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Parental controls incorrectly block internet access

The FRITZ!Box blocks a computer, smartphone, or another device from accessing the internet, although the device should have been able to access the internet at the time the error occurred. The following messages are displayed:

  • In a web browser on the device: "Internet access is blocked."
  • In the FRITZ!Box user interface: "Parental controls blocked. FRITZ!Box has prevented an attempt to evade parental controls. During this process it was necessary to block internet access."

Simply proceed as described below. After each measure, check whether the problem is solved.

1 Configuring the device to automatically obtain IP settings

If the device does not obtain its IP settings from the FRITZ!Box via DHCP, the FRITZ!Box assumes that an attempt was made to bypass parental controls when the IP address changes and then completely blocks internet access for the device.

2 Device is not directly connected to the FRITZ!Box

If the device is connected to the FRITZ!Box by means of an additional router (for example an additional FRITZ!Box as a wireless repeater, a wireless router or wireless repeater in Universal Repeater Mode), the device's communication with the FRITZ!Box is altered. This causes it to assume that an attempt to deceive it is being made, which causes it to then completely block internet access for this device.

Note:If you use an additional router to connect the device, the other router does not transmit the device's MAC address to the FRITZ!Box. Since the FRITZ!Box uses a combination of IP address and MAC address to identify each device, it interprets requests from the same MAC address in combination with different IP addresses as an attempt to bypass parental controls.

One of the following measures can resolve this problem:

Installing the latest FRITZ!OS

Starting with FRITZ!OS 6, FRITZ!Boxes, FRITZ!Repeaters, and FRITZ!Powerline transmit information about devices connected to them to the FRITZ!Box that establishes the internet connection. This allows you to use the parental controls function with devices that are connected to the FRITZ!Box by means of an additional FRITZ! product.

  1. Install the latest FRITZ!OS on all of your FRITZ!products. You can update the FRITZ!OS of your FRITZ!Box as described in this guide.

Connecting the device directly to the FRITZ!Box

  1. Either use a network cable or Wi-Fi to connect the device directly to the FRITZ!Box.

If the FRITZ!Box still blocks internet access, then the parental controls for the device were not correctly configured. Call up http://fritz.box to check the settings for the device and adjust the settings as described in the guide Restricting internet use with parental controls.