Firewalla makes it easy to set up a safe, enjoyable, and worry-free internet experience for you and your whole family. Family Protect is one feature we offer to make your network family-friendly.
Family Protect can be enhanced with Firewalla's other family-oriented features, including:
- Safe Search
- Social Hour
- Ad Block
- And more...
To learn more about different ways you can manage your network for your family, check out our article on Activity and Parental Control.
Family Protect
The Family Protect feature automatically filters out violent and pornographic material on your network. Turn it on by tapping the Family button on your Firewalla's main page or in the Features list, then toggling Family Protect on. You can choose which devices you apply it to.
Due to how internet domain names are designed, this block is not always perfect. In 3rd-Party mode, our service points your current configured DNS server to https://opendns.com. OpenDNS will process requests to their servers (Service Description, Privacy Policy, Terms of Service). In Native mode, all DNS is handled by Firewalla. See Native Family Protect to learn more.
If Family Protect isn't working as expected, you may need to flush the DNS cache on your devices. Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android all cache DNS entries. To empty the DNS cache on an iPhone, simply put the phone in airplane mode then turn it off.
If you're experiencing slower internet when Family Protect is on, your physical location may be making the DNS service slow. You may need to temporarily turn off Family Protect or Ad Block for faster internet speeds.
Native Family Protect (not supported on Red or Blue)
Native Family Protect can create multiple blocking rules on the devices to which Family Protect is applied. It leverages Firewalla blocking features to give you full control over what to block right on the Firewalla box without going out of your network. See this video tutorial to learn how to enable Native Family Protect. Here is a list of pre-configured options:
- All Porn Sites
- All Gambling Sites
- All VPN sites
- All Violence Sites
- All Drugs & Alcohol Sites
- DoH Services (note that this option only blocks external DoH services. It is not related to Firewalla's built-in DoH feature)
- Apple Private Relay
To give your family extra protection, Family Protect will also help you turn on Active Protect and Ad Block strict mode. These features can still be applied to different devices.
Comments
15 comments
What happens when a device (computer, mobile or tablet) is already preset with a DNS server (i.e google DNS 8.8.8.8) ?
Is the "Family Protect" feature intercept the DNS query from the device to redirect it to "opendns.com" DNS ?
Firewalla will intercept and redirect the DNS request. (Firewalla is a inline device)
How can I control what is available via opendns? I may want tighter controls or exceptions.
If you need higher control, use the rules to control access. https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008521833-Manage-Rules
Can you still modify your settings in your own openDNS Dashboard or will Firewalla manage it and you have no control ?
There is no control over the family mode part.
If you want to make your own family mode, you can use a combination of porn block, safe search ... to do the same
so disable Family Protect and create your own family mode ?
If you want better control just use the native firewalla features
1. Porn block
2. Safe Search
3. Then you can use the allow rules to manage exceptions.
(Not sure if this is what you are after)
It is , Thank you
Do you have the ability to point to CleanBrowsing rather than OpenDNS?
Is there an alpha / beta version with configurable opendns, so that I can fill in my opendns Account data?
Hi, what is the difference between family, which has ad block & active protect, or there standard counterparts?
Do I need both turned on?
Family -> ad block + active protect, is the same as normal ad block and active protect, it is just a short cut... (they are same)
I think when my eldest son was about 8 and I put open DNS to stop any nasties, actually I'm not sure if it was ODNS, but, the result is still the same. Actually, I've just remembered it was. It was Qustodio. Anyway I digress, So I thought all was well. Er no actually. So on day 1 it was working ok ish, and day 2, his internet usage vanished. I worked out what he did to get around it at 8 years old. He simply changed the clock on the PC. Amazing!
The ODNS was before, but this is another, well I think so, funny and true event. So ODNS on the router. I get home from work. He wasn't even 8 then, he said, "Daddy I fixed the internet issues for us all. I changed the DNS settings on the router to Cloudfair". No that wasn't a typo, it was meant to be fair!
TL;DR
Does firewalla work if he changes the PC clock still?
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