Son is spending more time than we want on web based activities (no, probably not that) xbox, ipod touch, laptop etc and his schoolwork appears to be suffering.

Would like to be able to enable these services ‘on demand’ rather than the current ‘always available unless we switch the router off’ situation we have.

Key thing is without disrupting access for other devices such as my work pc, my wifes ipad etc.

I don’t want to have to be typing in Mac addresses every time he wants access so is there some way I can set up access in a way that would enable/disable all of his kit in one go?

Using a Netgear wireless N300 router attached to one of the Virgin ‘superhubs’ (in modem mode).

Happy for him to have network access in the house (we have a networked hard drive he stores music on, for example).

So, how do I manage this?

Is there any MAC filtering ability on that Netgear?

I am heartened by your optimism.

I think the more commercial routers offer more functions for this sort of thing, plus the ability to monitor usage. You can restrict time on the PC in Windows, but that’s a bit blunt.
If you find something let me know!

unless you work in IT and know network security i guarantee child will get through it.

I know i did 😉

Ho about telling him to do it less, and giving him a bollocking if he doesn’t do as he’s told?

It’s easy enough to get a router that will enable you to set permitted times for access to the internet for his devices by MAC address.
I’ve got an old Netgear that does it.
It’s just a case of reading through the manuals to find one that does it.
My Netgear router also emails me a report of the web addresses accessed by each machine every week if I tick the box. Which is IMHO possibly a step too far unless you have suspicions and have already told them you’re going to monitor it.
HTH
SM

I’ve got the BT router, connected to Infinity. if you log onto the router you can restrict Internet access on a per device basis. So the daughter’s PC is cut of from the Internet at 10pm, but she can still access the home network – access the networked printer for example. ipod and xbox are similarly done.

It does support mac filtering but it’s a bit of a blunt tool – need to remove/add each time.

Trying to make it difficult for him to access at certain times when he shoudl be working really. Can monitor traffic and bollock him if I see he’s gettign around it.

Can block specific urls based on day of week/time of day so I guess we could only open some up at certain times but I can see him just going via proxy servers so I’d rather block devices completely.

Could you not just go all old fasioned and take all the computer toys out of the bedroom? Then when he is done his school work he can get on and play xbox or what ever.

Alternatively if that is too much hassle just undo the 8 screws holding the door on and stick his bedroom door up the loft.

Have a look at norton family. That should help with setting access times on the pc.
Not sure about ecks box or iPad though.

“Ho about telling him to do it less, and giving him a bollocking if he doesn’t do as he’s told? “

thats what my parents did in the end….. coupled with “Could you not just go all old fasioned and take all the computer toys out of the bedroom?”

as the threat if i didnt do as i was told….

but tbh my school work never suffered – i still got good grades …. i just didnt attend as much as i should have – that is to say i decided certain classes i was made to take were a waste of mine and the teachers time – especially as i already had a university offer in place from the previous year.

Open DNS is an excellent (free and premium) service that you might be able to make use of – we use it at work to restrict Facebook access 😉
You’d point your router’s DNS at Open DNS’s servers and then use your account to control what you see when. Not sure if it needs things like a static IP to work correctly but it’s worth a look…
http://www.opendns.com/

It does support mac filtering but it’s a bit of a blunt tool – need to remove/add each time.

I use it [albeit with a D-Link] where I have all his MAC addresses blocked between 23:00 and 06:00 Sun-Thurs
He always remember to ask me to unblock it during holiday times 😀

What about installing DD-WRT?
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

OpenDNS can’t use time settings unless you use the paid service, and even then you would need to pay for each user if you wanted to not block your own access :(. For blocking ‘dodgy’ stuff it’s good if somewhat easy to defeat

‘It does support mac filtering but it’s a bit of a blunt tool – need to remove/add each time.’

Yep. I think you need a slightly better router to do what you want to do. At minimum you want to block internet based on time and mac address which I don’t think yours does

I’ll look at OpenDNS.

we’re happy for him to have kit in his room. it’s just makign sure he stops using it at 10 o’clock or whatever and that he doesn’t spend his whole revision time tapping away at facebook on his itouch.

[edit] in light of above. maybe I just need to monitor usage for a while at times he’s not supposed to be on and then start doing ‘punishment blocking’ of his mac addresses for a period of time.

me again…

apparently the Vigin superhub allows mac filterign by day/time so I might have another go at getting that working as advertised (gave up after half a day faffing last time) and see how it goes.

If you have MSM then use the “Family Safety Filter”
Really easy and you have to give permission or its blocked.
You can even allow them into a site but not all of the pages on that site.
STAY WELL AWAY from anything Norton – it is massively resource hungry and is horrific to un-install when you realise how bad it is.

hammyuk – won;t that apply only to windows pc’s?

he currently has;

1) Raspberry Pi (Linux)
2) Iphone (no data allowance on tariff)
3) Itouch
4) laptop
5) xbox-360

all of which have some sort of internet access via out wi-fi/network.

I think the superhub timed access per MAC address thing will probably work for me if it does actually work…and he doesn’t start doing mac spoofing.

We’ve got a Virgin Netgear wifi thingy, and our No.1 used to like to extend allowed internet usage time. Looked into software and all that but in the end gave up and come 2200hrs on a school night we used the switch on the back of the wireless thingy. She soon learned that ‘I’m in the middle of something’ doesn’t work and now we don’t need to do that as she now switches off around 2200ish which is fine by us.

My son leaves his phone/laptop outside his room, so can’t be used at night and/or homework time.

we;ve been doing the whole switch the router off thing and removing equipment. It just leads to too much conflict to try and take stuff away and we then forget etc.

Just wanted a simple ‘you can have access from 5 until 10 weekdays so you’d better do your homework when you get home from school’ approach that covered all of his kit.

In that case – several routers have actual www. blocking capabilities.

wwaswas – Member

Just wanted a simple ‘you can have access from 5 until 10 weekdays so you’d better do your homework when you get home from school’ approach that covered all of his kit.

Apart from that being far too much time to be sat in front of the screen, just tell him.
If he ignores you, bin the ipod.
Ignores you again, bin the xbox.

It’s not difficult.

On my netgear under wireless settings > access list you can add a list of allowed mac ids (it shows a list of available).

And from then on you can just turn access control on or off (one tick box) to restrict all his devices.

Hardly automated but would only take 10 seconds.

FOr wireless devices, I did this:

1) find buy/borrow old router
2) plug that into existing powerline newtork and run it “off” the working network but as a different SSID and password (I don’t know how I did this but it wasn’t hard)
3) only give the password to the second device to those who can have unfettered wifi. Enable second device’s wifi 24/7
4) enable/disable the wifi on the main router as you see fit

It’s not difficult.

theoretically 😉

you’re right tinribz. it just means booting up a laptop or soemthign to do it every night and I think I’d forget/not bother.

that’s the kind of thing 🙂

it’s become the ‘sanction that works’ for us, really.

“But Daaaaaad it’s so unfair I can’t talk to my freinds if wi-fi’s off”

I tend to say;

“Well either do what you’ve been asked or go out the house and meet them”

he then does what he’s been asked to do.

go back to dial up – I’m sure I read a lot more books when you had to wait for things to load.

Take the things off of him that he uses to access the net?

Take the things off of him that he uses to access the net?

I’ve got some friends that have a place that all the computing devices have to be in at bed time (includes phones). Seems straightforward.

If you can’t get the timed mac filtering working on the virgin box (given that the netgear box doesn’t do it) you could just buy a second cheap wireless box, use a different ssid for it and switch on the timing on that.

I think the superhub timed access per MAC address thing will probably work for me if it does actually work…and he doesn’t start doing mac spoofing.

That’s fine, until he works out how to spoof a MAC address.

I favour the postit note option.

Nothing new to add, just to echo….

Timed MAC address filtering/restrictions. If you can’t trust them not to go down the MAC spoofing route or your router doesn’t support it, then second router with different SSID and p/w. Only allow kids access to one of the routers, which has time limits set (and content filters?) for all devices.