Discontinued: Circle with Disney

Tl;dr - this product is AMAZING and the best technology product I have purchased in a year. It does something that is important to me that I've struggled to find an effective solution for years. Pros: - Sufficiently powerful - Does not create a performance impact if properly configured - Easy to monitor remotely - Works across multiple devices - Provides both insight on technology use and control - Allows you to set service level restrictions (e.g. limit Fortnite to 1 hour/day) - Great price point. Cons: - It can cause your network to break in ways that are not obvious - A bit complex to set up - The service groupings (e.g. “Email” or “Online Gaming”) are not customizable - Mobile only administration Overall a solid product and well worth the cost. Detailed Review - A bit of background - I'm technically adept and understand my way around my own network. As my kids have become teenagers, my struggle has been to effectively parent their online behavior. On the one hand, their devices and technology are an important part of their school, social lives, and even part of our family connectedness. On the other, I've been concerned about how much time my son spends on Fortnite and Youtube, and about my daughter's technology use late at night. Our solutions to this have largely been ineffective. We’ve tried having the kids leave their phones downstairs when they go to bed, but that doesn't address what they do during the day, and it has been a source of conflict. I've tried controls using my router, but they haven't been time based, nor sufficiently granular - e.g. I couldn't easily stop face time on my daughter's computer without affecting her ability to do homework. iOS 12's Screen Time feature has been helpful, but that only provides data for a single device and it is somewhat unreliable. The big problem is that we can’t easily know exactly what they are doing without policing them, let alone come up with effective constraints. I finally found a review online for the Circle. It seemed good, but I was concerned that 1) it might not work with my router (I use an ASUS AC5300), that it would create performance issues, and that it would not provide sufficient control to deal with the issues that we care about. However, I figured I would give it a try. The key to how this product works is that it uses some obscure aspects of how networks work to give the circle the ability to see the network traffic that goes into and out of your house for any device or collection of devices (the technical term here is ARP Spoofing). Without getting into the technical details, if you connect the Circle via the ethernet cable, it does not create a performance issue. Moreover, any device configured as “unmanaged” is left alone. This is something I was particularly happy about as my home network has a lot of devices on it and I like the control. Installation: Installation was a bit obtuse. Despite being connected via ethernet to my router, I still had to use the WiFi network to setup the circle. Moreover, the Circle only understands how to talk to 2.4Ghz networks. That said, once everything was done, the wireless network was not an issue. Setup: Once setup I created a test profile for myself to see how well the device worked. I was pretty amazed at how easy and powerful it is. Profiles allow you to connect multiple devices, define specific constraints on a service level (e.g. Youtube), and these constraints work across all of the devices on the profile. Moreover, everything else is left alone. Once active, I immediately got what I was looking for: - Time spent on a variety of different services (YouTube, Fortnite, Gmail) - Identification and monitoring explicit content sites - Ability to set constraints, as either hours (bedtime and blocked time) - Ability to set time limits (yeah!!!!) I found the monitoring/time calculations to be pretty accurate. The only limit is that they are limited to 5 minute granularity - which is fine for me. Once the Circle chooses to block a service, it happens pretty immediately. Some things like youtube take a bit before the block is noticeable, but everything else is immediate. Restoring service is also immediate, though there can be some problems (see issues below) What I LOVE: - This device allows for granular control over services. Meaning, you can allow for web browsing and email, while blocking video games and netflix. You can block one device but not another. - You can set up profiles for your family that work across multiple devices. No more temptation to cheat by moving consumption from one device to another - For my network, the device even worked on the guest network which means my kids couldn’t get around it that way. It did not seem to affect our AT&T Micro-cell traffic however - The device provides both monitoring and prevention. This allows me to have conversation with my kids where we now have an objective definition of time spent. Moreover, it allows them to see how much time they are spending so THEY can set the limits - Now I get to parent as a coach instead of as a policeman. - There is no noticeable impact to my network performance. I have a 400mb/s connection to the internet and have noticed no impact to my network latency or performance from the Circle. - It is pretty easy to use once it is set up. Issues: - It’s not perfect however and there are some things to be aware of: - I can’t easily customize what Circle monitors/blocks. Circle’s pre-defined categories are pretty good, but if you want to change something it is not easy - and in some cases not possible. I would prefer to have more flexibility than the device provides, but given the ease of use it provides in other ways I can live with this constraint. - Networking problems - the way the circle work can create compatibility issues with your router. Circle has put a pretty good compatibility chart on their website you can check - strongly recommended that you do this before buying this device - The Circle can cause your network to break - in my case, if I make a change on my router, it can cause my entire network to freeze until I reset things using some fairly technical commands. This may be somewhat specific to my router, but when it happens, it is not something that the layperson could easily fix. I suspect that the routers that are marked as fully compatible (mine is not) don’t have this issue, but I was unable to test this. - The Circle is hard to reboot - it has an internal battery which I suppose is nice for power outages - though seems unnecessary to me. However, when something goes wrong, you can’t power cycle it easily. - When the Circle unblocks a service, sometimes it takes a while for the service to be restored. There are multiple reasons for this. In one case, I had to reboot the router my son’s Xbox was connected to to restore service. When I tried to reproduce this it didn’t happen again, but I’m suspicious that this isn’t the only time I’ll have this problem (for those who are technical, clearing the arp cache tends to clear these issues). - When the Circle blocks a service, it routes the blocked user to a web page full of Disney content. Not the worst problem in the world, and this is the only time that “Disney” shows up in the product. I’m sure some VP is very proud of this. There is no web console. I would prefer not to manage this just from my phone. In the end, this device does way more than I had hoped - esp. For the price. It has brought me a solution to a problem I have struggled with for years. I’m a very happy user and feel that the benefits of this product fully outweigh the costs. Moreover, I like that it is something I can use to have a better dialogue with my kids about their technology use. It enables both “trust but verify” type monitoring, as well as specific and detailed constraints. Great job!

This product does not work well. Setup is somewhat easy to do as they make it user friendly which I attribute to the Disney branding. But the product does not work well. What I mean is that the Circle is supposed to work with your router and keep track of all devices connected to the network through wifi. EVERYDAY the connection is lost. EVERY morning I run the Circle app on my phone and it searches and searches and can't find it. This literally happens EVERYDAY. I called Circle customer support and they were friendly and all and their solution is to unplug the router and plug it back in again after about thirty seconds. The router resents and after about 5 minutes, the Circle finds the router. Then it says I connected to my Circle and to give this profile a name. I just call it Temp and then save and all my connections are on there including Temp. So I delete Temp and I am back to my normal number of profiles. But you should not have to do this EVERYDAY. So frustrating that even Circle customer support says it shouldn't be like that but it is. And I finally went past the 30 day mark and they would not send me a replacement. So I guess this is normal for Circle. Another thing I find annoying is that you can't sent different bedtimes for different days. So bedtime for the kids on a school night is 10pm and the wifi should shut down. On weekends they might stay up to 11 or later but I can't put in a different time for Friday and Saturday. Seems like a simple function but its something not included. A third annoyance is that when you set time limits, you have only a few choices: No limit, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, etc. You do not have a choice of Zero minutes or block completely. I don't want my son playing online games during the week. I can only minimize it by giving him 15 minutes a day and then he is blocked. Maybe I'm missing something here but there should be a setting for no access. I would definitely NOT recommend this product. Like I said before, my Circle unit loses connection with my router (Netgear so its a popular brand) everyday for some reason. The Circle customer support says I have to reset my router to get the Circle device to recognize it. I have to do this EVERYDAY. That is ridiculous. That's almost like having to jump start your car everyday to get it running in the morning. This is a decent product when it works although some functions are just not quite polished but the fact that it keeps losing connection with your router, the most basic function, forces me to give this product One Star for review. I recommend looking at the other options, which I won't name here as a courtesy to Circle but do more research before making a decision. This device is Disney branded which is cute but the Circle product itself is not ready.

In our family we have three kids, ages 8 and twins that are 11 years old. Naturally they also have friends coming over all the time, many of the bringing their "devices" so they can all play Minecraft, Clash of Clanes etc. After using Open DNS (free) it has become clear we needed something with a better UI, preferably with an iPhone app that can remotely control the internet experience. I settled on "Circle" and it has now been installed for 2 weeks. Here's the good and bad: 1. INSTALLATION: As some fellow reviewers pointed out there is no traditional user manual in the package, which makes total sense since the manufacturer does not want to print a "dated" card for a product that by its design will evolve and constantly add new features. So, instead of looking at a printed card you only need to download the free App and follow the easy set-up instructions. Basically it took 15 minutes to set up and add all the devices in the house (couldn't believe we had that many devices...). However, this is just the beginning.... 2. CONFIGURATION: Each device must be added to either a "Personal Profile", "Home" or "Unmanaged Devices" (see screenshot). This is quite logical and very much follows the concepts used on any Mac OS X or Windows computer. On each profile you can then be set with the appropriate Filter setting, along with a start time and end day daily. As many reviewers have pointed out it seems very strange that the Developer have not added unique start and end times for weekends, this as iOS completely supports this functionality. Also the absence of "home work time" versus "play time" is missing. However, I am quite confident these two settings will be added over time as the App development work proceeds. They are the two only truly annoying features. 3. SETTING UP EXCEPTIONS: This is the most tedious part of having a truly well functioning Circle experience. I would strongly recommend to make the initial set up on a day when everyone will be home for the full day. After installing Circle and adding their device to their profile, sit down with each child and ask them to go to every website, open every game and do anything/everything they want to do on their device. This way you can easily sit next to them and create the "exceptions" they need to the standard filter system. Simply open the highly useful "custom filter" option and add the main URL as approved and they are set. This needs to be done for each "Profile". Plan on spending the better part of a day adding tons of these "custom filter" exceptions and the kids will embrace the Circle instead of having a bad week receiving calls to work where the child is upset because the are "blocked" on a harmless site. There is no way around this as unfortunately internet URL's never was set up with "PG 13" or "R" ratings etc. 4. UNMANAGED DEVICES & HOME PROFILE: In our family we have set my wife's and mine cell phone and Tablets to be "unmanaged devices", which means there is no block or limitations. The computers in the house are on the "Home" profiles as multiple users log on to them and there is no technical way to tell who is on the computer even if they open their own profile on the iMac for example (not Circle's fault, just technical limitations). 5. PAUSE BUTTON: This is the "secret sauce" in this product!!! With the "pause" button you can easily pause the internet for either all managed devices OR for an individual profile (all devices attached to this profile will pause). With this powerful tool in my hand (iPhone with App) I simply need to say "dinner in 2 minutes, internet is going off when the clock hits 6:15 (for example). Prior to having Circle this was a simple threat that was not heard with multiple follow-up threats happening. Now everyone immediately "saves" and logs out of their activity as they know that the internet will indeed be shut off... The Kids all despise this new level of control but as Parents we smile as we are finally in charge again! Press "paus" a second time and internet is back on. SUMMARY - NEGATIVE POINTS: The App lacks 7-day individual scheduling of times and the ability to do multiple blocks of time during each day. SUMMARY - POSITIVE POINTS: Overall this is a tool that every Parent should have and I have been wanting for years. If nothing else it gives us control of what is being watched, when and by whom. It also serves as a great way to the kids away from "Tablet trance". I told the kids this will stay "on" as long as I am paying for them:-) - The App is very simple and easy to use. - Pause button is a "killer app" by itself for Parents. - The Profile system is logical and nicely laid out - The hardware is compact, looks nice and features a terrific "backup battery" (kids already unplugged it twice).

As an IT professional and father of five (oldest of which is now 13), I wanted to bring some balance to my children's Internet usage. I researched Circle quite a bit and even joined their beta program for the Android app. Circle has been a very helpful tool in managing my kids' time online. NO device will replace parental involvement and this device is not designed to perfectly monitor or control ALL Internet usage. However, it is a good tool for parents that want to help their children learn how to manage their use of the Internet. First and foremost, Circle is EXCELLENT at managing the amount of time you give your children online. My three oldest kids have a tablet as well as a PC, and they also like to use the Playstation 4 for games and Netflix. I really like the ability to assign each device to an individual child. This allows you to set an overall time limit for that child and when they use it up on their tablet they can't just switch to their PC to remain online. You can also set time limits for different categories like social media and even different platforms within that category (think Facebook, Instagram, etc). This is helpful as different kids have different interests and you can fine tune their usage a bit. Second, performance. I haven't had ANY problems with my network slowing down with Circle attached to it. I've personally chosen to hardwire Circle to the network but I tried it on wireless first and it was flawless. I don't think most people will see any sort of speed impact from Circle. Third, setup was very easy. The app for Android is easy to use (and has come a long way from beta) and works well to manage Circle. I wish there was a way to access Circle through a web interface (even just locally on the network) but I do like the ability to manage Circle from anywhere that I am through the app. I like that they included a battery inside Circle to prevent any "accidental outages". The designers seemed to really put some thought into the methods kids might use to disable this thing and I like that the app warns me when my Circle is offline. I've only seen that notification when my ISP connection drops but it is nice to know that it works. Please understand that this is not a professional router/firewall and isn't meant to be. It's a consumer level tool that ASSISTS a parent in teaching their children how to manage themselves. It won't stop your kids from seeing EVERY bad thing on the Internet but it does a good job at filtering. I do wish the history capabilities were more robust. As it is now, the history option only shows you the TLD of the site visited, not any detail beyond that. While this can work if you have a blatantly obvious URL that you don't want your kid visiting, it's not so obvious what many of the sites are. Also, Circle logs EVERY site request from a device. While that sounds very helpful this means that any time a phone or tablet checks email or checks an ad server for a game or any other request from the device it will go in the log. It's amazing when you check those logs how often these devices are phoning home to different app servers. The logging functionality of Circle could really use some help as it's not very helpful to the average parent. However, I've already said that this is a consumer level device and I didn't really expect amazing logging capabilities from it. In conclusion I think that Circle is a GREAT tool for families, especially if you get it with the aim of teaching your children instead of controlling them. I look at it like training wheels on a bike. The training wheels aren't going to make the child into an Olympic cyclist, but they will help them to balance and learn the skills they need to ride without those training wheels in the future. I hope that doesn't sound too preachy or anything. Just my view of the product. Disclaimer - I eagerly awaited the release of Circle on Android so that I could purchase it for my family. I joined the beta program before the Android app was out and paid FULL PRICE for my Circle. I have no ties to this company and have tried to present information that I think will be useful to you as a consumer. I'm not a professional reviewer but I wanted to help others in making an informed decision about Circle.

My kids hate the Circle. Does that tell you what you need to know? It took me several tweaks before I had my Circle set up correctly, but now, two months into using it, I have come to really love it. For reference, we live in a large house with one router and two extenders (which only means that there are multiple "networks.") I have four kids, and their ages range from 7 to 14. They have iPhones, iPods, iPads, 2 Xbox consoles, Playstation3 and Playstation4. I have tried several different flavors of net-nannies and I have set up parental controls on several different routers over the years, but nothing has ever been worth the hassle of it all until this Circle. This gives me more flexibility and customization than anything I've ever used, and it is also visual (on my iPhone) so I don't need to be a computer programmer to make sense of it. REALLY, this thing is EASY. And if you need help to get it set up properly, just ask on their Facebook page because they are incredibly committed to helping people. I've never seen this degree of helpful Facebook customer service before, on any kind of product. The beautiful part of Circle is that every device that is connected to the internet automatically appears in the DEVICES for your circle. Some of them are easy to identify (e.g. "Jimmy's iPad") but some are more difficult (e.g. "HUMAX Device" or T0108000357180). I started with the things I could positively identify, and then the rest became obvious over time. Anytime a device joins the network, Circle will give you a notification. So, if you unplug and replug your Amazon Fire Stick, or put your iPhone into airplane mode and then switch it back, you'll be able to identify and label the device in your Circle. Once I figured out what each of my devices was, I assigned each one to a person. If the device was used by all of us (like the TV in the living room) I assigned it to E (for everyone). One son has an iPhone, iPad, Xbox, and another child has iTouch, iPad, and Mac. Another one has a Mac, an iPad, and an Xbox. The fourth one only has an iPad and a Fire device. Now, with devices set for each child, I can pause one kid's internet (on each of his devices) without messing up all of the other kids' internet. Also, if my son is allowed to use his computer (for homework) but not his Xbox, I can pause ONLY the Xbox, and leave everything else connected. (Also, if I have said, "No Xbox for you! One Week!" but then forgotten to actually put a pause on the Xbox. I can pull it up on my phone and see if he has turned it on.) Likewise, if I have gone to work and forgotten to turn someone's internet back on, I can easily correct that and get him back in business. The best part is that I can do all of it with an app on my phone. I can do it from the front yard, the bank, the airport, or from another state. Instantly. For me, this is where Circle REALLY earns its stars. Simply stated, Circle will allow me to pause the internet for the entire house (say for dinner). OR, it will allow me to pause the internet for one child (who's grounded) or for all the kids individually (until each one gets homework finished -- and then individually I can give wifi back to them as they earn it.) For content, there are filters. Using the settings for Filter Level, I have set up my youngest as kid, and my three older ones as teen. I am able to completely disable Youtube for my 7 year old, who was pretty addicted to Disney Collector and Family Fun Pack before Circle came along. On the Teen filter, I have the option to shut down many apps individually (e.g. Instagram, HBO, Twitter, Tumbler, Snapchat, YouTube). I can give some or all or none to each kid, INDIVIDUALLY. Separately, there is a custom option on each filter which will allow me to add in any specific website they are visiting that I don't want them to. If I click on INSIGHTS (and this is on each child's profile) I can see every website he has visited today and how much time he spent there. Time Limits have proven to be my ACE IN THE HOLE for discipline. My young teenager is now on a plan where if he doesn't cause any disruptions in the house he gets to maintain his internet time, and if he gets in trouble for something he loses an hour. WOW -- what a changed kid! It is effortless for me to change his limit (I just pull up the app on my phone) so he knows that I won't get busy and forget. For once, I have a parenting tool that is SUPER EASY for me to wield. If he does something sweet, I can bounce him up an hour. It doesn't cost me anything and it actually has a value for him. BEDTIME does just what it says. It shuts down their internet at bedtime without me having to realize the time and run around the house snatching electronics at 7:30, 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00. It allows me to let the big kids have their internet later on weekends, but still have a limit so they don't watch Netflix until 2:00 am. Week night bedtime limits can be set at a different time than weekend bedtime limits. If one child always has Thursday Night projects for school that take him past the regular bedtime, I can remove Thursdays from the bedtime limit or turn bedtime off (when he asks me about it) and then back on when he is finished, easily from my phone. My favorite part of Circle is that (now that I have it set up properly) I can easily control each device, or each child's devices from my phone with one or two clicks. I feel like it has given the power back to me. I know that there are sophisticated router setups that are also supposed to do this, but I haven't had luck with any of them. I have read reviews from people saying that they couldn't set it up, or that it crashed the entire system, and I just don't have any idea where they are going wrong, but trust me, they are doing something wrong. As an aside, the day after I set up my Circle, we had a problem with the internet and of course I blamed the Circle and unplugged it. Let me tell you that it STAYED ON. It has a battery inside, so if your kids ever get the bright idea to disable the circle and run amok on the internet, their attempts will be foiled! As it turns out, the problem with the internet was that I hadn't paid the bill (oops!) and it had nothing to do with the Circle. However, I forgot to go back and plug it in (after everything was resolved). It worked for a month before it started sending me messages on my phone that I needed to plug it back in. Also, with regard to the extenders. I thought that the Circle wouldn't work if the kids just moved from the regular router to the extenders and I believed it to be a serious flaw. However, I have since learned that if I pause the device, it doesn't matter which network the kids plug into (because the extenders feed from the actual router). The device will pause regardless of the network name. One other thing is data on the iPhone. There is a plan to control your child's data use, but I have not taken advantage of it. I realized that the MYATT app has a place where I can easily disable data, so for my one rebellious child, I just shut down his data when he's at home, and then he is forced to use the wifi, and my limits placed in Circle will keep him in check. If I want him to have data (vacation, etc.) I just turn it back on in the ATT app. If you child's device has access to data, you will only have so much control over it with Circle. Also, it is true that the iPad will allow you to block some apps and some sites. Circle isn't the ONLY way that you can get the job done. But for me, it has absolutely been the easiest.

Setup was fine, but I'm very techie. My guess though is for most average users, they may struggle initially with setup. Now I have this plugged into my extender so it's a direct connect vs wireless. I've set this up to control via my ipad. It controls my 2 daughter's ipads and one computer laptop. So far, it's pretty basic. It allows you to restrict by total time and by specific apps, i.e. youtube, netflix, etc. I agree with the other reviews that it would be nice to have the ability to control each setting on a daily basis so during school nights, I can have it shut off the internet connection at a different time vs the weekend. Same with the duration of each app. ie. school days netflix may only be able to access 1 hour, but on weekends 2 hours. It has made it much easier to take the devices away at night time. I have it set to shut off at 8:30 and it's only taken a couple days, and now both kids just put the ipad away and there's no argument or wining. Hoping there will be additional enhancements such as: different settings for each day ability to add on the fly extended time for tasks being done. ie. complete your homework, quickly input a code that allows 30 minutes extra time for xx app. Ok adding some additional comments and features that would be nice. 2 outstanding issues I still wish circle would have are: Override button where I can either add time easily or gain full control over the device without having to shut each section down. Ended up having to do this to add another control app to bridge the gap that circle doesn't have. But in order to do this, I had to change the rating to none, disable bedtime (because I was doing this after the kids went to bed), disable restrictions, etc. Then had to re-enable afterwards. I orginally thought the pause button was going to allow this, but that's for another purpose. Second feature missing is an area where I could place apps or websites that ignore the settings for example, educational apps, The kids can play on those without a time limit, but there's no way to allow them to go over the time limit setting. In fact schools are now expecting my kids to go to certain sites to enhance their math and reading, but there's no way to white list these sites or apps to prevent circle from counting it as time against them or limiting it past bedtime rules. The picture for each kid doesn't work, tried zooming to frame my kid and it just ignores it and includes a corner of the photo. I'm hoping Disney moves a bit quicker on getting these types of added functionality. Other challenge is when the device is not at home, but say at a friends or relative. That's where apps have a leg up, but I do like the ability to control both PC and tablet devices. Right now, I'm using a combination of apps and circle to try to bridge the gap. for example, I no longer use circle's bedtime restrictions as I have an app that does this and allows for time to be added with a push of a button, something circle does not provide.

Initial Setup I like how (almost) easy it is to setup, it took me about 15 minutes. You plugin the power cable and optional ethernet cable. While the power cable is easy to find where it gets plugged in, the ethernet port you have to open. The box itself is quite big for something that has no screen or buttons on it (except for a hardly visible power button). -.5 stars Adding users It is not really intuitive to add a user, it should have a plus sign on the page with all the users; now it has a pause button and to add a user you have to go into a menu. I'd like to see the plus button to add a user and a global pause button when I tap on the home. I am OK with one additional tap, it's more intuitive to pause everyone or an individual user while the add a user button is on that screen. -.5 stars Internet speed It really slows down the internet download speed 3 times even though I have it directly connected through an ethernet cable. -2 for that Time limits and filters You can control each user separately by adding devices to a user and you can easily switch which device belongs to which user at any time. This is handy if one device is shared between kids/adults. This way each user has his/her own time schedule assigned. Circle has their own preset websites, but you can add your own. You can tell circle which devices not to control (Amazon echo, Philips hue, tp-link, etc). You can only control devices on the same Wi-Fi network/SSID so if you have the same wifi router, but have multiple networks/SSIDs, circle will only let you control ONE. If all of your devices are connected to one SSID network, but your guests are connected to a guest network, the guests will have full access to internet. Keep this in mind when managing your kids' time limits, if your kids know your Wi-Fi password, they can easily switch SSID and you won't even know about it unless at the end of the day you review what websites your kids visited and you notice no logs for that day. I would like to tell Circle which SSID networks to control. -.5 for that I would like the ability to create a "homework" or "work" category and assign websites to that. That category should have a different rule for time limits (none, 1 hour, etc) which is separate from global time limit for a user. For example, my child is doing his homework for 3 hours, but has a time limit to be on the internet for 1 hour. The 3 hours of homework should not reduce the 1 hour of total time limit. Pausing internet is extremely easy. Just open up the circle app, enter your pin (optional) and tap on pause button. You can also pause individual users by tapping on the user and tapping on the pause button which will pause internet for all devices that user has assigned to him/her. This is very useful for family dinners. +.5 for that Logs You can see which user visited what site and how long they've been there. Each site is categorized (entertainment, shopping, etc), but I haven't found a way yet to move a site to a different category. I mean to some amazon website can be shopping while for others (such as seller) it can be work. Page shown when blocked When a user gets blocked from visiting a site, Circle shows a very friendly page with statistics for that user. +.5 for that Remote control Unfortunately there's no way to remotely control the Circle. When I initially set it up, it asked me to register which was very quick. But I wonder what the point of registration is if I cannot control it remotely. One can argue that this will not allow anyone else to gain control, but for that you don't need my email, you just need a pin code. I'd like to be able to reward my children with additional internet time if for example they cleaned up a room, but I can't do that unless I am on the same Wi-Fi network. Alerts via email I haven't received any email alerts yet. I was able to unplug the Circle from my network and visit any site I wanted. This makes sense, but what doesn't make sense is why I -- the parent -- did not get alerted that someone at my home removed the Circle and bypassed all the filters/time limits. -.5 for that.

I've had this for about a year - I can't say enough great things about this device, it does everything you can imagine and more. Now before I begin - I will say that I am technically inclined, well actually it what's I get paid 9-5 to do - so more than just inclined. At first I wanted someway to monitor and filter what was received on their phone. I tried numerous apps, from free to paid. I found a few apps that worked for awhile, and after a few google searches - they found a way to uninstall them. The other apps, which I even paid a subscription fee for - they got around by simply factory resetting their device. Even tried to filter via DNS via OPENDNS.com and this wasn't always 100%. Now with this Circle with Disney device I don't have install anything on their device. I can monitor multiple devices from their PS4, phone, tablet, school laptop - everything. Say I want everything to cut off at 8:30 so they can get ready for bed - I can put in a bedtime. No problem, no arguing, no fuss. They get used to it - and it becomes routine to the point they make sure to not start a Fortnite game beforehand. I can have his ROKU and his PS4 in different 'circles', if I only want him to play online for only 2-3 hours - but may want to give him more time watching cartoons in the morning. I can even give rewards - say I want to extend his 'cut off bedtime' - just go to rewards and extend by 15 minutes or whatever you want. The app always notifies if another device connects to my network - so no surprises if a friend brings a phone or he brings a different school laptop with that has a different MAC than what he originally had. Just move the device to the 'filtered circle or circles.' You can also pause the circles or even pause the entire internet that isn't even in the circles. Wife talking back? Pause her internet. Just kidding but you absolutely could from the app. Speaking of the Mrs, she can have her own login - and control the kids devices also, from pausing, rewards. But once you have a schedule in place - most of it, is set it and forget it. He hasn't figured out how I'm able to monitor and pause his internet - but if it is ever disconnected from the router it will send me a notification. I only know this because I get a notification when I'm rearranged a few things and had to disconnect it. The only bad things I will say is that it takes a few(5+) minutes sometimes when I try to open the app, even a year later this problem still persists. Also, if he was ever to go to a different network or a different home - then all that filtering/time limit - goes out that window. Yet, I've read you can pay a subscription for them to be filtered wherever they go. So, there's that. Once again. Awesome device and I will be using for the future little ones....I don't see it being outdated anytime soon.

Best purchase I have made for our family and the internet. I had to purchase a new router so I made sure I had one that was compatible, I would ensure your router is compatible before purchase. This device is extremely easy to use. Every person has a profile that you make that covers ALL of their devices. You can block apps per person or set a time limit per day that covers ALL of their devices. I like that I can see what our teenage is up to in the history portion. Our teenager tried to download Fortnite and it was destroying our data. This helped us catch it and block the malicious content. It was also amazing to show the teenager how much screen time they had actually used (it was a wake up call). I like the pre-made settings based off age. We have messed around with this quite a bit and were very impressed. It is a bit of ease as a parent. This thing is serious though. If you forget you've assigned a device (like an ipad) to a certain setting it can be quite frustrating to figure out what is wrong until you remember. It's that serious. Better than pre-set router parental control. It's not even comparable, at all. You can set certain devices to bypass this (tv, your own stuff). Have not noticed any slow down for the devices that go through this. The features to reward extra time are very easy and very neat to use. I cannot say how much of a game changer this is for family safety and peace of mind with a teenager. This actually works. I was sold on this by the end of the second day that I had it. This is worth every penny and more.

Me lo recomendo un amigo, muy facil de usar. Tienes control de todo a lo que se conectan a tu WiFi. Mis hijos lo odian, ya que les control las redes sociales, veo a que paginas se meten, etc. Tengo hijos de 7 15 años. Lo he recomendado y ya van 2 amigos que lo compran.

Absolument génial. J’ai essayé plusieurs contrôles parentaux jamais bien. Celui-ci est tellement facile à utiliser. Un clic suffit pour mettre internet en « pause »...et votre ado arrive pour dîner ..sans son téléphone !! Vous et votre ado aussi pouvez voir le temps passé sur chaque appli, mettre l’heure pour qu’il dorme ou qu’il travaille. Un forfait à 20mo et il ne pourra pas utiliser sa 4g sinon il faut intégrer le système pour bloquer la 4g Je suis étonnée que cette application ne soit pas si connue des parents car, quelle sérénité maintenant !

Keeps disconnecting from the network. The product as such is very effective but what's the use if it is not connected. Badly in need of a good firmware update.

Really impressed. Totally simple to use and great tool. Our children are pretty well behaved, do listen to rules, and don't abuse their internet - yet Circle gives me confidence I can protect them from accidentally seeing things that they shouldn't need to see at a young age. YouTube Restricted mode, Safe Search, and a heap of non-child friendly web filters incredibly easy to apply across the kids devices. As they get older it allows me to say to them - "I can see exactly what sites you have been on" - which is the kind of transparency I want to make them realise the internet is a public place not a private place. Some routers sort of do this, but not per person and never with such clear reporting from your iPhone. We don't need to use the more intrusive features to manage our children - like timed-allowance, or internet-time rewards, or god mode feature (pause all internet in the house) - but its quite nice to know its there in case any behaviours took a turn for the worse.