How To Set Up & Use TubeTimeout
- richard8665
- Jun 26
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 7
Welcome to the TubeTimeout Setup Instructions: Your Guide to Managing YouTube Access!
You're in the best place to learn how to configure TubeTimeout! After completing these instructions, you'll be able to manage and block YouTube access for groups of devices on your home network.
If you purchased an official TubeTimeout device, continue with the instructions below. If you would like to build your own, head over to the public GitHub repo to get started and return here when you're ready.
Contents
Use the links below to jump to each section.
How To Connect TubeTimeout To Your Network
The User Interface
- How To Load The User Interface
- What Does It Look Like?
Initial Setup / One-Off Configuration
- Step 1 - Enable TubeTimeout
- Step 2 - Optionally Create Address Reservations
Tracking Usage & Adding Devices
- Step 3 - Create A Usage Tracker
- Step 4 - Add Devices To A Usage Tracker
How To Connect TubeTimeout To Your Network
What You'll Need
TubeTimeout device
USB-C power adapter
USB-C cable
Network cable (Ethernet)
Getting Started
Connect one end of an Ethernet cable to the TubeTimeout device and the other end to a LAN port on the back of your router.
Connect the USB-C power adapter and cable, then turn it on.
Wait about 30 seconds for the device to boot up.
The LED should show green when it's powered on and running.
The User Interface
How To Load The User Interface
Now that you've connected the device and powered it up, it's time to access the user interface. This is a web page that you load in a browser on a mobile phone or laptop.
Head to http://tubetimeout.local.
Your browser might ask you to confirm access to an insecure (HTTP only) website. This is normal, as the website traffic is not encrypted. The reason for this is to keep it simple and reliable. Your home network should be secure, and TubeTimeout doesn't publish any personally identifiable information beyond your home network. It only concerns itself with the same MAC addresses and IP addresses that your home router already knows about.
What Does It Look Like?
After set-up is complete, the web page will look a bit like this:
What Does Each Section Do?
The first two sections only need to be configured once. After that, you can use the toggle arrows to minimize the sections and speed up access to the bits that matter to you:
DHCP Configuration — This allows devices on your network to be discovered.
Address Reservations — This is optional and only used if you want to give devices a static IP address.
To track device usage, the following two sections are used:
Usage Trackers — Create and manage time limits for a group of devices.
Devices — Assign devices to a group.
Everything else shows a summary of the devices in each group. You can see how much time is allowed and how much has been used up. You can also see how recently a device has been active on the network.
Initial Setup / One-Off Configuration
Step 1 - Enable TubeTimeout
In this section, we will:
Enable DHCP on TubeTimeout.
Disable DHCP on your main router.
Disable IPv6 on your main router.
Load the TubeTimeout web page at http://tubetimeout.local.
Accept any warnings shown by your browser.
In the "DHCP Configuration" section, tick the checkbox next to "Enable DHCP Service" and hit Save.
TubeTimeout will take a few seconds to check if another DHCP server is running on your network. It should find one, as we haven't disabled it on the router yet.
Reload the TubeTimeout web page and confirm it shows the "Service Status" with a value of "Router DHCP server can be stopped."
This may take a minute, so keep refreshing the page every few seconds until you see the Service Status update.
Log in to your router's admin page.
Disable DHCP.
The instructions for this will vary depending on the make and model of your router.
For example, on my EE router, the settings can be found as a toggle/checkbox in "Advanced Settings" -> "IPv4 Configuration" -> "DHCP Server."
Disable the option, hit Save, and accept any warnings that the router might show.
Disable IPv6.
For example, on my EE router, this can be found under "Network" -> "Advanced."
Disable "SLAAC router advertisements."
Save settings and confirm any warnings that the router might show.
Refresh the TubeTimeout web page to confirm everything is well.
Keep reloading the TubeTimeout web page until the "Service Status" changes to say "Active."
Force devices to reconnect to the network so they see TubeTimeout as the gateway to the internet.
If the router was rebooted in step 3, you don't need to repeat this. However, you can either reboot the router or turn Wi-Fi off and on again for each device that you want to track YouTube usage for.
Congrats, you're all done with this section!
Step 2 - Optionally Create Address Reservations
This step is entirely optional and is only required if you need to give devices on your network a static IP address.
You can safely skip to the next section if this doesn't sound familiar or interesting.
Tracking Usage & Adding Devices
Step 3 - Create A Usage Tracker
A Usage Tracker is simply a group of devices with time limits applied to it.
This step explains how to create an empty "Usage Tracker" and configure time limits that will apply to any device added to the group:
Select "-- New Tracker --" from the dropdown list.
Enter a name for the group (it can be anything meaningful to you).
Choose the number of minutes to allow YouTube access.
Choose when the group usage will automatically reset:
Weekly
Daily
If you choose "Weekly," pick a value for "Reset Day." This defines when the group will automatically reset and allow YouTube usage again.
Choose a value for "Reset Time."
Hit Save.
The web page will display a notification in the top right asking you to save or undo your changes.
If you reload the web page before saving, the changes will be lost. That said, it's easy to re-add them if you do this by mistake.
You're done creating a group! Continue to the next step to add devices and start tracking their usage...
Step 4 - Add Devices To A Usage Tracker
This step walks you through assigning devices to a Usage Tracker that we created above. There are a few prerequisites required before this will work. Let's check that everything is ready before we start:
Pre-requisites
DHCP needs to be enabled on TubeTimeout, so devices think it's the gateway to the internet. To do this, complete Step 1 above.
Wait about one minute after devices have (re)connected to the network. TubeTimeout scans the network every minute and remembers the devices that it sees. Refresh the web page to find the latest list of devices.
IPv6 needs to be disabled on the main router.
Private Wi-Fi addresses need to be turned off on mobile devices.
Disable Private Wi-Fi Addresses
Modern mobile phones tend to rotate their MAC addresses periodically or when joining new networks. Since TubeTimeout uses MAC addresses to track device usage, we need to disable this feature. If device MAC addresses change over time, TubeTimeout will see them as new devices and ignore them until they have been configured.
On iPhone
Head into settings and toggle this off:
```
Settings → Wi-Fi → [Your Network] → Private Wi-Fi Address → Off
```
How To Add Devices To A Usage Tracker
Select an existing Usage Tracker from the dropdown list.
Select a device from the dropdown list.
The device is known by its MAC address, which we mentioned above needs to be set to a fixed value that doesn't rotate periodically.
Remember, TubeTimeout scans for new devices every minute, so wait and reload the web page until the device you're looking for appears in the dropdown list.
Give the device a memorable name of your choice.
Hit "Add Device To Tracker."
Hit Save or Undo. Use the buttons in the notification that appears in the top right of the screen or at the bottom of the page.
You're all done! The device you added will be tracked by TubeTimeout.
Next Steps
Repeat Step 3 to add another Usage Tracker with different time limits.
Repeat Step 4 to add or move devices to a different tracker.
Now that you've set everything up, you can enjoy peace of mind knowing you have control over your children's YouTube screen time. If you need more help, feel free to reach out!