Advanced Setup

Advanced Setup

Advanced Setup
Advanced Setup
Sunday
Model: Archer BE550  
Hardware Version: V1
Firmware Version: 1.21

I am looking for information regarding advanced setup for the Archer BE550 router. This is a new router to us and does not have the typical setup menus and options that I have used in the past. We are continually running into issues where the router is blocking websites that we need to access. I am unable to find any whitelist for websites except within the parental controls. Which means I would have to put every device connected to our home network within a profile that supposedly would allow said access. Thing is that if it isn't going to allow the site to devices Not currently in a parental control profile, why would it allow access inside that profile either, which is my problem.

 

Is there anyway to allow access to a site to the entire network (home)? 

 

A good example today my son had to access the website Testmoz(dot)com for his drivers ed (a end of session test). Nobody on our network could access it except by using our cellphones over data. I tried my computer and phone, my wife's computer, tablet, and phone, my daughters computer and phone. And even after trying to add it to his profile (within the parental controls) it still could not be accessed. As a last ditch effort we enabled data access on our phones and disabled wifi (bypassing the router completely) and it finally worked.

 

This is the first time i have ever seen this lack of control within a router's settings. It is not the first time I have run into this problem but it is the first time I have combed through the tether app and the router access via connected computer looking for the solution to fix the problem. I am absolutely confused.

 

Can anyone offer me advice on what I might be missing and/or why the router would be blocking said website without explicit instructions to do so?

 

Thanks,

 

Kev

 

PS. yes I attempted a router reboot to no avail.

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#1
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3 Reply
Re:Advanced Setup
Sunday - last edited Monday

  @Kev29 

 

Connect a computer direct to the modem and see if you can get that web site to see if it is the ISP or the router. 
 

If it is the router, try a different DNS as that may be the issue. Also if you are using a VPN or not using one could cause that issue based on where the VPN  server is located. 

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#2
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Re:Advanced Setup
Monday - last edited Monday

  @ArcherC8 

 

We have fiber. No modem. But unplugged the ethernet cable coming in to the router and plugged it into my computer and the result was the same. So must be ISP. Not sure why the ISP would be blocking it.

 

We live in washington state and they passed a law barring ISPs from internet throttling, site blocking etc of legal content. We do not use VPNs in our home because we are trying to be open and honest about content use and VPNs allow circumventing such things like parental controls. In our case our previous router from our old ISP, Century Link, allowed blanket content restrictions to all users on the network by site. We just told the router what sites to block. Now we would have to put each device into a parental profile (very tedius especially if random mac addressing is in play) before applying broad restrictions. I like being able to blanket blacklist specific sites (p2p/torrent, p***, malicious sites known for bad content, some ad heavy news sites that are not secure). 

 

This just boggles my mind. I will call the ISP tomorrow and see what they say. But in the meantime I still think the ability (read additional feature) to make simple blanket blacklists at the router level should be available in the security controls.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. As for the VPN thought, I will consider that just to test access.

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#3
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Re:Advanced Setup
Yesterday

  @Kev29 

 

Also check the computer's DNS settings if it has one.

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#4
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