Misc

Managing Internet Access

My wife and I have three daughters. All of their names start with e, so I’ll refer to them as E1, E2, and E3. E1 is the oldest, and is almost too clever for her own good. Given a chance, she would stay up all night watching something on Netflix (or Hulu, Youtube, etc.) This makes for a very crabby pre-teen, especially when she has to get up by 5:30AM in order to have enough time to get out to her bus stop by 6:49AM. Even though I’m a huge fan of most Apple gear, and I have had Airport base stations in the past, I’m also a big fan of dd-wrt and when it was time to add 802.11n, I chose the Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH2 which has worked well for me.
Part of my solution has been to set Access Restrictions:

  1. I added the MAC addresses to the list of clients https://www.dropbox.com/s/vf4xidhzvt0y37u/Screenshot%202015-03-12%2010.03.00.png?dl=0
  2. I created 2 policies – School Nights and School Mornings
  3. School Nights is active Sunday – Thursday from 9:30PM – 11:59PM
  4. School Mornings is active Monday – Friday from 12:00AM – 6:30AM

This seems to do the trick. We still allow her to listen to audible, or read from the iPad at bed time, but she can’t stream video at all. We currently leave it wide open on weekends, and will relax this if there is no school. It’s not 100%. I’d really like to see something like what Amazon offers with the Kindle Fire HD (FreeTime?) to restrict the amount of time the device can be used.
If anyone has any additional tips or suggestions, I’d love to see them in the comments!

Please pay attention to the flight attendants!

FAA puts man who recorded in-flight bird collision on double secret probation

OK, so for all of you who feel entitled to use your electronic devices during take off and landing (including you Alec Baldwin,) you are missing the point. The restriction on using these devices is not based on whether or not it will bring down the plane. The reality is that the flight crew wants your full attention so that, in the event of a major malfunction, they will have your full attention so that they can get you to safety, if at all possible.