Family internet security

imokyrok

Christmas brought about a sizable expansion of wi fi devices in our home and I'm looking for advice about monitoring my children's access to the net as a result. They access the internet through laptops, web books , phones and ipod touch and keeping an eye on all of these access points is difficult. Is there any way to configure the router or one particular pc to monitor the others? Programmes like Net Nanny seems to be only suitable for individual installation and it doesn't cover phones and ipod touch.

Also should the phones and ipod touch devices have some sort of anti-virus software?

ntlbell

I personally don't think there's an easy soloution to this.

If they're old enough to own phone's and laptop's then they should be old enough for a sit down and a talk and educate them on the useage rather than trying to prevent it.

If they're not old enough to be sat down and spoken to then they shouldn't be allowed laptop's etc, they should be using a central pc in a room where you can monitor the useage yourself.

If they have phone's that can access the internet there's a good chance they can access it by passing the router/access points.

Education is the way to go.

nobeastsofierce

http://lifehacker.com/400513/turn-opendns-into-a-parental-filter

Change the DNS Settings on your router, and it can be a one-size-fits-all filter

ntlbell

nobeastsofierce wrote: »

http://lifehacker.com/400513/turn-opendns-into-a-parental-filter

Change the DNS Settings on your router, and it can be a one-size-fits-all filter

They'll just assign their isp dns server's locally which will by-pass the filter.

Kids tend to be more technical than their parents.

imokyrok

nobeastsofierce wrote: »

http://lifehacker.com/400513/turn-opendns-into-a-parental-filter

Change the DNS Settings on your router, and it can be a one-size-fits-all filter

Thanks for that link. It looks interesting and I'll study it further. So far I'm still a bit more tech savvy than my offspring so it may do the trick. At the moment I just keep checking the histories from time to time. I know my 18 year old accesses some iffy sites but hell - he wouldn't be normal if he didn't but I don't want the youngest ( age 11) accidentally stumbling on the those sites which nearly happened today on his ipod touch. I think big bro must have have been using it and didn't wipe the history although he denies it.

Maybe I'll put a query in the apple section specifically to see if anyone has found an app they recommend for security etc on the ipod touch.

nobeastsofierce

ntlbell wrote: »

They'll just assign their isp dns server's locally which will by-pass the filter.

Kids tend to be more technical than their parents.

Absolutely, or they can just go to the offending website using the ip address rather than the url. I shouldn't have made it appear it was so 100% foolproof, but not much is unless you really lock down their machine

biko

Depending on your router you can block websites in there, it'll affect all the laptops, notebooks etc that uses it.

Or even create an opendns account and in that block everything. You then point the router to that account and password protect the router from your kids.
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/tools/013008open_dns.htm

ntlbell

Magnus wrote: »

Depending on your router you can block websites in there, it'll affect all the laptops, notebooks etc that uses it.

Or even create an opendns account and in that block everything. You then point the router to that account and password protect the router from your kids.
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/tools/013008open_dns.htm

As stated all ready, locking the router won't make any difference.

One, they can simply reset the router and without constantly checking the OP wouldn't know.

Secondly they don't need to change back the DNS on the router, they can simply change the DNS settings on their local Laptop/pc/device to use their own ISP DNS which will bypass the OpenDNS.