Disabling Broadband on STB

bewildered · 05-07-2004, 14:14

Hello everybody... long time lurker, first time poster etc. etc.

I have a question... is it possible to disable the broadband internet feed from the STB... thus preventing my son from using the internet all hours when he should be doing homework / sleeping / out dealing drugs

etc.

I know I could just pull the cable out of the back but I was wondering if there was a better (and less obvious) way of turning it off.

I'm in the Manchester NTL area and have a Pace STB.

Any help much appreciated.

altis · 05-07-2004, 14:22

You could fit a router such as the Netgear FWG114P that includes a time schedule. This only passes packets between configurable start and end times.

If you only have one PC then you could say that you are putting it there to stop worms getting in.

Manual:
ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/fwg114p_manualv2.pdf

Chris W · 05-07-2004, 14:32

The Linksys WRT54G has the same feature- you can disable access to the internet for certain computers or protocols at certain times of the day.

poolking · 05-07-2004, 15:06

My Belkin Router that has now been banished had the same option.

Dessimat0r · 05-07-2004, 17:50

Maybe you could use the scheduler service to deactivate some service which is important for internet access.

DeadKenny · 06-07-2004, 11:37

You can use firewall software to do it, but he could probably work out how to get around it.

MovedGoalPosts · 06-07-2004, 11:59

Not sure quite how you can do it, but I know that Windows XP was designed to allow each user to a PC to have different profiles. Provided your son doesn't have administrator rights (that has advantages to you as you control what is on the PC that he can use, but is a pain each and every time you have to load on the new stuff he gets that you do allow him to use), he can't change PC settings. Once you have admin setup, then you might be able to ration internet access through a control, perhaps scheduled tasks as said earlier, or services?

SMHarman · 06-07-2004, 12:24

I would fit a router as suggested above.

Now if you register the router as the primary MAC address associated with your property, rather than clone the PCs address, if he pulled the cable out of the router and connected it back to the PC then he still would not have access.

You can also provision the router to not allow specific site access with certain rules, even when he has permission to surf.

ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pdf/wrt54gv1.1_ug.pdf

The linksys instruction manual showing the various option on that product. Most of the competition are similar.