Constantly changing MAC

[ADDLEAF]

Hi!  

I have set up parental controls on my Telstra Smart modem to limit my son's access to wifi.  However, as it is pegged to his MAC, I found out that he can simply change his MAC and continue to enjoy the wifi without restrictions.  Is there anyway to limit access at the device name's level as that one has not changed but both MAC and IP addresses have been constantly changing.  

[Jupiter]

Unfortunately that wouldn't work either as he will be able to change that as well.

If he has a windows computer, you could use Microsoft Family Safety to set limits on his usage. You would need to make sure that his account wasn't set as an administrator on his laptop, otherwise he could just create a new user to get around it.

[ADDLEAF]

Thanks - the problem is his laptop has been set up by his school's IT team and I don't have administrator rights yet... I will ask if I can have access to it.  

[SteveW_52]

There is no simple answer to your problem, especially if you son is determined and has the knowledge to change such settings. You should discuss the problem with the school administrator to work out the best solution - he is probably part of a wider group that has figured out all the workarounds..

A Windows NON Administrator account does not allow those things to be changed, so it could work..  provided he can't change the user account.

The best solution would be something like a security appliance that you can set to 'blacklist' everything except a 'white list' of MAC addresses and/or IP's that you set up and manage stringently. That would force him to use a certain MAC or IP address that you can then manage with the basic rules available in the modem. But they aren't easy to setup and manage, requiring a bit of local network configuration and more often used in a business environment. Where that is installed depends on your setup, sometimes in the internet service connection to the modem.

[Jupiter]

If they are anything like my kids school's IT department (which is located about 100km away from the school), they are pretty ordinary. Every time they touch the kids computers (unnecessarily most of the time), I have to spend an hour or 2 fixing it so that it actually works properly.

The last one was that they had disabled the virus protection on my son's laptop when all they had to do was add an exception for an internal school resource to work properly and you can guess how I found out - yep a dozen viruses on the computer that took a couple of hours to clean out fully (took 3 days for his computer to become almost unusable after their "help").

[ADDLEAF]

Thanks! I am looking at getting Firewalla Blue to do this... but checking compatibility with the Telstra modem before I jump in.... 

[SteveW_52]

The Blue or Blue + would probably work - those device are usually used to prevent rogue intrusions from outside, but you will actually be using it the other way round in your situation - limiting outgoing access outward..  so a limited white list, forcing use of a particular IP/MAC address will allow you to still apply the modem Parental Controls for easier control..  

When you are configuring you might need to look at what ports you allow also..

[Mkrtich]

Hi - a complex issue. Does your son have an Apple laptop for school use - part of Apple's recent OS updates was a privacy protection platform which allowed the operating system to generate random MAC addresses so that people can not be traced through their journey's on the Internet.