Disney circle parental control system

Disney Circle is an advanced parental control system that we can enjoy on different routers on the market but especially on some of the most modern and powerful Netgear models. We have taken advantage of our experience with the Netgear Orbi RBK23 to know the benefits of one of the most recognized family security systems on the market.

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A few days ago we tested one of the best mesh wireless network systems on the market, the Netgear Orbi offer a perfect ecosystem to forget about the cable perfectly and they are also compatible with various modes of parental control, including Disney's powerful Circle system.

A powerful system that has two working versions, one with a more complete monthly subscription, but that also has a free mode that works well as an alternative to other systems also known as OpenDNS. Today we will show you how the system works, how it is configured and what it adds to the classic systems.

Parental control through name resolution (DNS)

There are different methods of content control, we can do it through Proxy systems, VPN systems, ARP Spoofing and also through the parameterization of name resolution. This method offers simplicity and agility in control and allows the service controller to quickly and progressively learn the customs and uses of its users, in addition to, and I am not saying that Disney does, collect important information about where we navigate and what services we use.

Name resolution, as many of you may already know, is what allows you to put www.profesionalreview.com and let your computer know to which IP it has to redirect its requests to display this page. This depends on the DNS servers that we configure on our devices or, easier and more directly, on the DHCP server of our router. It is a method used by well-known services such as OpenDNS, but, as some of you may have already imagined, it is easily avoidable by changing our client's DNS servers. As simple as going to google DNS, or creating our own DNS server, so that this control is no longer effective.

DNS filtering services are easier to avoid, you just have to manually change the DNS servers of our device and also do not support different user profiles.

Disney's Circle uses another method of approaching the problem, a more sophisticated one that is extracted from techniques that use hackers from around the world for lawful and illicit purposes. In the case of Disney, the objective is to protect our family's access to certain content in a way that is not so easy to "surround".

Content control through ARP Spoofing

This technique uses the ARP communications protocol, Address Resolution Protocol, which is used in communications to optimize network traffic. It is similar to the IGMP Spoofing that some switches and routers have and allows creating a more optimal network map. In the case of ARP, the association is between the MAC, the physical address of the network interface, and the IP or IPs of that interface.

Hackers use ARP injections to make our computer believe that our gateway is a certain MAC address when it really is the hacker's address and therefore receives a copy of all our traffic. Disney uses this method for its own control purposes, whichever we wish, so that our network traffic has powerful content and access control, being much more complex to avoid.

Disney Circle controls our traffic, and is even capable of recognizing Proxy and VPN services, which we can also “layer” through its control panel. The best thing is that it makes these advanced network techniques available to anyone, with a really simple configuration through the cloud of the service and from mobile applications for iOS or Android.

How to configure Circle on the Netgear RBR20 router

Netgear's Orbi routers support both OpenDNS and Circle, both free and paid versions, and are not the only brand routers that support both content control technologies.

Activation is done from the router, the service configuration from the Disney Circle application itself

To activate Disney Circle we can do it from the APP, in the parental control options, but we can also do it through the web control panel of the router. That is up to the consumer. The process is as simple as creating an account through the Circle mobile app, we don't have to do anything else on our router. The rest is paid by our Internet connection and Circle's servers.

Once inside the application we have two modes of use, one quite limited, but still quite capable, which is the free version and another version, which costs 5.5 Euros per month, which enhances the functionality with very interesting options.

Access control is by PIN, or through the biometric system that our device has, so that only the administrator, or administrators, can control parental control. The system offers different types of user profiles, to adapt access to each family member, as well as control of different accesses, in case we have compatible routers at different points or locations.

Free service options

Disney Circle's free options allow us to control different content profiles, which are classified by age for ease of use and to offer the most common secure services for each age. These profiles have been designed, according to Disney itself, by expert pedagogues and we can always give our personal touch according to our criteria as tutors.

In each filter we can add the web pages we want and at each age we will have more complete configuration levels, with more options. The controls or filters range from recognized services to profiles or classifications of different Web services. It has very interesting control methods such as secure search on YouTube or Google that I personally believe are fundamental at certain ages.

Profiles can be applied to devices directly, we don't need usernames or anything like that. It is to choose our son's mobile phone, tablet or PC and assign him an access profile, that simple. The system allows adding a photo to the profile so that we have a quick way of recognizing who each level of access belongs to. It is configured in seconds.

The free version also allows us to know the access history of each profile, by device, and also allows us to completely pause Internet access if we wish and without having to turn off the router or any other similar drastic measure. One touch and voila. So far what the free version can do, which is quite a bit, now we will see the advanced versions of the Premium version.

Premium subscription version advanced options

The advanced version allows us different improvements, although the filtering base is completely the same. The first improvement we see in the statistics, which not only gives us what is visited, but how much time each user profile spends browsing the Internet.

Disney Circle also allows us to set time limits, even for different applications and web pages, and also allows us to set sleep times that will limit internet access in those scheduled periods. The discussions for night access or untimely hours are over because it will generate guidelines of use established with logic and about which there will be no need to discuss daily.

You can also establish other periods of rest during the day, to the liking of the administrator, and it also has an interesting system of rewards with which you can access more Internet time on your devices.

Finally, the Disney Circle cloud allows connection with other systems, some aimed precisely at achieving rewards and others, more important in my view, such as Amazon's virtual assistant systems, Alexa. It is also IFFFT compliant so we can trigger other tasks with hundreds of other services through Circle or conversely perform tasks or adjustments in Circle through actions triggered in other services.

There are few improvements offered by the Premium, the basic and fundamental thing that is the filtering is in the free version, but if it has that most important of the schedules by times, which usually become a good base to regulate Internet access in home and achieve a more responsible use of the Internet.

Circle is simple and does not slow down our network

Normally , Proxy, VPN or DNS services can only slow down our internet access, they can make the name resolution latencies somewhat higher and give us a feeling, except when we already have those names in cache, of lateness in the hour to open certain services such as web pages.

We have tested our Internet access from Orbi, which we already did for your review, and we have not detected any problems. Our mobile devices with which we have tested continue to have the same speed towards the Internet or from the Internet and no other device on the network, not even those that are heavily filtered, have had access problems to the services for which they did have permission.

The user, when he tries to access a page or service for which he does not have access, receives a message from Disney Circle informing him of his filter level in addition to giving other interesting navigation data. Google and YouTube searches are protected, but it is still completely transparent to the user, no incorrect or invalid results or ads will appear within their usage profile.

Final words and conclusion of Disney Circle

Circle offers a powerful parental management system that we can also combine with other important systems such as Google's Family Link, which just became official in Spain just a few days ago, or also with the family management that Microsoft offers in its cloud.

Combining these techniques will allow us to regulate Internet access at home, making it reasonable and more protected without limiting all users under a single profile but being able to give specific attention according to the age of family members.

In our tests, the performance has been perfect, the management is extremely simple and even the free service can be a good entry option, even if it lacks the basic time settings that the paid version has.

Use a method exploited by hackers to achieve transparent control and much more difficult to avoid even with advanced knowledge of networks. A good way to protect our little ones from certain content, but without eliminating their access to something as fundamental today as the Internet.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ Powerful free version	- The full version requires a subscription of 5.5 Euros per month
+ More powerful and secure than DNS content management systems	- Requires a compatible router to function.
+ Simple to configure with profiles for each age bracket

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