Wireless network parental control

[memphisbill]

Hi. I am looking for suggestions on the best way to control my son's access to the internet via my home wireless network. Not only would I like to control the times he is allowed to be online, I would like some way to remotely monitor his activity. Also, does anyone know of any software that restricts his ability to access any other wireless networks in the neighborhood? Thanks, Bill

[BipolarBill]

Many wireless routers have access control by MAC address. You haven't told us about your hardware. It would have to be by MAC address. The Linksys WRT53G offers this capability and it's cheap. Parental control is an extra cost option.

I don't know about monitoring activity. Frankly, I don't like it. Children need some freedom or you may force them into learning methods that they wouldn't otherwise need to know. You may be creating a hacker in forcing him to work around your limitations.

It's not up to you to prevent him from connecting to open networks - it's up to their owner. There's no way for you to do it anyway unless you cripple all of his capabilities by somehow forcing him to be a simple "User" on his own PC. He wouldn't be able to install software or hardware. That would be too limiting, but he wouldn't be able to connect to any networks - including yours.

[Tony2005]

Im not sure if your router has this but a few i've used before has. There is a time-out option in the router which will allow you set scheduled times for your son network access. I've never used this feature personally but you could always try