The last feature has been a game changer for me. My kids are 6 and 10 and both have Kindle Fire tablets that they use for games and watching videos. My 9 year old is at the age where she is starting to get curious about "life". She knows how to google so it is just a matter of time before she comes across something not appropriate for kids. I was thinking I would need to come up with some type of web filtering software so Xfinity xFi came along just in time.
xFi allows me to identify my kids devices. assign them to a profile and then I can control the hours of the day that I want to allow them to connect to the internet. It also allows me to assign parental controls to the profile that reduces the risk of devices accessing inappropriate content.
The first step in getting this setup is identifying the devices connected to your network. xFi will find then but they sometime have a generic name, sometimes it finds the device name that was setup but not always. Currently I have about 30 devices connected to my network. This may seem a bit high but I have quite a few smart home devices that are always connected. Things like smart thermostats, light switches, security camera, sprinkler systems, wireless speakers and echo devices. I have a link to my wicked smart home blog if you are interested.
It took me a couple months to figure out and rename all of my devices, there are still two that I have no idea what they are. Possibly a wireless modem in my PC but not sure. Once most devices were identified I just created a kids profile and assigned all of my kids devices to the profile. Then within that profile you can set the hours that you want the devices to disconnect from wireless. They call this bedtime mode. You can also turn on parental controls to prevent that profile from accessing inappropriate content.
I have to say the functionality works great and gives me peace of mind that my kids are using their devices safely. The morning after I set it up my daughter came down stairs and told me the internet was not working. It was a little before 7am so she was unable to connect yet. I am also able to pause the profile anytime I want so if the kids are not listening to come down for dinner we can just pause their profile and the internet connection goes away.
They also have an app that provides most of the functionality that the web page does so if we are not at home and want to control any devices we can. Pretty nice functionality that you do not have to pay extra for.
