Kids are by-passing family wifi

[jeneree]

Family wifi has worked great for several years. However, my kids have recently figured out that if they disconnect and then reconnect to the Internet, the wifi doesn't recognize their device and the schedule no longer applies. How do I fix this? Has something changed?

(After re-connecting, their devices show up as one of the unnamed devices)

[Sethg103]

Mobile devices like to use random Mac addresses. So when they reconnect the Mac address that's blocked tries to use a new Mac address therefore looking different on the wifi. 

You'd have to go on their device and turn off random Mac addresses and see if that fixes the issue. 

[jeneree]

Thank you for your reply. Doesn't this seem like a huge flaw then if that is the case?

[LovelyM]

Hi folks, 

@Sethg103, thanks for trying to help. 

Thanks for reaching out and I'm sorry for this experience, @jeneree. The MAC address is static and unique for each device. Since that's the one that's being remembered by the Google Nest mesh system, there should be no way for your kids to bypass the Family WiFi setup. Please try changing your WiFi password, then delete and re-create your Family Wi-Fi.

Let me know if the issue persists.

Kind regards, 
Lovely

[Sethg103]

I work in a manufacturing environment as a network administrator and we've delt with our fair share of Mac Address Randomization issues from mobile devices that they now use for privacy. Unless we turn off Mac address randomization in the devices wifi settings; then if we were to block the phones current Mac address, it'll just try to use a newly generated Mac address allowing it to reconnect to the network. 

https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/wifi-mac-randomization-behavior

[LovelyM]

Hello Sethg103, 

I appreciate this additional input. This will totally help us determine why @jeneree's kids bypassed the scheduled pause on their devices. I'll also bump this with my specialist team if there are any reports about this particular issue.

Many thanks, 
Lovely 

[LovelyM]

Hey everyone, 

@jeneree, I want to confirm if you have tried the steps above, since those are also the suggestions from our specialist team. Please let me know if the issue remains so I can continue to assist you. 

Best, 
Lovely

[Dan_A]

Hey there,

We haven't heard from you in a while so we'll be locking this thread if there is no update within 24 hours. If you need assistance or want to discuss topics, feel free to start a new thread.
 

Cheers,

Dan

[jeneree]

Hi,

I re-set the network to factory settings and set it up from scratch and we still had the same problem.

I then disabled the Mac address randomization on my kids' devices for our network and the parental controls began working again. However, nothing on their devices is preventing them from turning the Mac address randomization back on. So we will be good until they figure that out. Is this something Google can fix?

[jeneree]

Like maybe Google can have a setting where new/unrecognized devices can't use the network until you approve them in the Google home app. Then if the kids do turn the Mac randomization back on, they wouldn't be able to re-join the network.

[AbigailF]

Hello jeneree,

We appreciate your interest, however, we don't have any news to share about a feature similar to what you described. We're always looking for ways to improve and we'll take it as feedback. I also suggest that you send feedback by following this link.

Thanks,
Abi

[LovelyM]

Hey jeneree, 

Checking back in should you still have other questions or concerns. Let us know by replying to this thread. 

Best, 
Lovely

[LovelyM]

Hi there jeneree, 

Due to inactivity, I'll go ahead and lock this thread in 24 hours. We'd be glad to help you further so if you still need assistance, feel free to start a new thread.

Cheers,
Lovely