Broadband issues

Adriennemossy

We recently took out a contract with Vodafone for broadband and its working well apart from we are unable to schedule blocking our children's devices on the router. We can only block all Internet access throughout and have to do this manually. I presumed all providers allow this all our previous providers have. To leave early, Vodafone want over £300 so I think we are stuck in a contract as we can't afford to pay this. Do we have any options as I don't think their product is fit for purpose? Thanks! 

QrizB

Adriennemossy said:

Do we have any options as I don't think their product is fit for purpose? Thanks! 

Off the top of my head (there may be other options), you can:

1. Put up with it.
2. Pay the £300.
3. Buy your own router with built-in traffic controls.
4. Buy a separate wifi access point and use that for the kids wifi. Put this AP on a time switch.
5. Set up a software firewall on a spare device (although I imagine that if you could do this, you wouldn't be asking for advice here).
   

There are almost cetainly other options, including meatspace ones.

400ixl

Do you still have the router from your previous supplier?

An option could be to put that in router mode and connect the LAN port from the Vodafone router to the WAN port on your old router, then connect the kids to that with the access controls on.

Unless you specifically asked Vodafone if this feature exists on their routers and they said it does (when it doesn't) then I don't think you have a way of getting out penalty free unless it is a good will gesture.

Have also seen some comments that you can set up a guest wifi and that can have a timed control, maybe worth looking into.

Unfortunately when you buy on price you often get features that match. Spent too much time helping friends & family fix all sorts of problems with Vodafone broadband.

35har1old

Adriennemossy said:

We recently took out a contract with Vodafone for broadband and its working well apart from we are unable to schedule blocking our children's devices on the router. We can only block all Internet access throughout and have to do this manually. I presumed all providers allow this all our previous providers have. To leave early, Vodafone want over £300 so I think we are stuck in a contract as we can't afford to pay this. Do we have any options as I don't think their product is fit for purpose? Thanks! 

Can you not excess the admin on the router as the article I read didn't suggest that any supplier would prevent scheduling of individual devices

400ixl

35har1old said:

Adriennemossy said:

We recently took out a contract with Vodafone for broadband and its working well apart from we are unable to schedule blocking our children's devices on the router. We can only block all Internet access throughout and have to do this manually. I presumed all providers allow this all our previous providers have. To leave early, Vodafone want over £300 so I think we are stuck in a contract as we can't afford to pay this. Do we have any options as I don't think their product is fit for purpose? Thanks! 

Can you not excess the admin on the router as the article I read didn't suggest that any supplier would prevent scheduling of individual devices

From what I saw the feature is not in their routers, so accessing the admin panel makes not difference if there is no functionality to do it like there is on most routers.

M25

If you downloand their app you can set up guest wi-fi for periods up to 8 hours: https://www.vodafone.co.uk/broadband/wi-fi-hub-and-broadband-app

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.reply.cordless.uk

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/vodafone-broadband/id985918725

Or if you use the app look at the connected item list and block their devices. Very quick and simple.

An access point would be a great idea too as previously mentioned. You can buy an AP quite cheaply or some old routers can easily be turned into an AP. There would then be a separate wi-fi system just for the children which you could control via a smart socket or simply turning it off at the mains. You would need to change your main wi-fi password by logging into your Vodafone router http://192.168.1.1/

Adriennemossy

35har1old said:

Adriennemossy said:

We recently took out a contract with Vodafone for broadband and its working well apart from we are unable to schedule blocking our children's devices on the router. We can only block all Internet access throughout and have to do this manually. I presumed all providers allow this all our previous providers have. To leave early, Vodafone want over £300 so I think we are stuck in a contract as we can't afford to pay this. Do we have any options as I don't think their product is fit for purpose? Thanks! 

Can you not excess the admin on the router as the article I read didn't suggest that any supplier would prevent scheduling of individual devices

Thanks, no it doesn't allow unfortunately. 

Adriennemossy

QrizB said:

Adriennemossy said:

Do we have any options as I don't think their product is fit for purpose? Thanks! 

Off the top of my head (there may be other options), you can:

1. Put up with it.
2. Pay the £300.
3. Buy your own router with built-in traffic controls.
4. Buy a separate wifi access point and use that for the kids wifi. Put this AP on a time switch.
5. Set up a software firewall on a spare device (although I imagine that if you could do this, you wouldn't be asking for advice here).
   

There are almost cetainly other options, including meatspace ones.

Thank you. I think I may buy an access point and do that. I didn't look as I wrongly assumed they would have this feature as all the others I have used had this. Point 5 sounds a bit too techy for me. To be honest I wondered if someone had any ideas about how I may have been able to get out of my contract.

Adriennemossy

400ixl said:

Do you still have the router from your previous supplier?

An option could be to put that in router mode and connect the LAN port from the Vodafone router to the WAN port on your old router, then connect the kids to that with the access controls on.

Unless you specifically asked Vodafone if this feature exists on their routers and they said it does (when it doesn't) then I don't think you have a way of getting out penalty free unless it is a good will gesture.

Have also seen some comments that you can set up a guest wifi and that can have a timed control, maybe worth looking into.

Unfortunately when you buy on price you often get features that match. Spent too much time helping friends & family fix all sorts of problems with Vodafone broadband.

Thanks. The guest WIFI doesn't seem to have options either. I didn't ask about this as I presumed (wrongly) that all would have this option. Other than this, its been good. 

35har1old

Adriennemossy said:

We recently took out a contract with Vodafone for broadband and its working well apart from we are unable to schedule blocking our children's devices on the router. We can only block all Internet access throughout and have to do this manually. I presumed all providers allow this all our previous providers have. To leave early, Vodafone want over £300 so I think we are stuck in a contract as we can't afford to pay this. Do we have any options as I don't think their product is fit for purpose? Thanks! 

If you are not on there pro broadband or

any digital voice plans you can use any approved Openreach router

phillw

35har1old said:
If you are not on there pro broadband or

any digital voice plans you can use any approved Openreach router

I haven't had a good experience using routers from other ISP's, until my recent switch from Vodafone to Shell Energy.

I usually just wait until broadband stops and then swap the router, but two days later and it was still working with the old router.

So it might work, it might not.

I only use the ISP routers for a modem as I have an 11 year old cable router that I bought when ISP supplied routers had terrible WiFi. So I wouldn't know what functionality they have, ISP's seem to buy routers in and cripple them