[gromit95]

Hello
I need help with my home network.
I have a linksys wireless dsl hub with 2 imac’s and a g4 desktop on a net work.
The problem I’m having is my 14 year old is addicted to aol instant messenger.
I’ve tried programs that will disable aim but she find some other way around it .
Here is where I need help. I want to log into the linksys and turn off the web or network to the 2 imac’s and I don’t know how to do it. The other thing is one imac is hard wired to the network and the other is wireless.

Thanks fred

[LeeG]

look in the linksys manual - I have a befsr41 (wired only) and I recall that you can limit internet (WAN) to certain clients. You may need to shut off DHCP and manually assign addresses to each computer, and then limit the access of those computers to the internet. You will probably diasble all access, not just AIM.

Hope thats a start,

Lee

[philzilla]

yeah, it looks like you need this page: http://192.168.1.1/Filters.htm

i've never had to do it though, so i don't know what exactly needs to be done. i'm guessing you just tell it which IP you want locked out?

[-Q-]

Or you can just limit DHCP to the number of computers you have on your network if you don't want to assign IP addresses (although I think that's a better way to go about it)...

[TAZ]

Before messing with your network settings and all that, dont programs like CyberNannie have filters to block chat? Maybe you can simply uninstall AIM/iChat from her computer.

On a completely different note, have you considered options other than fixing this problem. Dont mean to be an a$$hole, but it seems like maybe sitting your daughter down and having a discussion would be more usefull in the long run.

[ghporter]

The problem with AIM is that it's very flexible, so if you block its standard port, it will offer the user to look for a port that is open, including port 80, the HTTP port. It doesn't respect just about any user configuration control-you can't even prevent it from doing its thing once it's installed on a locked down Win2000 workstation, and that's saying something. MacOS isn't built to prevent a user from doing something, it's supposed to enable users, so there's no help there.

My advice is to assign static IP addresses to all of your computers, and disable the DHCP server in your router. Also, set up MAC Address filtering to make sure she doesn't mess around with trying to get an address some other way. Next, block the IP you give your daughter for any and all ports you don't want her to use. And for goodness sake, if you haven't set a good, strong password for your router yet, DO IT NOW! Kids are bright, inventive, and unpredictable, so you never know whether your otherwise wonderful offspring is also capable of hacking your network for some nefarious purpose-I wouldn't put it past my 15 year old son!

[kampl]

Based on dig results, can you just block access to the following addresses?

64.12.161.153
64.12.161.185
64.12.200.89
205.188.153.249
205.188.179.233

Those are the addrs for login.oscar.aol.com.

My next idea would be to disable DNS resolution on the device(s) in question and cat the addresses and hostnames of the places you want your kids to have access to into a hosts file. This would at least stop access by names, and assumes they/she would not have the knowledge to access things by address.

[kampl]

Forgot the webclient as noted by GHPorter. Could drop

64.12.163.212
64.12.163.213
64.12.163.214

Which are a dig on toc.oscar.aol.com

That and the above are all I can think of off hand.