Cable Forum - View Single Post - How to stop WIFI access to/from selected laptops/PCs?

resander · 31-05-2014, 14:53

Using a Superhub 2 in the living room that feeds two desktop PCs on the ground floor using wired cable connections and 4 laptops on the second floor using wifi.

Two of the laptops on the second floor are used by our children and I want to stop them using wifi during the night, but not any of the other computers. I have caught them too many times using internet 2 or 3am and that is not good for health or academic performance the next day.

I have no experience of blocking wifi, so googled a bit. Some matching threads suggested using MAC address filtering provided by the Superhub to disable access to the MAC addresses of the childrens laptops.

Q1. how do I find the MAC addresses of their laptops? Their laptops run Windows 7 and Ubuntu and using them requires passwords that I do not know. Can I get their MAC addresses from the router. How? Only I know the password to the router, so if I can block night wifi access they would not be able to to restore their MAC addresses from the router.

BUT

Q2. someone told me a router reset would reenable all mac addresses. Is this so?
Then this method would be useless because the children would soon figure it out and sneak down to the router and press the reset button. Cannot physically stop them doing that because the door to the living room is not lockable.

Moving the router to our bedroom would stop them resetting the router during the night, but this would require a lot or recabling - house Virgin access point to router and desktop pcs to the router and that is too big job for me and might even impact speed or performance.
So, I want to leave the Superhub in the living room where it is now to feed the desktop PCs on the ground floor and maybe use another router/modem with the Superhub in modem mode for wifi access to the second floor assuming the other router/modem supports MAC address filtering. The house is getting 120mbs Virgin broadband and I would not want to lose wifi performance by using an unsuitable router/modem.

Q3. would this method make it harder/impossible for the children to unblock their wifi and continue during the night?
Q4. if so, what router/modem should I get?

Q5. any other ways to do the blocking?

Ken

31-05-2014, 14:53	#1
resander Inactive Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: East London Services: BB:100Mb TV:XL+SkySports&ESPN Phone:M Posts: 43	How to stop WIFI access to/from selected laptops/PCs? Using a Superhub 2 in the living room that feeds two desktop PCs on the ground floor using wired cable connections and 4 laptops on the second floor using wifi. Two of the laptops on the second floor are used by our children and I want to stop them using wifi during the night, but not any of the other computers. I have caught them too many times using internet 2 or 3am and that is not good for health or academic performance the next day. I have no experience of blocking wifi, so googled a bit. Some matching threads suggested using MAC address filtering provided by the Superhub to disable access to the MAC addresses of the childrens laptops. Q1. how do I find the MAC addresses of their laptops? Their laptops run Windows 7 and Ubuntu and using them requires passwords that I do not know. Can I get their MAC addresses from the router. How? Only I know the password to the router, so if I can block night wifi access they would not be able to to restore their MAC addresses from the router. BUT Q2. someone told me a router reset would reenable all mac addresses. Is this so? Then this method would be useless because the children would soon figure it out and sneak down to the router and press the reset button. Cannot physically stop them doing that because the door to the living room is not lockable. Moving the router to our bedroom would stop them resetting the router during the night, but this would require a lot or recabling - house Virgin access point to router and desktop pcs to the router and that is too big job for me and might even impact speed or performance. So, I want to leave the Superhub in the living room where it is now to feed the desktop PCs on the ground floor and maybe use another router/modem with the Superhub in modem mode for wifi access to the second floor assuming the other router/modem supports MAC address filtering. The house is getting 120mbs Virgin broadband and I would not want to lose wifi performance by using an unsuitable router/modem. Q3. would this method make it harder/impossible for the children to unblock their wifi and continue during the night? Q4. if so, what router/modem should I get? Q5. any other ways to do the blocking? Ken