this device is HACKING my network!! (I'm letting it happen)

About this video

Chuck explains and demonstrates how the Circle parental-control/filtering device ‘hacks’ his home network on purpose to protect his five daughters. Unlike filtering routers, Circle is simply plugged into the existing router. After setup in its app, you assign a child’s devices to it, and Circle then performs an ARP poisoning/spoofing attack — a technique Chuck notes Circle discloses on its own site. He explains ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) with his router as 10.7.1.3 in his example: devices normally broadcast asking where the router lives and the router replies with its real MAC address. Circle answers those ARP requests itself, falsely claiming the router’s IP is at Circle’s MAC, so the child’s devices send all internet-bound traffic to Circle first. Circle can then allow, block or log destinations. He proves it live with Wireshark filtered on ARP and with ‘arp -a’ in Windows Command Prompt: the router IP’s physical address changes from the router’s real MAC to Circle’s MAC, Wireshark flags duplicate use of the IP, and Circle repeatedly re-asserts the lie so the router cannot win. Features he values are per-child profiles that aggregate time and activity across all of a child’s assigned devices (rather than per-device totals), site-visit/blocked-attempt visibility, time limits, reward time for specific services, and a local VPN profile on phones that keeps filtering when they leave home Wi-Fi. He says Circle claims traffic data stays local on the device. Finally he shows the defence/bypass: add a static ARP entry in Windows (using netsh interface ipv4 add neighbors with the interface name, router IP and router’s real MAC, using dashes not colons) so the machine ignores the poisoned replies — while telling kids watching not to disobey their parents. He notes even his Ubiquiti Dream Machine setup did not catch the spoofing.

Key takeaways

• Circle filters without replacing the router by using ARP spoofing: it lies about the router IP’s MAC address so assigned devices send traffic through Circle.
• Chuck verifies the attack with Wireshark ARP captures and ‘arp -a’ — the router IP resolves to Circle’s MAC and duplicate-IP use is detected.
• Per-child profiles aggregate usage across phone, computer and other assigned devices, with filtering, time limits, blocked-attempt logs and reward time.
• A local VPN profile on a phone extends the filtering off the home network, according to Chuck’s demonstration.
• Defence shown: a static ARP entry pinning the router’s IP to its real MAC (netsh interface ipv4 add neighbors) makes a Windows machine ignore the poisoned replies.

Episode details: published September 24, 2021 · 15:44 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are NetworkChuck’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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