Fortnite - how to block on BT Parental Controls using ip addresses

[glentress]

Ok - please do not give me any prenting advise - I have 3 teenage boys all bigger and stronger than me and the nice chat about doing something useful with your life is not working. I am also from 30 years in IT and have seen all the games from block tennis to mario to Second life and everything else that has comealong - and yes gaming is fun, but fortnite is adictive.

So I would like to use parental controls to restrict play time. Fortnite is accessed on the xbox/PS4 and the mac as well as ipads etc. I can block epicgames.com for the Mac but need to use specific ip addresses for the Xbox and PS4 or I end up blocking the complete device - I don't mind them continuing to game - it's the language and voilent outburst that Fortnite drives that I want to curtail to a limited time. Removing the router is not an option.

PS4 and XBOX :(PC also)

add the following Ip addresses

104.28.2.249 , 104.28.3.249 easyanticheat*

54.86.141.201 , 18.205.125.105 epicgames*

209.200.152.199 playstation*

23.100.122.175 , 23.96.52.53 , 104.43.195.251 , 104.40.211.35 , 191.239.213.197 xbox*

*Edited

If you know how to block these ip address in the list of restricted sites under parental controls that would be great thanks.

[onlinedad]

Did you ever get this sorted? Looking to do the same. Blocking at router level is no good as router keeps getting reset by mine

[DavidM]

Hi @onlinedad  and welcome to the community.

Thanks for posting about parental controls blocking a particular game. Sorry you haven't been able to find a solution. It's not possible to block IPs using parent controls but you can block the websites. As with most social media sites games will have several URLs so you'll need to try and find which one your son is accessing it via and then block that manually in the parental controls. You should be able to find it by doing a quick google search. The biggest problem here is there are probably quite a few URLs for that game which will make it difficult. I hope that helps.

Cheers

David

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@onlinedad wrote:
Did you ever get this sorted? Looking to do the same. Blocking at router level is no good as router keeps getting reset by mine

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Try blocking epicgames.com

[onlinedad]

Works OK on PC but not PS4

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@onlinedad wrote:

Works OK on PC but not PS4

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Without looking at the DNS requests from the PS4 application, you are not going to make any progress.

The only way to look at those, assuming its connected by Ethernet, would be to route the PS4 through a managed  Ethernet switch which has port mirroring, and monitor the requests on a PC running Wireshark, which is connected to the mirrored port.

Its quite an involved process, and I expect you would find that its using IP addresses which have no DNS entry.

As neither BT Parental controls or the home hub have the ability to block IP addresses, you would have to use a third party router which has a user configurable firewall which allows you to block specific IP address ranges.

As you can see, there is no easy option apart from physically disconnecting the PS4, or using a heavy hammer

[onlinedad]

LOL. Cool the latter it is then 😉

[DavidM]

Hi @onlinedad ,

Thanks for posting. @Keith_Beddoe (kudos to you) really has nailed it here (no hammer pun intended ). It does look like a difficult process to follow but if you do give it a go please get back to us and let us know how you get on. We would be keen to hear if it solves the problem.

Cheers

David

[glentress]

Thanks for looking at this. I have since left BT so no longer relevant but I can see that other parents have the same issue. Luckily for me the boys seemed to have moved on from this phase. No so good for a friend of mine who is still getting issues and has had his giant tv screen broken from a control being thrown at it in frustration. I will suggest the above to him and get his IT guy to look at it.

[glentress]

Thanks everyone for the responses - it's good to see I'm not the only parent with the same issues and frustrations. Unfortunately the gaming industry has more money then the rest of us so will always be several steps ahead of parents trying to protect their children.