Circle Parental Controls Lifetime Subscription - Internet & Mobile Devices - Works on WiFi, Android & iOS Devices - Control Apps, Set Screen Time Limits, Block & Filter Content

This product does not work in multi AP homes

It does not block any URL or WEBSITE.

I have the Circle for about a week now, I purchased it as I felt I want a little peace of mind when my kids get to spend so many hours on the internet every day. Obviously safety first but of course time control is important as well as they spend way too many hours playing ROBLOX or watching YouTube.Installation: Surprisingly easy, I installed the app, connected the Circle to my Linksys Velop mesh network router and followed some instructions to create and link the device to my account.Configuration: I created my kids profiles and set them as 'kids' on the app which seems the most restrictive and includes 'safe search' by default. after that I setup time limits on different games/apps.It was apparent that under this setting some of the standard safe websites wouldn't be accessible to them so I had to manually add Google classroom, google docs and other educational websites as allowed or unmanaged so they could get onto all their school sessions/activities.It took a couple of days to ensure all the websites they really need are accessible. this is not difficult to do but keep in mind that the kids may NOT be happy in the first day or so.The time limits on apps/games like ROBLOX are kind of eye opening, my kids consumed the generous time allocated of three hours before 11am which made them seriously unhappy. It's also obvious that when you block one game kids will find another website, game or video and if you block everything they will end up watching TV (Covid sux!).It's nice to be able to pause the internet for one kids or for everyone when you need their attention like when it's dinner time (Dinner is ready! Dinner is ready! Dinner is ready!... ok let's turn the internet off).I didn't notice any performance/slowdown issues since I have installed the device and I do feel I have peace of mind knowing they are more protected.The only con is that I wish the subscription fee was lower. I did end up purchasing the lifetime subscription as I believe I will be using it for a few good years which is eventually cheaper than year by year.Overall, a much needed product, done well, provides good protection and plenty of control without interfering with performance.

Update to my previous reviews:All the problem mentioned below was due to the conflict between the Netgear built-in parent control and the newly bought Circle device. It now works normally though there are some missing features I expected.Background: I had the Circle iOS APP 1st generation yearly subscription. The new random MAC addresses security features from the iOS update basically confused the Circle APP to not being able to identify each device in the home network effectively. So I bought this Circle Home Plus hoping it will resolve the problem.The problems after connecting the Circle Home Plus to my Netgear Router R7000: 2 school provided devices not completed connected (some programs have no connection). Regular iPhones' wifi connection not stable or slow in changing from the mobile connection to WIFI. My cable connected desktop can not get an IP address after resetting the network adapter, trying from automatic IP address acquiring to a fixed local IP address, and still failed to get a local IP and connection. Security cameras connections keep on droping.It seems this product is not yet polished and more of a good concept.

**Update** 2 weeks in dropped rating to 2 starsSo the timings don't work as others have said here.I just tried to give my daughter more time and it just wouldn't work at all.So in the end I just bypassed circle by using the random mac address feature in windows.My daughter is only 10 years old and she's still nice enough to ask for extra time.However I'd actually be a little disappointed if by 12 she isn't bypassing this herself.Don't buy unless you have really obedient kids.This won't enforce anything and will actually cause you more headaches than it will solve.**original review**So yes it does what it says on the tin, "Kind of"I was already using OpenDNS which is pretty much exactly what Circle is doing under the hood , DNS ARP poisoning which means acting as the name server for your devices and then forwarding the requests on after applying rules.If you already have a way of doing this either via , OpenDNS/Cisco Umbrella , a Fing Box or an Ad sinkhole like PiHole then don't bother with Circle as it's no better than any of those and way more expensive.I have all of the above devices and services so this is a fairly informed review.I gave it 3 stars as there are major issues which are easy fixes however I believe the devs have been lazy.Firstly the biggest issue is the HSTS issues. So Circle will just display a cert error instead of a customer error page like Circle does on Netflix routers with Circle built in.They see a request for a https cert so they can at this point redirect to a custom page when a block is about to happen however they just the request fail to an ugly someone is trying to hack you page provided by chrome.Then the whole issue around timing , if you set up times for blocks then the are all screwed. Their FAQ states that it comes from the phones settings however my device is set to PST and the blocks are happening at GMT/UTC. And you can't just change the times in the app no you have to totally delete your account and set it up again and hope that their bug doesn't take effect again.For a simple DNS sinkhole it's not worth it and I would recommend people buy either a PiHole for about $30 which will also block all ads on your network which is something that Circle doesn't do.Or a Fing Box.giving us the options to import block lists would be useful as then we could also block advertising networks etc.So for what it is a really basic DNS blocker which is overpriced I'll rate it at only 3 stars and that's being generous.BY the way the app only has 2 settingsAdd people and add devices that's it , For people you can add times for when apps can be used. however again super basic.This device is made for mom and pops who are not technical at all and need a really basic way to prevent their kids from getting online. Note it won't prevent any tech savvy kids as they will easily bypass it.

I think this is a setup that would be commonly needed by parents. Quite often, we need to make a few specific apps/websites, i.e., YouTube, inaccessible for only a certain time period, i.e., school hours from 8am - 4pm, and accessible for other times, i.e., after school, for a day. According to the tech support, the only way to achieve this is to set Off Time for the time period that you want to block the specific apps/websites. During that time, if certain apps/websites need to be accessible, set them as "Unmanaged" from filter.The problem is, during the time when “Off Time” is on, the computer will show “No Internet”, and this causes headache. Even if you have set selected apps/websites as “unmanged”, you will still get some problems for accessing those apps/websites or related/linked services, for example, sync OneNote. Teachers are using different apps/websites for their classes. So, this may keep you busy on adding apps/websites to the filter and set them as “unmanaged”. Still, you see “No Internet” for the network connection on the computer. This is just inconvenient and not straightforward. I hope Circle can update its software and provides the other way around option for setting up configurations like this.