Home Networking Basic Controls

by | Apr 17, 2015 | online, tips & tricks |

Take your child’s cell phone at night and charge it in your bedroom. This ensures it is fully charged the next day, and it prevents them from making phone calls, texting, or using the cellular connection to bypass wifi restrictions. Run two different wifi networks, one for the adults and one for the child(ren). Many routers are capable of this and are labelled “Simultaneous dual-band 2.4 & 5GHz” router. NETGEAR is the brand I have had the best luck with over the years. I use this router: Netgear Smart Wifi Router AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit (R6300 v2) This router will actually run 4 networks, 2 regular and 2 guest. In order to enable certain restrictions, you must use the 2 regular networks, NOT the guest networks. When you set up your router, you will want to: Create the 2.4GHz network as the child’s network. I would recommend broadcasting the SSID to make it easier for you to determine if the network is online or not. Protect it with a WPA2 password (Others are too easy for a savvy kid to crack) that is okay to tell your child. Create the 5.0GHz network as the adult network. I would recommend NOT broadcasting the SSID to avoid tempting the child to crack it. Protect it with a WPA2 password that is easy for you to remember but could not be guessed by the child. Create an OpenDNS account (https://www.opendns.com) and follow instructions on how to set it up for your router. If you have a NETGEAR Router, the “Parental Controls” (http://www.netgear.com/lpc) are exactly the OpenDNS controls set up in a different...