Bark Home — Parental Controls for Wi-Fi | Manage Screen Time, Block Apps, and Filter Websites for Kids | Phones, Tablets, Gaming Consoles, and More

Not especially easy to set up, but they have great tech support and helped me get it fully functional with minimal speed decay - screening works really well.

Bark Technologies acquired Router Limits a few years ago. It was obvious that Bark wanted to eliminate the competition of Router Limits which was a much better service than theirs. I even paid for Router Limits service and had no remorse doing so be cause it was a great system. Instead of taking a great design from Router Limits when they bought them, Bark forced everyone to Bark Home's poor design that does not work. I have reached out, voiced my concern a year ago and they agreed that Router Limits had a GREAT design but opted to do nothing. Below I have detailed why BARK HOME'S SYSTEM DOES NOT work.--------BELOW IS A COMPARISON AND WHY YOU SHOULD NOT BUY BARK HOME---------ROUTER LIMITS (the company Bark bought) forced anyone connecting to my network into a default restricted Group. When a child or someone used my network, I would move them to an appropriate Group (a group contains privileges or filters set by you). If they started a proxy server, private IP, or iCloud relay on their device to get past security, it would be seen as a new device and put them back in the default restricted Group thereby limiting their internet access. This way the device user had to remove any methods of getting past our network security restrictions. It was very passive in managing the network, requiring almost no effort or work on your part. --> The individual connects to your network and would have very restricted network access. They would then ask you to allow them to have access. You would move them ONE TIME ONLY to the appropriate Group based upon age or predetermined restrictions set by you. If they decided to get past your security through proxy server, private ip, or Apple iCloud Relay, they would get pushed back AUTOMATICALLY to the most restrictive Group. Once they removed their attempts to get around security they AUTOMATICALLY get recognized by the system and get moved to the Group that was previously assigned by you. If you go to bed and your children's friends are over and your children give their friends your WiFi password, their friend would Automatically be assigned to the most restrictive Group.This feature is what kept our children, anyone else from getting past restrictions. Furthermore, if anyone gets your network password and accesses your network, they get moved to the most restrictive group and can't really do anything on your network.HERE IS HOW BARK TECHNOLOGIES also known as BARK HOME does it instead. They allow anyone on your network. They throw that device into an unmanaged group with zero restrictions. You get a notification on the app that someone has connected to your network and then you must actively move them to the appropriate restricted Group immediately if you want restrictions in place. What if you are asleep, at work, in a meeting, don't have your phone on you, or many other similar scenarios? NOTHING. Those connected have full access to the internet with zero restrictions. So let's say you get the notification and immediately go and assign the user to a restricted Group. If they connect to a proxy server, private ip, or Apple iCloud relay that device again shows up in the unmanaged unrestricted Group allowing them to surf the internet without restrictions until you go and assign them again to a new Group. However, in theory and reality, you will have to do this endlessly. Anytime the child, child's friend, or anyone else connects to your network via a proxy server, private ip, or iCloud relay their device gets a new identity and goes back to the unmanaged Group with ZERO restrictions and unlimited internet surfing ability. This is exhausting and a poor design. The end result is that you just give up trying to manage your network because BARK HOME requires 24/7 active management of any device connecting to your network.THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT BARK HOME IS A WASTE OF YOUR MONEYHopefully they bring back the Router Limits systems code which they already own or make it only need passive management.

First of all, I am in IT. This is my wheelhouse.The user interface was well done. It has a nice simple flow. However, there are three different places on the same page where the children are listed. I think it'd be better to list each of the options once under each child.That said, there are some complexities to it that make it difficult to troubleshoot issues. Games don't work completely because of some overlap with purchasing or social media limitations that are set in different categories. This is by design, but you have to dig around to find out. Sometimes, you can find what is blocked because it is flagged.iPhones and iPads are a bit of a pain, but this is Apple's fault. Apple strictly segments things leaving monitoring, blocking, and parenting with limitations. This is not a Bark thing, but also with other parenting tools I've used. Bark actually comes out ahead on this one because of some ways you can integrate and cross those segmentations. I have not fully explored this yet, but I KNOW without it, I am missing a lot and it appears a bit intimidating.The secret sauce of Bark is in their monitoring ACCOUNTS and not just devices. I monitor email and Spotify and have seen several concerns that I could address confidently. Bark really helped there.I use the website AND the app on my phone to make changes. I get alerts when new devices appear on the network.COMPLEX DETAILS:Also, for those who have complex networks like mine, it does still work with VLAN, but only on the VLAN you connect it to. I suppose you can bridge to other VLANs, but this actually works to my advantage so I can keep my servers and adult equipment off that network.Bark uses ARP-spoofing. I know other parenting devices that use this, but in my opinion, this is not an ideal solution. Antivirus software does tend to flag this as a network attack (mine did) and you have to add exceptions to the software so you are not getting constantly alerted. That said, I cannot think of a better way to do what they do and close the gaps. I hope someone else does, though. It seems kind of rinky-dink to me.The ARP-spoofing does allow me to monitor and block devices I cannot control like their laptops for school (I don't have rights).