Trying to lock my little sister out of home network

[nj4ck]

Hey guys, I'm at my parents house and my mom is asking me to help her lock my little sister out of the home wifi. She's 10 and she's been using her phone to develop a serious whatsapp addiction (according to my mom), so she'd like to get her off the internet for a while. 

 

I've identified her phones IP and mac address, but I can't seem to find a way to kick her phone off the network. The router is some weird thing that came from the provider and offers very little in terms of settings. Is there an easy way to do this?

[Wed15septoid2]

just straight up disconnect her with her phone and change the password needed for the router.

[LeapFrogMasterRace]

Why not just change the password? 

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, nj4ck said:

Hey guys, I'm at my parents house and my mom is asking me to help her lock my little sister out of the home wifi. She's 10 and she's been using her phone to develop a serious whatsapp addiction (according to my mom), so she'd like to get her off the internet for a while. 

 

I've identified her phones IP and mac address, but I can't seem to find a way to kick her phone off the network. The router is some weird thing that came from the provider and offers very little in terms of settings. Is there an easy way to do this?

The easiest way is to grab the phone / laptop, disconnect it from the network, then change the password.

 

Although you should give her something to do with the time she was spending texting. Does she have a hobby / something to do while not at school?

[AstroBenny]

Change the Wi-Fi password.,?

[mikat]

can you give us the router model?

 

[nj4ck]

1 minute ago, LeapFrogMasterRace said:

Why not just change the password? 

 

1 minute ago, Wed15septoid2 said:

just straight up disconnect her with her phone and change the password needed for the router.

She may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but if I just change the password she'll realize what's up. The whole point is to get her off the internet without having her throw one of her trademark nuclear temper tantrums that leave the entire neighborhood in ruins...

[Oshino Shinobu]

Can you create a MAC address filter list on the router? Some routers allow you to create a blacklist, but a lot only support creating a whitelist, which means you'd have to specify all devices you want to be connected to the network. 

[nj4ck]

5 minutes ago, Energycore said:

Although you should give her something to do with the time she was spending texting. Does she have a hobby / something to do while not at school?

Oh, she's got plenty of stuff to do. My mom wants her off the phone because she's starting to give up on what she normally does in favor of texting metric tons of funny emojis to people she barely knows.

[LeapFrogMasterRace]

Just now, nj4ck said:

 

She may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but if I just change the password she'll realize what's up. The whole point is to get her off the internet without having her throw one of her trademark nuclear temper tantrums that leave the entire neighborhood in ruins...

Would she still have a tantrum anyway because the wifi isn't working either way? 

[nj4ck]

1 minute ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Can you create a MAC address filter list on the router? Some routers allow you to create a blacklist, but a lot only support creating a whitelist, which means you'd have to specify all devices you want to be connected to the network. 

That seems to be the scenario here, I was hoping there was a way around creating a whitelist but that's the only thing this router seems capable of.

[mikat]

Just now, Oshino Shinobu said:

Can you create a MAC address filter list on the router? Some routers allow you to create a blacklist, but a lot only support creating a whitelist, which means you'd have to specify all devices you want to be connected to the network. 

well if he gave us the router model that would be pretty helpful lol

[nj4ck]

Just now, LeapFrogMasterRace said:

Would she still have a tantrum anyway because the wifi isn't working either way? 

Oh yeah... but she wouldn't have anyone to blame, so our chances of survival would be fairly decent.

[Oshino Shinobu]

3 minutes ago, nj4ck said:

That seems to be the scenario here, I was hoping there was a way around creating a whitelist but that's the only thing this router seems capable of.

What router model is it? You may be able to install DD-WRT, which would then allow you to block individual devices. 

EDIT: Also, in the MAC Filter list section, look for any drop-down boxes or something similar. You may have the option to change between whitelist and blacklist, but it can be fairly hidden. 

[DevilishBooster]

No matter what method you use, if you block her connection to the Wi-Fi then she's going to notice. Just wait until she's not home, change the Wi-Fi password, and let her wallow in her misery. If she throws a temper-tantrum then it sounds like your Mom might actually have to do some tough-love parenting. (*GASP* Egads! Perish the thought!)

[mikat]

Just now, DevilishBooster said:

No matter what method you use, if you block her connection to the Wi-Fi then she's going to notice. Just wait until she's not home, change the Wi-Fi password, and let her wallow in her misery. If she throws a temper-tantrum then it sounds like your Mom might actually have to do some tough-love parenting. (*GASP* Egads! Perish the thought!)

you do know that changing a wifi password is annoying because you have to change it everywhere

[nj4ck]

5 minutes ago, mikat said:

well if he gave us the router model that would be pretty helpful lol

ZyXel 6641

[Wed15septoid2]

8 minutes ago, nj4ck said:

 

She may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but if I just change the password she'll realize what's up. The whole point is to get her off the internet without having her throw one of her trademark nuclear temper tantrums that leave the entire neighborhood in ruins...

Why not "Accidentally" leave her phone in her pants pocket and run it through the washer making sure that it will never work again. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

Another suggestion: If you can get access to her phone, change her WiFi options to manually set the IP address to something outside of your address range and make sure the default gateway address is wrong. That way it will throw an error. It can be fixed by her, but at 10, it's unlikely she'll fix it quickly. 

EDIT: Changing DNS servers to bogus addresses in her WiFi settings would cause DNS errors, but sometimes devices default to the default gateway for DNS if they hit and error. 

[mcraftax]

If she is off the home internet surely if the "addition" is really she will just use mobile data?

[nj4ck]

3 minutes ago, DevilishBooster said:

No matter what method you use, if you block her connection to the Wi-Fi then she's going to notice. Just wait until she's not home, change the Wi-Fi password, and let her wallow in her misery. If she throws a temper-tantrum then it sounds like your Mom might actually have to do some tough-love parenting. (*GASP* Egads! Perish the thought!)

She's 10. If she can't access the network for unknown reasons we tell her there's something wrong with her phone, she's bummed, end of story. If I change the password, she'll realize someone changed the password and we'll all be in hell until someone gives her the new one. 

[mcraftax]

1 minute ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Another suggestion: If you can get access to her phone, change her WiFi options to manually set the IP address to something outside of your address range and make sure the default gateway address is wrong. That way it will throw an error. It can be fixed by her, but at 10, it's unlikely she'll fix it quickly. 

looks like this might be the best.

[Mr.Meerkat]

1 minute ago, nj4ck said:

She's 10. If she can't access the network for unknown reasons we tell her there's something wrong with her phone, she's bummed, end of story. If I change the password, she'll realize someone changed the password and we'll all be in hell until someone gives her the new one. 

Well at lease it's your parents that have to deal with it no? since it sounds like you're not living with em  

[Wed15septoid2]

2 minutes ago, nj4ck said:

She's 10. If she can't access the network for unknown reasons we tell her there's something wrong with her phone, she's bummed, end of story. If I change the password, she'll realize someone changed the password and we'll all be in hell until someone gives her the new one. 

You could just disable wifi and run your pc off lan.

[Oshino Shinobu]

4 minutes ago, nj4ck said:

ZyXel 6641

Unfortunately, that router does not support DD-WRT. 

Have a look at my suggestion in my post above. It may be the least problematic solution.