Internet Pause
The Fingbox Internet Pause feature acts in a similar way to the Fingbox Device Block feature, allowing you to block the Internet from reaching a device or a user. However, instead of cutting off access to the entire network, Internet Pause still allows those devices to communicate with other devices on your network, i.e. you can pause your child’s laptop’s access to the Internet, but it can still send documents to the printer.
There are 3 ways to pause the Internet with Fingbox:
- On-Demand Device Pause: this feature lets you pause the Internet to a single device at the click of a button. You can select a set amount of time to pause it, or unpause it when you wish.
- On-Demand User Pause: if you have set up the Digital Presence feature, this tool will allow you to block all the devices belonging to one user at the click of a button.
- Scheduled User Pause: if you have set up the Digital Presence feature, this tool will allow you to set up an Internet schedule for your users, with automatic blocking at selected times and days.
How to Use the On-Demand Device Internet Pause
Pausing the Internet to a single device is very easy!
Pausing
- From the Fingbox dashboard, go to the Devices tab
- Find the device you wish to block and click on it – this will bring up the Device Details screen
- Scroll down to the Manage this device section & click on the Pause Internet icon
- A pop-up will appear with a selection of time lengths in which you could pause the Internet
- Select the timeframe
- The icon will go red to indicate the device is now blocked
Unpausing
If you wish to un-pause the device sooner than the allotted amount of time simply return to the Device Details screen and click the same icon you used to pause it. It will now instead say Resume Internet. The borders will return to blue to indicate it is unblocked.
How to Use the On-Demand User Internet Pause
Pausing
This feature is used if you would like to block/pause all the devices assigned to a specific user.
- From the Fingbox dashboard, navigate to the People tab
- Click on the user you’d like to pause the devices from
- Click on the Pause internet button
- Select the amount of time you would like to pause for (eg. 30 mins, 1 hour, forever)
- Confirm you’d like to pause the device
Unpausing
If you wish to unpause the user sooner than the allotted amount of time simply click on the user again and click Resume Internet. The red will disappear to indicate it is unblocked.
How to Use the Scheduled Internet Pause Feature
The Scheduled Internet Pause tool allows you to set times when your user’s devices will not have access to the Internet, i.e. bedtime. The feature comes with schedule templates that you can customize, but you can also set up your own. Perfect for Parental Controls!
Setting Up, Editing and Deleting an Internet Schedule:
- From the Fingbox dashboard, navigate to the People tab
- Click on Create New Schedule
- If you have any Scheduled Internet Pause’s scheduled, they will be displayed. Alternatively, you can set up a Scheduled Internet Pause by selecting the “Create new schedule” button at the bottom of the screen
- Select the type of schedule (Bedtime, Homework, Generic)
- Select the days and times you want to pause the user’s internet
- Click on the user you wish to restrict.
- Click ‘Save’. Your Scheduled Internet Pause is now set.
From the Schedule Pause section of Fingbox, you can easily see all the schedules that you have active and edit or delete them if necessary.
Fingbox Internet Pause FAQs
Does the Fingbox Internet Pause feature work with IPv6?
No, sadly this feature is currently only available for devices communicating on IPv4. Like other similar products on the market, we are yet to find a way to pause Internet on IPv6, but we are doing ongoing work on changing this.
My devices still have access to the Internet when I pause them
Applications, such as Youtube, will often download packets of data in advance so as to make the use of them smoother. You will see this on Youtube in the bar along the bottom of the video. The line in red indicates how far through the video you are, but you will also see a grey line further ahead of the red – this grey line shows you where the application is in downloading the data. As this data has already reached your device and does not require the Internet to watch, when the Internet is paused Youtube will continue to play the video until the red line catches up with the grey line. When it catches this up the video will stop working as Youtube is unable to access the Internet to download more data.
This catch-up process can sometimes take a minute or so, so if you want to know immediately if an Internet Pause has worked try refreshing or opening a new screen.
If you still have access to the Internet at this point it could then be one of 3 things that are preventing the block from working.
- IPv6 – this is a method of communication that some devices use when IPv4 is blocked. Unfortunately, Fingbox cannot block IPv6 communications. If you feel comfortable, and if your router allows it, you can disable IPv6 within your router settings. All devices communicate on IPv4 so it should not impact the average user’s network performance.
- Incompatible Router – Fingbox pauses Internet using a technique called ARP spoofing. Some routers contain software designed to block ARP spoofing, so prevent Fingbox performing this feature. Check our list of routers that are incompatible with Fingbox here.
- Firewalls – Fingbox generally plays very well with firewalls, but like with the routers, there may be some software in the firewall that clashes with the Fingbox software. If you believe this may be the case email us on support@fing.io with the details of your firewall so we can investigate.
To note: Blocking & Pausing will need to be done for each specific device. The Fingbox will block/pause network access for all devices/users in one go. If you want to block all devices or groups of devices, you will need to do this on each individual device.