How do you take control of the modern wireless networked family home?

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FineWine

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Topic # 159979 18-Dec-2014 23:43

In this modern age of iDevices and connectivety many homes have an ever increasing number of wireless devices, various laptops, desktops, Mac Mini's, iPhones, iPads, iPods not to mention gaming consoles, smart tvs, Apple TV, printers; and in my relatives household it currently totals 18 such devices? (notice this is mainly an  Apple  household)

Increasingly he feels like he is loosing control and is keen to wrestle it back. The household is made up of mid & early teens, pre-teens and adults.

He would like to create a wireless home which allows each person in the household unique internet access which can be monitored and controlled (policed), ideally by iPhone App. Individual data and speed caps would be important along with logs to monitor usage and maybe alerts to flag inappropriate use.

He would appreciate any help, ideas etc.

Cheers

iMac 27" (late 2013), Airport Time Capsule + Airport Express, iPhone7, iPad6, iPad Mini2

Panasonic Blu-ray PVR DMR-BWT835 + Panasonic Viera TH-L50E6Z, Chromecast Ultra

nathan

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Reply # 1200268 19-Dec-2014 00:06

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parental controls are built into iOS

Get unlimited broadband so you don't have to worry about caps

charsleysa

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Reply # 1200272 19-Dec-2014 00:33

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If the teens are any good with computers (beyond using them) then good luck! The only way you'll be able to police them is to stand over them and watch their every single move.

The important question here is why you want to police them.

If you are worried about caps then upgrade to an unlimited connection.

If you're worried that they'll be looking at "stuff" on the net, then it's time you accepted the fact that you will never be able to stop them.

The easiest solution which provides a modicum of control is OpenDNS which basically allows you to block certain websites and such but anyone with a bit of networking knowledge will be able to get around it easily.

Regards
Stefan Andres Charsley

gnfb

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Reply # 1200274 19-Dec-2014 01:32

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Tell your mate we lost the battle years ago trying to control what our kids view? In the words of the great toheys Yeah Right!
If you control there access to "your" broadband they will just hack into someone else's try teaching the difference between right and wrong that might work ... Until they discover that what you think is right and wrong .... Isn't right?

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jonathan18

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Reply # 1200304 19-Dec-2014 07:56

nathan: parental controls are built into iOS

Parental controls in iOS suck the big kumara IMO - says a parent with two tablet-addicted young kids - unless, that is, the kids have their own exclusive devices. Even then, if the children own their own device, it's makes it more difficult to "take over" and remove access to particular apps ("who are you to tell me what I can do on my own device?").

With shared devices the iOS controls are next to useless - hiding the Youtube app from my three-year-old makes sense, as all he wants to do is watch videos of such enthralling things as people unwrapping Kinder Surprises, but my wife and I use the same iPad so also want to be able to use Youtube without having to go through the rigmarole of unhiding the app each time.

This is definitely a big tick for Android, given we have been able to set up an 'adult' account and 'entertainment' account (both with passwords the kids don't know) and then an 'edutainment' account the kids can access easily.

The quicker Apple adds user accounts to iOS the better, though going by that company's history there's never an assurance they'll make such sensible moves.

FineWine

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Reply # 1200318 19-Dec-2014 08:52

What do folks know about this product UniFi® AP and its software ?

iMac 27" (late 2013), Airport Time Capsule + Airport Express, iPhone7, iPad6, iPad Mini2

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nathan

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Reply # 1200868 19-Dec-2014 22:42

jonathan18:
nathan: parental controls are built into iOS

Parental controls in iOS suck the big kumara IMO - says a parent with two tablet-addicted young kids - unless, that is, the kids have their own exclusive devices. Even then, if the children own their own device, it's makes it more difficult to "take over" and remove access to particular apps ("who are you to tell me what I can do on my own device?").

With shared devices the iOS controls are next to useless - hiding the Youtube app from my three-year-old makes sense, as all he wants to do is watch videos of such enthralling things as people unwrapping Kinder Surprises, but my wife and I use the same iPad so also want to be able to use Youtube without having to go through the rigmarole of unhiding the app each time.

This is definitely a big tick for Android, given we have been able to set up an 'adult' account and 'entertainment' account (both with passwords the kids don't know) and then an 'edutainment' account the kids can access easily.

The quicker Apple adds user accounts to iOS the better, though going by that company's history there's never an assurance they'll make such sensible moves.

Parental controls work perfectly fine in iOS

Apple would rather you buy a device per user, iOS doesn't get security to handle multiuser. All the security vulns against lock screen passwords prove it is lipstick on a pig.

If you want a proper OS with multiuser and proper multitasking buy a Windows tablet or Android

richms

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Reply # 1200875 19-Dec-2014 22:51

FineWine: What do folks know about this product UniFi® AP and its software ?

They are quite good but if you want to start monitoring location then you need many of them as they wont give you anything other than signal strength on the current accesspoint to go by.

Not looked at anything to lock out devices by time etc, or if the controller needs to be running all the time to be able to do that or not.

But if you thinkl that you will stop teens getting porn with wifi controls, you are mistaken.

Richard rich.ms

wasabi2k

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Reply # 1200880 19-Dec-2014 23:07

Unifi APs with software is great for blocking/unblocking devices. We used it as a reasonably effective carrot/stick.

Can use python to schedule actions (block devices at 12:00AM, turn on at 7:00AM).

You could even setup a guest SSID - and have them "buy" vouchers to get internet access, which you approve.

tardtasticx

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Reply # 1200882 19-Dec-2014 23:11

Tell him to let them learn the hardware. Lord knows I have lol.
Trying to stop them doing things online will make them want to do it more and they'll be more proactive in hiding it too.

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