's my max connection speed...I notice no slow down at all

I agree, the N performance is much faster than the G. Over 30 Mbps. I also agree the iboss is much more effective than opendns. Now that opendns is charging, I think many will be looking at other solutions. With opendns, all we are filtering is dns. Simple https sites go unfiltered. No effective filtering of chat, torrents, and most web 2.0 programs. What I found with opendns, its effective in providing a false sense of security. Since most of the teens bypass it by simply changing the dns or finding alternatives listed above. Parents feel they are filtering and unsuspectingly sites go by.
I spoke with the iboss staff. great people. the charges of $59 include hardware replacement warranty for the router, and the human review and categorization of all site. Also, opendns is selling all information. I personally do not like the fact that now beyond my google searches being monitored and sold, now all my families information on sites visited is sold. yes its free but as with everything in life, someones gotta pay the bills somehow. You get what you pay for.

I just had to say. I love the iBoss. Their new Wireless N version is fantastic. One think I did learn however is that you need to stay up to date on the firmware. They have new feature adds and bug fixes with each update. They have fantastic Customer Service and are really passionate about what they do!

Ive configured my iBoss in ever possible way and I cant find anything wrong with it.

I currently have it connected to my Verizon Fios Modem router as an access point for the kids. I connect to the Fios wireless, the kids connect to the iBoss's wireless with their laptops and dont have the password for the fios. I have also disabled the DHCP server for it so there is no plugging right into the modem/router tommy boy.

Love it!

I Find the Iboss as a pile of horse crap. That is what the kid is supposed to think right?
I know that my parents restricting and controlling me has only made me HATE them far more than before.
Restrictions and threats are the wrong way to raise a child, encouragement for the things that you believe are the right thing to do is great. The anger of restriction just causes me to want to get on even more when I have the chance, its just made things worse.
The Iboss, well since I was able to find my Dad's password in a couple weeks, it seems pointless and gay.
I now have to hide that I am playing when the internet is not supposed to be on, when I get close to getting caught I get threats of never being able to use the internet again (I wish I could move out but I am not ready for that). No more internet is like a death threat, I am a Gamer.
If one sibling or parent uses the internet my game will become not worth playing anymore cause how bad the bandwidth is. Since I know how to get past it, the IBOSS becomes such a useless thing for my parents and a burden to the whole family, it is so slow. I used to not really have a problem with lag, it just depended on if it felt like being fast today or not (usually fast). But Now if anyone else is using the internet on their different time plan its just not worth playing, I have this problem plus the old day to day problem now.
Last of all the Iboss has cut my download speed so much of what it used to be. I used to have 300kb/s-400kb/s, if its an awesome day 500kb/s. Now generally 40kb/s-140kb/s, With no one on and a good day about 250kb/s. IBOSS SUCKS DONT GET IT LET YOUR KIDS LEARN THE GOOD WAY AND FIND THE WAY YOURSELF.

Hey Goreslug,

Sorry for the hassles you're having with your parents. You're at a difficult age; you're not ready to be on your own, but understandably you're not ready to be treated like a little kid either. For the moment you're stuck in a place you don't want to be. But before long...maybe a year...perhaps a few...you will be on your own. Then you will be able to, within reason, do whatever you want.

I see the bigger issue as one of integrity. Throughout your whole life you will have many relationships. Some personal...some professional. Some short...some extended. Some casual...some devoted. Many of those relationships will experience some level of disagreement. How are you going to handle it? Being sneaky is usually never a good way to go.

Talk to your folks...What's the issue? Total number of hours? Types of games played? Other responsibilities not being met? Missed opportunities? If you do your best to work with them, they will likely be more willing to work with you.

Peace!

-NP

I have an older iBoss unit (the small box with the two ethernet ports) which I have positioned between my Cable Modem and my Airport Extreme router.

I would like to update to the new iBoss Wireless "N" router with the more advanced features , but I'm sorry to see that the iBoss router doesn't have a USB port so I can't share my printer as easily as I can by having the printer plugged in to the Airport Extreme usb port.

I am not very technically minded ,so I don't really understand how this networking functions, but does anyone know if I can do this:

Cable Modem --> plugged into new iBoss Wireless Router ---> connected by ethernet cable to Airport Extreme --- > wireless signal goes out to the rest of the household computers via the Airport Extreme.

This would allow me to continue to use the Airport Extreme with the printer plugged in to the USB port on the Airport Extreme for printer sharing.

Would this arrangement slow down the internet connection by having it go through two routers ? ... or is this essentially the same situation I have now with the small iBoss unit residing between the Cable Modem and the Airport router ?

Thank you.

I've recently purchased an iBoss for homeschooling kids with laptions (virtual charter school). I like our existing router (Cisco/Linksys E3000) and want to keep it since i also have an office at home, and use a video phone. The Cisco doesn't give me video slowdown or blocking problems that some of the other routers that I've used do (Belkin in particular).

So, I'm wanting to keep the Cisco as the primary router and piggy-back the iBoss on to it. I called the Phantom tech support and they explained that I simply needed to go to the router admin / home / network setup page and change the router address from: 192.168.1.1 (which is also the Cisco router's address...and would conflict with it) to: 192.168.2.1, then change the ip address range from 100:155 to 200:255. I did that and i was able to access both Cisco and iBoss router management pages. (fyi: the iBoss is connected with an Ethernet cable plugged into both router's #1 port).

However, I was having problems with the router configuration forcing all of my IP addresses to a xxx.xxx.2.X address. I went in and disabled the DHCP on the iBoss so that it would simply act as an 'access point router' that i could connect the desired school laptops to. Unfortunately, no I'm not able to get back into the router management to configure the parental controls the way i want to.

I've tried resetting the router and starting over again, but no matter what i do, I can't get back into the management of the router and have been advised by the Phantom folks to give them a call tmrw...which I'll do.

Dave

I say that knowing that Matt probably knows more about tech than i do. But we've got the iBoss (albeit, recently, and am still trying to get the right configuration to fit our family AND home office needs). But, the iBoss does NOT filter IP addresses; it filters the computers MAC address. that is the identification of whatever equipment that is plugged into the router. (ie. computer, printer, video phone, etc.)

you can 'add' each computer mac address and assign it to one of three groups (for us there's default, parent, and school. then, you have the option of setting up each group 'rules' to whatever you want. It wouldn't matter if the kids did try to bypass the routers wireless and connect a cable; the router would still identify the laptop by it's mac address and would block any content according to the group it was assigned to.

I messed with the dhcp in the router managment, and now i can't get reset it and get it to work...i'm chatting with Phantom tech tmrw. But, i wonder if that isn't part of the parental controls as well. In that, I wonder if it doesn't allow a child to simply turn it off and reset it to factory default. If so, it's a brilliant headache : )

We've got the iBoss and are happy with it. The only problem we've had is getting it to work well with the Tivo, but I haven't had a chance to talk to their tech support directly on that.
re: disconnecting and bypassing. You can configure the iBoss to email you if it detects a system outage, either no signal coming from your cable modem or if it gets powered down.
Of course, it can't send the email until it's powered back up and/or reconnected. But you get the idea.
That way you will know that something happened.
I also like the "internet sleep" option. The internet goes down in our house at 10 pm every night. I know that many temptations get stronger as the night wears on (and I'm old and need to get to bed). So my teens have learned to live with it.
We are considering upgrading to the new unit that includes a built in Wireless G router (with 4 hard wired ports). That would take one piece of equipment out of our network hardware.
melissia

1 it seems as though adults believe that we "kids" are going to go look up how to make bombs the first chance we get
2 if the "kids" are never exposed to what is out in the world how on earth are they going to react when they are confronted with that to which they know nothing?
3 youtube may seem reasonable to block, but there are actually good educational videos (I'M NOT JUST SAYING THAT I ACTUALLY USE VIDEOS FOR PRESENTATIONS IN BOTH HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE CLASSES)
4 IBoss deems Google translator as bad, which does not make any sense whatsoever, because i used to use it when i hit a snag and needed to conjugate a word in spanish

now tell me why is it that people feel the need to control what other people do or watch? eventually life finds a way, whether you block it off all you want. why are you going to shut out everything that they are going to see anyways? i just think its the feeling of having control, which is really not real. i grew up with unsecured internet,i'm almost done with my associates of arts, and I'm barely a senior in High school, i find it absolutely EMBARRASSING that i have to deal with child blocks.
now tell me, did i end up on the streets selling crack because i had a "bad upbringing"?
no!
on the contrary, my parents actually TAUGHT me whats right and wrong, instead of having a webpage come up. IBoss is the equivalence of lazy dog owners that put a shock collar and parameter limits on a dog.
if parents actually took the initiative to TEACH and TALK to their kids, i guarantee you they will not go astray
I'm living breathing proof of that

I really like the idea of iBoss and I was using it to filter all the internet traffic for my home. However, it has had so many problems. My wife has finally convinced me that we can't live with it anymore because of all the problems we've had.

1) The wifi part of the iBoss will periodically just stop working and I have to reboot the iBoss. My wife will come in and tell me. Sometime it takes a while to come back.
2) Sometimes the speed goes to a crawl. My wife uses skype frequently and when she is connected through the iBoss the video / audio connection will break or slow down to a crawl making it impossible to talk to the person on the other end.
3) When the wifi connection does work, the signal is weak and erratic.

I have the Wireless N iBoss that I just got this last year. I checked the firmware and it has the latest firmware. If anybody has clues on how to fix these problems I would appreciate hearing from you. Otherwise, I'm just giving up on the iBoss for now.