Access Point / Gateway that locks wi-fi by Time

championc

Hi all,

Does anyone know of any wi-fi routers / access points / gateways which will allow access locked to specific MAC addresses, locked to particular times of day ?

I have seen some which you can set up user profiles which allow users to be tied down to Time of Day but this means that each user gets a user-id and password whereas I am looking to simply limit known devices (by their MAC Addresses) to particular times of day. With kids returning to school soon, I'm anxious to stop them being able to access the web (Facebook and Email and Texting ......) from phones while they are meant to be studying or doing homework. My intention would be to give them maybe an hour or two every evening and then all day Sat and Sun.


C

Sponge Bob

If you can load DD-WRT on the router then the router usually has a linux kernel innit

You may set CRON based QoS and interface shutdown and powerons, in tandem even.

See here http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Quality_of_Service#Time_Based_QoS

championc

Sponge Bob wrote: »

If you can load DD-WRT on the router then the router usually has a linux kernel innit

You may set CRON based QoS and interface shutdown and powerons, in tandem even.

See here http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Quality_of_Service#Time_Based_QoS

Thanks but that won't work because I will need access from some devices while others will be hopefully denied. So the only way I see things working the way I want is by having Denial based on Time of Day tied to individual MAC Addresses


C

vibe666

championc wrote: »

Thanks but that won't work because I will need access from some devices while others will be hopefully denied. So the only way I see things working the way I want is by having Denial based on Time of Day tied to individual MAC Addresses


C

you can (sort of) do this with the tomato firmware that works on most linksys (and some others, asus, netgear, buffalo etc.) routers

i just checked mine and you can either totally disable wirless on a schedule, or deny internet access to specific machines (or all machines except specifically excluded ones) on a schedule.

it won't completely disallow wireless access, but it will prevent them from using the internet, although if you are really determined, i'm sure it's possible to do what you want with some scripts in tomato, although you'll need to head over to linksysinfo.org to speak to the developers and more geeky users of the firmware to get more info on how exactly to do it.

championc

vibe666 wrote: »

or deny internet access to specific machines (or all machines except specifically excluded ones) on a schedule.

This is Exactly what I want to do. Sorry if I didn't make it clear on my posting. Just to check, by specific machines, are they specified by Mac Address ?


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FSL

I did exactly what you want on a Netgear WGR614. I think I set the router to allocate specific IP addresses to the children's computers and turned off network access at a specific time.

It didn't matter whether they were connecting by cable or WIFI.

howamidifferent

The standard Vodafone router issued allows this. The home gateway....

championc

FSL wrote: »

I did exactly what you want on a Netgear WGR614. I think I set the router to allocate specific IP addresses to the children's computers and turned off network access at a specific time.

It didn't matter whether they were connecting by cable or WIFI.

And different ones can be shut off at different times ?


C

vibe666

championc wrote: »

This is Exactly what I want to do. Sorry if I didn't make it clear on my posting. Just to check, by specific machines, are they specified by Mac Address ?


C

yes, by MAC address or IP.

as long as you don't mind that they will still have wifi connected to give them local network access (without internet access) it should work fine for you.

i assume that what you want to do is to knock off the kids internet access at a certain time in the evening so they go to sleep but still allow yourself and the wife to surf the net after the kids are in bed?

championc

vibe666 wrote: »

yes, by MAC address or IP.

as long as you don't mind that they will still have wifi connected to give them local network access (without internet access) it should work fine for you.

i assume that what you want to do is to knock off the kids internet access at a certain time in the evening so they go to sleep but still allow yourself and the wife to surf the net after the kids are in bed?

Spot on. Phones with wi-fi are very easy to hide in the bed and are too quiet !!! At some stage down the line when I have a DNLA server working 24 x 7 then i'll worry about access to Lan devices.

A final question - I assume you are using the WRG614 inside your main router and just like an Access Point ? I suppose that many of the Netgears then possibly have this functionality too ???


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FSL

championc wrote: »

And different ones can be shut off at different times ?


C

No you can set a schedule for blocking and a list of IPs /services to block. You can't (at least on mine) set a different schedule for different IPs/services. You can block different services per IP but only one schedule.

vibe666

championc wrote: »

A final question - I assume you are using the WRG614 inside your main router and just like an Access Point ? I suppose that many of the Netgears then possibly have this functionality too ???

no, i have the thompson router that UPC give out with the 100mbps and 50mbps connections which i've put my own router (a linksys e3000 running a modified version of the tomato v1.28 3rd party firmware) into the DMZ of and am using that for my LAN, so the thompson modem/router has everything turned off and is just acting as a modem, more or less.

championc

I had a lucky break. I found an old Telefonica router that I had acquired - a Comtrend CT-5361 which turns out to be a Linux based unit. I've now flashed it with OpenWRT and then added a package called MIA - Mom's Internet Assistant. You specify every device by Mac, give it a name / desc and then decide if it's limited or unlimited. If limited, you then get a week planner with boxes every 30 mins. For these 30 min periods, you turn them either red or green to deny or allow.

You can edit any schedule so very handy on Bank Holidays to open up a day or if a child needs to be taught a small lesson - jump in and start blocking !!!


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