My son is on his computer all hours of the night how do i block just his laptop so me and my wife can go on???

Question

My son is on his computer all hours of the night how can i block his laptop so me and my wife can use ours still is there some type of program???

i use a linskys wireless internet router

i need something easy like a program and i dont want to buy a new router

also
i cant take it away from him he keeps it locked to his desk and i cant take the battery or power supply away because hes got like three batterys and 4 power supplys i need some type of program and i cant install anything on his laptop because then hell know somethings up plus theres a password on it that we dont know

we all can be on but i want to shut him off and still be able to go on at night...is there some kind of program that will alert me when he gets on???????

Answer 1

You can make him give it to you. Youre his parent's.Then add parental controls on his unit. There are some in vista that include time and type of content. You can also add third party programs. You could Make him a limited user on his machine. You can go into the router and turn off his connection at its mac address. You could change the password at a time when you want him off. Or you could turn off wireless and use a cat5 cable to your wifes comp. Yes, we should give our kids freedom of expression, but their health and well being are our responsibilities as parents. Yes its is a great goal to have a freiendly relationship with our kids, but we're parents FIRST. And if they dont like it now, too bad. They'll thank us when their 25. If I wre you, I would view the files in his limewire library, I'll bet it's not music. It's not to hurt him, it's to help him be healthy. And yes, you CAN take it away from him or you can put him on restriction. If you cant take away his computer, how are you going to be able to take away the car keys? If you dont teach him cause and effect, action and consequence now, he will grow up without an ability to succeed in the world. If youo dont teach him to grow up, you'd better expect him to live at home and hit you up for money for the rest of your life.

I know I'm going to get thumbs down from all the teenagers on the page, but the truth is the truth.


***edit*** wow, in reading the responses, it looks like alot of people, including young people are saying that they expect parents to be parents. Looks like we raised a better generation than I thought. My appologies to all you bright young ones out there!

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

At the risk of sounding mean, if you cannot wrestle the computer from him I doubt there is anything that can be done. Any measures you take he will counter. If he is 16 or younger I would cut the cable and remove the computer. It sounds like he is spoiled. If he is 17 or older give him a choice. Comply or get out.
I have twins 8 and a 14 yr old. they are not allowed to lock anything in the house. I make my 14 yr old sit and watch me inspect here room. As kids you are responsible. With that said you set the rules. When they have their own place they can do as they like but in your house you should have the last say in all matter.

Answer 4

How old is your son and what is your contention?

There are programs that you can install without his knowledge. EBlast is one of them. It will record and send to your email address everything he is doing on his computer. It does not prevent him from doing anything, but does email you of his content. You will have to access his computer to install it and it is not free (about $99). If you do buy and install it, he will have no way to know it is there.

As a secondary solution, you can use the original Windows disk and reinstall Windows. This will obliterate the password and allow you to create one, or none at all. If you do this, save his emails in and out in a file so you can retrieve them after installation. You will have to store them on the secondary disk. This is an Importing and Exporting method. See the Help section for specific instructions. You can also transfer or copy his icons to the second disk and then copy them back to the C drive desktop and he will not know that you have done this.

Saving all programs on the "D" drive will allow you to install Windows again. It will obliterate all programs from the "C" drive, but will also allow you to restore them back to the "C" drive from the "D" drive once you have reinstalled Windows.

A better solution would be to confront him, demand the password and limit his usage if it is objectionable to you.

Let me know if I can help your further.

Answer 5

Are you trying to keep him offline during ceartain times???

If so and if you have a newer version of the linksys router then you can open an Internet Explorer window and in the address bar type in: 192.168.1.1 a box will come up asking for a password to access the router's settings.... refer to your users manual or linksys.com site on how to change it and what the default password is if you haven't changed it.....

In the settings look for a tab that says: Access Restrictions - this allows you to set controls for the internet to be allowed on ceartain days and times for ceartain computers on the network without effecting other computers..... This will allow him to use the internet when you allow him to... and no software needs installed on his computer.... etc.....

How old is your son?? And why does he have it locked to his desk..... If I did that when I was younger I wouldn't have a laptop anymore.....

Anyways hope this helps..... keep us posted on the results.....

Answer 6

Well if you are willing you can manually disallow his IP or MAC address in the router configuration each night. I think newer linksys routers allow you to set a time table for certain MAC address connections. If you want to get a little more advanced you can install an alternate firmware for your router if it is supported (don't ask linksys, they will say no). Check out http://www.dd-wrt.com/
This would allow you to do more advanced setup and perhaps disallow his connection on a timer. I wouldn't bother trying to use a program installed on his laptop as most kids can be quite resourceful and he would probably find a way to circumvent it.

Answer 7

Anthony,

I don't know of any reason that you and your wife can't be online at the same time as your son. If you have a wireless router and more than one computer, they can all be online at the same time (just like the internet cafe).

Also, I don't know how old your son is, but as long as he lives under your roof, you should have some say about his computer usage (at least that's the way it used to be), but don't let me tell you what to do about that.

Answer 8

can't you just tell him not to get on it? I mean does he pay for it?

If you have wireless on your laptop (or if you have a pc, you'll have to get a linksys pc wireless card) then you should be able to tap into it. Unless he has some kind of security put on it. But if his is connected wirelessly...then what would be the point in taking it away? Wireless means anyone with wireless can get on. It's automatically shared, it's not like dialup.

If he has some kind of password to access the wireless connection, then as your child who is living off of you, he should give it to you. Weild the iron fist, as they say.

Answer 9

you should be able to have all computers hooked up and get on the internet at the same tme. but you need to install and adapter to the other computer.. im assuming your son has wifi or somehing allowing him to access the internet .... go down to your local staples they should be able to assist you.

My dad has the linskys wireless router also and he has 5 computers in his home 2 labtops and 3 pc's and they all are linked together threw the router. it can be done and you can be on them all at one time.

Answer 10

You really need to take a little more control. If your son will not listen to you the first time then you need to enforce punishments on him. Go buy a pair of lock cutters and snap the chain off.