Happy Easter all.

Is there a program/software whereby I can limit the wifi access the kids have to our home router (challenging teenage son issues!). Basically I’d like to be able to keep the wifi going (I often work evenings) but be able to block his phone at specific times (not all the time)? We’re using an old Netgear 834 router and have Talk Talk as a provider.

Thanks

Most likely you can set up to limit specific devices on the network – it’s done by MAC address so you’ll need that, and probably will have to set it up for all devices.

Can you plug a cable in for your evening usage? If so, you can then turn the Wi-Fi off (sometime this can be done automatically by the router at set times of the day).

It is (probably) the safest way unless there is 3G signal in the house in which case anything you do could cause a huge unexpected bill

Virgin superhub, which is a netgear of some sort allows you to broadcast multiple networks. You could put your son on the guest network and turn it off when you like.

Or tell him to come off the Internet or else he’s sleeping in the shed.

I believe talk talk do something called homework time not sure if it will help but worth a look see

I think the idea of using a guest network and shutting it off at certain times may be the easiest thing to achieve. Most wireless routers now support guest networks.

You may even find with a bit of clever know how you could script or scheduled the guest network times.

Something like a WRT-54 with the DD-WRT firmware would probably be ideal.

new router and guest network, otherwise it’s manually ticking the banned list by MAC address. Failing that remove phone and lock in cupboard

I have set my son’s laptop to shutdown between 21:00 & 08:00 every day.

Strange coincidence but we often do not see him until after 21:00

new router and guest network, otherwise it’s manually ticking the banned list by MAC address.

Not necessarily.

Ours lets you limit access by device and time, So the kids iPods turn off at 11pm, but everything else keeps working.

See if you can access your router through your browser.

The problem with that is that the device limit is by mac address and that’s easy to cheat

Easiest solution is a cheap second wifi access point with a timer. Needs to be an access point rather than a router so that he has access to any printers, streamed music etc. if you get a netgear one you may also be able to easily set up opendns to limit his porn to really underground stuff 🙁

thanks all – will explore!

My Airport Extreme lets me limit hours by mac address. I don’t think hacking to change mac address is all that straightforward on a phone and if you see him using it then he learnt something other than just messaging friends.

Would a wife controller not work better?