Tips & Tricks
People are doing some pretty great things with The CleanerNet in their homes. If you have a suggestion or tip that you think would help others we would love to hear about it.
How Do I Know If Someone In My Home Is Viewing Pornography?
Most people who use pornography don’t want their family members to know about it. So how do you know if someone in your household has a problem? The CleanerNet can help by following these steps after you sign up.
Step 1. Activate your CleanerNet Account
Step 2. Plug the CleanerNet Mini into your router
Step 3. Log Into the CleanerNet Portal.
Step 4. You will see a group labeled “Guest” Select this group.
*Note: All devices will be added to the “Guest” group until the administrator moves them elsewhere
Step 5. Do NOT enable any filters or limits.
Step 6. Use the “Browser History” option to see what web sites are being accessed on your home network. You may want to wait one or two weeks before enabling “limits” so you can identify a problem if there is one and take appropriate action to correct it. If you would like to learn more about pornography use and addiction click here.
How Can I Improve Family Relationships And Communication At Home?
Our world today is more connected than ever before and yet many of us feel a deep disconnect from others, many times within our own homes. One of the best ways to re-establish those bonds and improve communication skills is to spend personal time with our loved ones without being distracted by a cell phones or games. Some families do a better job of this than others but if you struggle, like many do, here is something you can try.
Step 1. Establish a time each day that is reserved for the family. Discuss this with the members of your household and determine what time works best.
Step 2. Go into each group on your CleanerNet Portal and select the “Internet Blocked” icon
Step 3. Select the hour/s on each day that you want the internet to be blocked across your home.
Step 4. Establish a location, perhaps a basket or box, where devices can go during this time.
Enjoy a meal, play, read, talk, and take advantage of this time offline. It may seem difficult at first, and you may get some resistance, but once it’s established and going you will be glad you did it.
How Do I Manage How Much Time My Family Spends Playing Video Games?
One way to manage video games within the home is to manage the time that they are allowed to access the internet. The administrator can establish what these rules are and may change them at any time, but we will show you the easiest way to do this.
Step 1. Identify all of the gaming systems in your home that are listed under “devices”
Step 2. Create a group called “Video Games” and add each console to this group
Step 3. Set up the limits for these devices including time constraints if needed.
That’s it. With all the gaming systems in one group you can now enable or disable internet access for all of them with a single click. Now video games can happen on your terms, not theirs.
What Do I Do if Someone In My Home Has an Internet-Based Addiction?
Addiction is a very serious matter and should always be approached in a sensitive and loving way. While The CleanerNet can provide some great tools to help with addiction recovery, we highly recommend that you seek and follow the professional advice given by a licensed professional.
With that being said here are a few tips that you will want to consider whenver you are dealing with addiction.
Step 1- Use a CleanerNet Router instead of a Mini to provide filtering on your home network.
The Mini is a great product but it can also be disabled by simply unplugging or removing it from your router. Anytime an addict wants to engage in a specific behavior they will do whatever it takes and the Mini is an easy target. To avoid this we recommend using a CleanerNet Router exclusively for internet access and WiFi within your home. This will prevent any tampering or abuse.
Step 2- Change the username and password on the router and your CleanerNet Account.
You will want to make sure that your router and CleanerNet portal are secure which is why we highly recommend that you change the password on these devices so they cannot be accessed and modified in any way.
Step 3 – Make sure The CleanerNet App is installed on the individual’s mobile devices.
Step4 – Take additional safety measures wherever possible. See our “Learn More” section for details.
Can I Block All VPN's ( Virtual Private Networks ) With The CleanerNet?
If you do a search for VPN you will find hundreds, if not thousands, of results. VPN’s are often used to tunnel around filters, like The CleanerNet, because they provide a virtual internet browser that isn’t actually running on your own device. It is difficult to identify all VPN’s, in part, because there are so many and because they are always changing their IP addresses. So what do you do to prevent access to these complicated and elusive sites? You can follow these steps:
- On your CleanerNet dashboard select the group/s you want to keep off of VPN’s.
- Under “Categories” make sure “Proxies” has been enabled for that group
- Under the “Options” category enable “Block Unknown Traffic”.
One thing to keep in mind is that when you block unknown traffic you may also block access to certain web sites and functions online. If you experience unintended consequences after enabling this mode please consider moving the device to a different group without the “block unknown traffic” feature enabled.
How Do I Improve Productivity At Home And In The Work-Place?
The CleanerNet is a great way to improve productivity at home or at the office. It is easy to become distracted by notifications or updates on our social media accounts and this can often disrupt our work flow or even deter us away from things that are more important. One way to tackle this is to block Social Media during the times of day where you want to focus on other tasks or work. Follow these steps and repeat them on each group you want to limit
- Login to your portal and go to groups.
- Select the group you want to add a Social Media Filters to.
- Under the Default Settings in the Restrictions area select “Categories” and add “Social Media” to the restricted options. (Take note of the other settings here so you can duplicate them).
- Now select the Time Management and select “Add Custom Limit”
- Name your Limit ( Social Media Off or something similar is good) and pick a color.
- Select the days and hours you want this limit to be in effect. ( Remember you have blocked Social Media as the default so you want to select the hours when you want Social Media to work)
- Under “Restrictions” select all of the settings you had before in the “Default” limit except for Social Media. You will want to allow this.
That’s it. You can now enjoy a more productive day. You’re Welcome!
