Can I tell if son is online?

BungleGirl

iwanttosave wrote:

alritght then MEKO take the blinking moniter.

I would do that! When I was a kid my sister used to play her music too loud and not listen when she was told to turn it down, or she would turn it down and then gradually turn it back up. One day she came home from school to find the plug had been removed fron the stero cable.

My theory is that if you let them get away with it they will continue to do so, but his dad doesn't see things the same way as I do

BungleGirl

He is 15, he spends nearly every minute of the time he is at home on his computer either talking on MSN or on a war game thing where you talk to other people. I really object to this but can't get his dad to do anything about it, at most he will be strict for a couple of days and then let it slide.

iwanttosave_2

BungleGirl wrote:

I would do that! When I was a kid my sister used to play her music too loud and not listen when she was told to turn it down, or she would turn it down and then gradually turn it back up. One day she came home from school to find the plug had been removed fron the stero cable.

My theory is that if you let them get away with it they will continue to do so, but his dad doesn't see things the same way as I do

Its what I would do, would teach him.

And I agree with you

albertross_2

Probably 90% of 15 year olds are doing exactly the same thing. I wouldn't be too harsh on him, it will only create bad blood between you, and at least he's not doing drugs, or robbing cars for fun (at least I hope not).

BungleGirl

albertross wrote:

Probably 90% of 15 year olds are doing exactly the same thing. I wouldn't be too harsh on him, it will only create bad blood between you, and at least he's not doing drugs, or robbing cars for fun (at least I hope not).

Is that you Chris, you told me you were working tonight, I can't beleive you have a secret life of your own on MSE!

:rotfl:

You sound just like my OH!!!

I told him that we shouldn't download any music from the net anymore after the thread on here about someone (not a heavy user) getting done for it in this country, I heard OH ask if he had downloaded anything since then and he said he had downloaded about 60 songs and OH just said 'oh right', I think he should uninstall Limewire as if he gets done for it it is me that will have to pay the fine but OH doesn't think that is ncessary - what is the point of having Limewire if you are not downloading anything!!!

PS Can I block Limewire on the netgear thingy aswell?

scheming_gypsy

if you block Limewire he'll use torrents, if you block that he'll use something else, block that and so on..

BungleGirl

I didn't think of that scheming_gypsy, I guess I will have to give up on that then. I can't get my head around the static IP thing at the moment so I think I will have a look at it again in the morning when I have caught up on some much needed sleep.

Thanks for all your help guys, and thanks for reminding me of my sisters face the day she realised that her stereo no longer had a plug on it - I will have to remind her of that when I see her tomorrow!

albertross_2

How did you know my name ? hehe..

I sympathise with your predicament, step relationships can be the most difficult to handle, especially if the OH doesn't agree or back you up. It is also a difficult age for your step son, but he is almost old enough to pay tax, so I would allow a bit of slack, provided he stays this side of the law, does his homework, and goes to bed at a reasonable time.

It's none of my business, but if his bedtime is supposed to be 11 then you could block sites from 11.30, just to make sure, then he has half an hour of slack.

In answer to your technical point, you can block anything, either by keyword in the url or by individual ports used in the application. You need to make sure that you have set a router password to something unique (http://192.168.0.1 and click set password), and don't tick remember password in IE, otherwise he will probably run rings around you once you start blocking things.

As scheming gypsy says, he will find another way of downloading music, but there is no harm in trying if you are worried about the potential legal and financial consequences. He is old enough to appreciate why you are doing it..

looby75

see this is where lap tops are so good! My dd has a lap top in her room and if I think she is OL when she shouldn't be I simply go and remove the laptop and put it in my room. Problem solved. I know laptops are more expensive than desktop pc's but IMO they are worth every penny for that reason alone

albertross_2

you need to do the reverse of this..

http://portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/Netgear/DG834G/Limewire.htm

i.e. add an inbound/outbound rule, and "block always" the ports used by limewire

http://www.pcquest.com/content/p2p/102091201.asp

It is also important to disable upnp on the router.., but that may stop some of his other applications (games etc.) working unless you manually setup port forwarding for them. If you haven't done any portforwarding on the router, limewire is probably using plug an play, and taking the tick out of the upnp box on the router will stop it working.