WiFi restrictions and limitations

Jack Cook7 said:Good grief, did you seriously just broadcast your router's admin password to the entire internet, or has my eyesight finally gone from "blurry" to "completely blind"? 😁

I think you might have misread me there... that wasn't actually my real password, just a quick little example to show you what I mean. My point was really just that I don't use something basic like 12345678; instead, I go with a random mix of letters, numbers, and special characters. Honestly, I know I can be a bit of a scatterbrain sometimes, but I promise I'm not quite that crazy!

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Jack Alvarez said:I appreciate the heads-up, but this might actually help limit my teenager's access to the signal strength... the goal is to have home internet for other devices while making sure she can't connect her phone... unless there's a better way. I assume she’d need to "crack" the router password to change settings or figure out which MAC addresses are whitelisted so she could spoof them on her iPhone (is that even possible)? She isn't exactly an IT expert, though she did manage to find the WiFi password on a connected laptop via Google because she needed it for school

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I had kids trying something similar back in the day. I managed to break through.
BIOS passwords, web access, all that stuff.

Honestly, that feels like something from a different century; times have changed so much since then. Nowadays, you could practically leave a teenager home alone for three days with a fridge packed full of groceries and they’d still starve because there isn't anyone around to...
...check in on them to make sure they actually eat, or
...serve them a proper meal.
I'm going to keep an eye on how things develop, and if she manages to set up the MAC filter—which is a win in itself, whether she ends up using it or not, because the effort counts—then we can move on to the next stage. Everyone else has decent signal strength, but our teenager is stuck at Level 2.
By the way...what exactly is Level 3? I need to go hit the books so I'm fully prepared when the right moment rolls around.

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William Palmer7 said:there's always been plenty of snake oil salesmen in this industry.

Always been?

Man, the whole industry is just one big snake oil operation.

Jack Alvarez said:Man, that was totally last century. Times have changed... nowadays teenagers will literally starve to death if you leave them home alone for three days with a fridge packed full of food... because there's nobody there...
1. to check in on them and make sure they actually eat
2. to serve them on a silver platter
I'm gonna keep an eye on things, and if I can track down the MAC filter (at least she managed to pull that off... whether she actually uses it or not doesn't matter... the effort is what counts), then we'll move up to the next stage... everyone's got signal, but this teenager doesn't even have Signal strength Level 3.
BTW... what even is Level 3? Let me go hit the books so when the moment strikes, I'm ready.

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Hehe, look at this smart dad checking the logs to see how his kids are leeching off the home router. 😬

This is gonna be good! *rubs hands together*

There's no "Level 3." A "Level" is just the access security for any device based on the login—ranges from 0 to 15. Usually, Level 0 is a user, 2 is read-only, and 15 is root.

You can redefine any level you want.

Of course, a kid could also ask this just to mess with his old man. 🤣

William Palmer7 said:Man, I tried doing stuff like that back when I was just a kid. Honestly? I totally cracked them.
BIOS passwords, cybercrime stuff, you name it...

See?!

Most routers let you set limits on which devices can get online and when...
You can also grab some parental control apps to tighten things up.

But kids? They’ll always find a way to hijack a hotspot or leech off the neighbor's signal...

George Murphy12 said:Most routers let you set some ground rules—like deciding which device gets online when, or just capping how much total screen time they get.
Plus, there are tons of parental control apps out there that handle most of that heavy lifting.

But honestly? Kids are smart. They’ll always find a way to hunt down a random hotspot or sneak onto the neighbor's WiFi if they have to...

Only if you actually let them.

Jack Cook7 said:Right on!

Did he just realize cybercrime was a thing, or did the realization change him? :-)

William Palmer7 said:It’s like, did they realize cybercrime was a thing after they joined, or did joining make them realize it? :-)

Sounds like you guys hopped online right after things turned sour, so you basically walked straight into a trap.

My generation was already out there before all this mess started, so sorry we didn't know what we were getting into! 😁

It looks like you're stuck in the same mess.

Nah, I really am not.

I’ve seen this whole thing play out before. I gave my warnings, stepped back, and now I’m just sitting on the sidelines watching the current rush right past me.

And honestly? It actually makes me smile when, amidst that endless river flowing from nowhere to absolutely nothing, a few old friends float by and wave. It’s nice to know they haven't forgotten me.

Well, that’s exactly why you’re here.

William Palmer7 said:Yeah, well, that’s exactly why you’re hanging out here.

You aren't wrong about that.

Jack Cook7 said:Haha, a smart dad keeps an eye on those logs just to see how the kids are piggybacking off the home router.

Honestly, I don't even need to go that deep... a quick glance at my phone tells me everything I need to know based on whether I see the WiFi icon or the LTE one.
She’s got her own 24GB a month of LTE data, but that doesn't amount to much when you want to be scrolling through TikTok, Snapchat, and all that stuff 24/7. If she tries to handle any important tasks while dealing with massive ping spikes—or if things just stall out until she finally hits ENTER, if you catch my drift—well, I tend to lean toward automation. I like to set things up once so they run according to protocol without me having to lift a finger unless I decide to change the code.
It isn't about handing down heavy, life-altering responsibilities; it's really more of a matter of principle. If my teenager can't remember to take out the trash without being prompted—and then gives me that classic eye roll when I do remind her—then... well, then we're looking at a MAC filter. Because, let's face it, for a teenager these days, WiFi is the real currency.

George Murphy12 said:But kids will always find some hotspot to jump on, or they'll just try to snag access from the neighbors...

Let her look for a hotspot all she wants, but there aren't any roaming around her room since she basically lives in there unless she absolutely has to come out. It sounds like you might not fully grasp what today's teenagers are like!
As for the neighbor thing, they'd sooner die than actually ask a neighbor for their password. They won't say a single word to anyone unless it's one of the other three teenagers in their social circle. I don't know, maybe American teenagers are just built differently than kids over in Europe.
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If this doesn't work out, you might want to look into getting some more heavy-duty gear, like a MikroTik router. With one of those, you can basically do whatever you want:

• for instance, you could set it up so when she connects to the home network, she doesn't even get an IP address from the DHCP (so she’ll show as connected, but she's actually blocked)
• you can use the firewall to micromanage what she can or can't access
• or just throttle her speed to something like 500 KB/s so when she complains about "the internet being super slow," she might just give up on it😁
• another option is setting up a guest hotspot on the router where she’d have to enter a username and password just to get online—kind of like at a Starbucks—so she'll have to come to you to ask for the login info

And since I know you're big on automation, you could even schedule specific times of day when the WiFi is available and when it's totally blocked off.

Just some food for thought. If you're feeling a little mischievous, there's endless ways to get creative with how you control access.😁

I don't think we're really here to talk shop about technical specs.

Christian Morris80 said:

• that once they connect to the home network, they don't get an IP address from the DHCP at all (even though they're connected, they're effectively blocked)

You could probably achieve this on a standard router just by disabling DHCP.
It would stop any casual user from grabbing a valid IP address.

Jack Alvarez said:So she's looking for a hotspot, but there isn't one in her room because she only ever leaves that cave when she absolutely has to... clearly you guys don't know how American teens live these days...
And what about the neighbors... I’d sooner die than ask my neighbor for the Wi-Fi password... I don't trust anyone, especially not those three teenagers they hang out with all day... maybe American teens are just built different than those kids over in Europe...
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Look, generally speaking, if you’ve got a phone on you, you can always find a hotspot... near a high school, in some hallway, even on the bus... and if you don't? You just borrow someone else's. We were all kids once, we figured out how to dodge the rules... 🙂

I don't hand anything over in person until the work is actually done and my chores are out of the way... it’s like a little reward for getting stuff finished...

I’m dying to see the next part where the kid absolutely destroys his old man again.

The future belongs to the youth. 🤣

Man, when I think about the absolute chaos we used to cause as kids, I can't help but laugh my head off.

Honestly, it’s no wonder older folks are going bald. They’ve probably pulled half their hair out just dealing with us.

- They did THAT again!
- Who?
- Tvoyiz and his crew!
- God almighty, the kid is a total menace!
- Well, you're the one who had him.
- Oh, right. True. Guess I'll just go sit here and pull my hair out then.
- Hey, don't leave a mess on the floor, someone’s gotta sweep it up.
- Fine, I'm heading to the park. At least there I can pull my hair out and cry in peace.
- Sounds good, grab those fourteen bags of trash on your way out.