Restricting internet access

[kingarjan]

Hello.

I have a desktop pc and two laptops wirelessly connected to each other. The desktop is the ISP and is not wirelessly connected to the network, but wired. All three run on windows xp, they all have internet connectivity and are all able to share files, folders and printers.

My question is this...is there any way the desktop pc can control the other two laptop's access to the internet. Basically, is there any way of cutting their internet connection off?

Actually, what i really want to do is this; one of the laptops if my daughter's and the other is my son's. So i'm looking for the ability to prevent them accessing the internet on their laptops, and not in a way that would prevent them both at the same time. I want to be able to do this from my desktop pc, and be able to allow and disallow internet access as and when i say so from my desktop pc.

hope i made that clear

[Wolfeymole]

Hi King

Welcome to TCF

Are you set as full Administrator and what User Rights assignments have you allowed the kids?

More on Access Rights here and here

[kingarjan]

I'm not sure what you mean.

On the desktop pc we have a user account each, and mine is set as administrator, with rest being set to limited.

But on the wireless network i haven't done anything that has made me aware that the desktop is the administrator, or asked me what "rights" to give the laptops.

[Wolfeymole]

How are they getting onto the net unless via a router or via networked from your main pc?

[kingarjan]

The laptops have in-built 802.11g network adaptors. The desktop shares its internet connection over a home network. We use a linksys router.

[Wolfeymole]

Have you read the links I provided?

[kingarjan]

yeah i did, but i couldn't find anything about when the computers are seperate from each other, only how to do it on a single desktop - which i've already done.

[Wolfeymole]

Have a look at this King
If this does not help then I would ask that you bear with us until Dave (Site owner and Admin) comes online and he will help you further.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306126/EN-US/

[kingarjan]

i'm afraid that didn't help. That just told me how to share my desktop's internet with the laptops, which i have already done. What i want to do is to be able to, from my desktop, block either laptops internet access. Here is a scenario.

I'm on the desktop. My sons playing an internet game on his laptop. My daughter should be doing her homework, but has become incredibly distracted by the world wide web and messengers. In this situation, i need to be able to disconnect her from the internet, but allow myself and my son to still have access to the internet. It's no good doing something on her laptop to prevent her getting online, she's pretty pc literate - so you see i need it to be fully controled from the desktop pc.

[XCalibre]

Okay so how are the notebooks connected to your desktop? Or do they connect directly to the router via their onboard wireless?

[XCalibre]

Oh and I need to know what router you are using exactly, what model etc. Some routers have build in firewalls, acl's etc. and are quite configurable. You can always turn dhcp off on the router and manually input static ip's into each notebooks wireless ip configuration (just leave out the default gateway) that way they will be able to use the network but not the internet.

[kingarjan]

We have a home wireless network that allows the desktop and 2 laptops to share printer capabilities and file sharing.

The router is set up as follows. An ethernet cable leads out of the cable modem into the back of the router. Another ethernet cable leads out of the back of the router and into the desktop pc. I don't know if the laptops connect to the pc or router, all i know is that they are wirelessly connected. They each have a symbol in the tray, that when the cursor is hovering over it reads, "wireless network connection". The desktop pc does not have that symbol, or a "wireless network connection" in the network connections folder.

[kingarjan]

I don't want them to be able to use the network and not the internet, i want to be able to control when they can use the internet. So if i think the internet is distracting them from their homework, or i decide i want to punish them by not letting them online, then i can do so from my desktop pc. And it needs to be reasonably simple to do - not going about changing IP adressess everytime i want to stop them from accessing the internet, and then changing the IP address back again when i'm happy for them to have the internet.

the router is a linksys WRT54G