Keep my kid off my internet help

BlasphemousMusic

Distinguished
May 21, 2009
4
0
18,510
OK, so one of my kids, 13, has a problem with the internet. He goes everywhere hes not supposed to. They got ipads from school and for the first year they actually did ok with blocking things like FB and snapchat but hes finding ways to go where he wants. The ipad is to be used for school work, its not being done.

Anyway, we have a linksys router and I have put the parental controls on, hid my wifi password, and try to monitor them as best I can. When he comes home and has homework, I put in the wifi pass, undo the parental controls, and sign him on. When hes done, either I do it or I watch him make it forget the network.

Well, he found out how to get my wifi pass now. He goes into the internet settings, where the pass is he hits show characters and there it is. He does this on my wifes laptop. She has a passworded SS but its set to 10 mins. If she leaves to the bathroom, or even to smoke or something he gets on it.

Today, I found out he guessed my router pass and turned the parental controls off.

Long story short, are there any ways to disable the wifi from showing or require a pass to even get in there? If the ONLY way is to lock it for even getting up for 5 mins, then so be it, but we forget to to it and we really want a better way.
 
Solution
1. Change the Wifi password. Don't tell him what it is
2. Disable administration on the router via WiFi
3. Change the router admin username and password
4. After you lock down the router....parental rules on the router.
5.this is the main thing, and the hardest.......bolt the laptop to a central location in the house. Unlocked on his way out the door to school, relocked when he comes home.

modernwar99

Estimable
Jul 9, 2014
40
0
4,610
You can't prevent windows from showing the unmasked password in the control panel, unless you remove admin rights from your own account which would be pointless because you're the owner of the laptop. As from preventing him from getting into the router... no offense, but the password must be really obvious if a 13 year old can guess it... Change it to a password that only makes sense to you that he would have no chance of guessing.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator
1. Change the Wifi password. Don't tell him what it is
2. Disable administration on the router via WiFi
3. Change the router admin username and password
4. After you lock down the router....parental rules on the router.
5.this is the main thing, and the hardest.......bolt the laptop to a central location in the house. Unlocked on his way out the door to school, relocked when he comes home.
 
Solution

BlasphemousMusic

Distinguished
May 21, 2009
4
0
18,510
Thanks for "some" of the answers. Its not an easy one to guess, no one here could guess it OR brute force it. Its a common one I used to use that he tried and got. I didn't know he'd remember such a hard one from a while back.

This will be the third time this month I had to change my wifi pass. They don't know it, its random, and its not guessable. He got it due to the laptop. My wife uses her laptop on a desk by her couch and it is usually on.

If there is no way to prevent windows from showing it, locking it is the only way.

Also, I have a 2.4 and 5 ghz pass. Do the parental controls only work for the 2.4g one? I had it on, he was on the 5g one with no blocks.


Also, if I disabled admin via wifi, how would I be able to get in when I need it, being as all pc's are on wireless connections?
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator
If all PC's are wireless, then you're a little bit screwed. Most consumer grade routers have WiFi admin OFF by default. For a reason.

How to admin the router? Take your laptop over near the router, and connect to it via that short Cat5e cable you have plugged into the back.

The WiFi password to connect to the internet? Sure. That device needs that to connect to the outside world through the router.
But also, that is what parental controls in the router settings are for.

This device can only connect from X hour to Y hour, and can only go to A, B, and C.

And the user of that device cannot change that setting, because that cannot get into the router settings, because you have turned off admin by WiFi....