Something to Watch Out For

[Axe Man]

Discovered something quite interesting today and I thought I'd pass it onto my fellow BITOG'ers.

I have the following setup:

Time Warner Roadrunner. Linksys G router.

Dell 2400 desktop running XP SP3 hardwired to router.
Dell XPS M140 laptop running XP SP3 wireless.
Sony Vaio laptop running Vista SP1 wireless.
Gateway laptop running Vista SP1 wireless.

2 days ago the internet access speed for all the machines went to heck. I'm talking down to nearly 56K speeds. I found that if I powered down the router and brought it back up the access speed for the desktop and Dell laptop returned to normal. But after 5 minutes or so went right back down. I checked the desktop and it was sitting idle. Same with Dell laptop. Checked the Sony, same. Went to the Gateway and discovered it was polling the network like crazy. It appeared to be bogging down the entire network. Long story short...kid installed "system monitor" gadget for the Windows sidebar right from the Microsoft site. This little gadget was blowing up the network with it's constant polling. Disabled it and all returned to normal. Ain't that interesting?

 

[Pablo]

Some of those gizmos are "for diagnostic use only"...actually it's cool you have a kid like that. My daughters just have me running from PC to PC fixing, updating, uninstalling all kinds of fashion programs, etc....because they just can't be bothered....

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: Pablo
Some of those gizmos are "for diagnostic use only"...actually it's cool you have a kid like that. My daughters just have me running from PC to PC fixing, updating, uninstalling all kinds of fashion programs, etc....because they just can't be bothered....


Why does anyone other than you have Admin access.

My kids cannot install squat. Their accounts are user accounts. I have the Admin account and only I can install things.

They get ONE install / month and know not to ask me to install some cool tool bar.

 

[Pablo]

Because my wife does and I'm not always home.

 

[Axe Man]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
Originally Posted By: Pablo
Some of those gizmos are "for diagnostic use only"...actually it's cool you have a kid like that. My daughters just have me running from PC to PC fixing, updating, uninstalling all kinds of fashion programs, etc....because they just can't be bothered....


Why does anyone other than you have Admin access.

My kids cannot install squat. Their accounts are user accounts. I have the Admin account and only I can install things.

They get ONE install / month and know not to ask me to install some cool tool bar.



The Gateway and Sony were bought and paid for by each kid. They are responsible for their own machines but I will provide help when necessary. They are on my network by my good graces and if they screw up the password will be changed.

The two Dells are controlled by me and no one installs anything without my permission.

 

[eljefino]

Gain access to the admin part of the router and give them all limited bandwidth.

You may have to filter their MAC addresses or give them static IPs. But you can gain control.

If you really want to go crazy you can proxy them through your computer and watch where they go and what they do.

 

[wavinwayne]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
...If you really want to go crazy you can proxy them through your computer and watch where they go and what they do.


I often wonder if the network admin. at my work ever monitors my internet browsing habits. If he does, I'm sure he's very amused at times, confused at others, and downright scared if he can read my posts on BITOG.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Gain access to the admin part of the router and give them all limited bandwidth.

You may have to filter their MAC addresses or give them static IPs. But you can gain control.

If you really want to go crazy you can proxy them through your computer and watch where they go and what they do.


Agree, but those aren't supported in the low end router like the Linksys WRT54G v4.0 and later. If you can use an open source router firmware then those features are free and reliable, otherwise I wouldn't bother, because most add on features from stock firmware on low end routers tends to crash a lot.

 

[Axe Man]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Gain access to the admin part of the router and give them all limited bandwidth.

You may have to filter their MAC addresses or give them static IPs. But you can gain control.


As mentioned I'm not sure if I can do this with this router. I'll have to do some poking around.

Quote:
If you really want to go crazy you can proxy them through your computer and watch where they go and what they do.


Well, both are boys...one 16, the other 19. I really DON'T want to know where they browse.

The 16 yr old keeps his AVG up to date and runs it daily. The 19 yr old is careless. His Sony recently got nuked by a virus. He was afraid to tell me and had a friend rebuild his machine. It took him over 2 weeks to rebuild it. I probably could have recovered it in several hours. Hopefully he learned his lesson but I doubt it.

 

[moribundman]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Gain access to the admin part of the router and give them all limited bandwidth.

You may have to filter their MAC addresses or give them static IPs. But you can gain control.

If you really want to go crazy you can proxy them through your computer and watch where they go and what they do.


Spying on one's family is a sound suggestion.

 

[javacontour]

"Spying" is one of the tools I used to bust my ex-wife during her affair.

I'm of the Ronald Reagan school when it comes to children and spouses, "trust but verify."

The teen boy has visited adult websites, which is a no-no in this home. So I check up on him from time to time.

enough said...