Dave said:
would anyone know of a tool in XP to use to shut the internet conection
down
at a designated time? We have a computer downstairs for our daughter and
she
likes to chat a little to late into the evening.
I need my daughter to shut it down at 10
m
Is there a tool in windows to set something like this up?
Your NAT router, with its built-in firewall-like functionality, may have an
option to schedule when each host (based on its MAC address) can access the
Internet or any other hosts on your local network. If the scheduling for
access is based on the IP address of the host then you need to use static IP
addressing instead of dynamic IP addressing; otherwise, you won't be sure
who has what IP address. Under Windows XP, it is possible to change the
software-reported MAC address (so it is different than what the MAC address
encoded into the NIC would normally report). So instead of defining when a
particular host by its MAC address cannot access the Internet, you would
define when all the other hosts can have access (and any other host has no
access).
Another solution would be to put the router in YOUR room, in the living
room, or anywhere exceopt her room. Then just power it off at 10PM or just
unplug her cable if you still need to use your computer after that time. If
she turns it on or plugs her cable back in without permission or outside
authorized hours then she gets punished. Of course, you could put the cable
modem and NAT router in a locked box or closet, but then I have to wonder
who is training whom.
Yet another solution is to put her computer in a public room, like the
living room, where her use is monitored (i.e., she can't hide in her room
chatting or visiting bad sites without being exposed while doing it). If
her computer isn't in her room then she can secrete her unauthorized use of
it behind a closed door.
If you are concerned about her chatting after 10PM (and not trusting her to
comply with your rules and are not interesting in engendering trust), and
since you want to use technology to enforce your parenting, then you
probably should also be concerned as to WHERE she can browse. The NAT
router probably has a logfile of connections so you could check where she
went, but that doesn't stop her from going there until after the fact and
only if you punish her (but then you are trying to use technology as the
punisher). So you might want to look into censorware which restricts where
she can connect and when. However, anything you install on her computer can
be thwarted. Censoring only works if it is perform upstream of her host on
another host to which she has no access, including no physical access.
<sermonette>
Before the days of cable boxes with parental controls, before the Net got
common, I have to wonder what all those parents did to make their children
comply with their rules. Apparently parenting is now something left up to
technology to handle, punishment is taboo or takes too much effort, and
rewarding compliance and engendering trust is too expensive. Yeah, they're
kids, but just what kind of adults are you trying to mould them into? Into
those who figure if there are no physical restrictions then it's okay?
</sermonette>
