Kids hacking my WiFi timer

[#1]

It's driving me insane. I have teenagers with iPhones and smugly set up WiFi blocking on my Plusnet fibre router. So it blocks between say 10pm and 7am with custom rules for each device. And I can instantly block them from my android phone using the same page. However, the kids worked out that the timer and blocker work by device name not Mac address, so they change their device name with a couple of simple actions on their iPhone and get unfettered access.
My next step is to just confiscate the flipping tech entirely but I'd rather win the router access war as it's far less bother 🙂
Any suggestions welcome... Thank you

[#2]

The Hub One seems to use the names it has been assigned to devices (so by default that seems to be  name based on their MAC address - so things like "Unknown-04-d6-aa-35-c8-c3" ) rather than external device names.

[#3]

Mine is a hub one, but, I think the screenshot shows that if the device has been named then the router uses that name to apply the rules to it. Lots of those iPhone names on my screenshot of devices with 'rules' are the same phone. So I will have blocked jack's iPhone but he'll rename it George's and as long as he knows the WiFi password or can get to the router to physically press the connect button, he can get round my rules. I'll find that a mysterious George iPhone is connected at midnight, if I'm looking, and it'll be Jack. I'm hoping to find a way to set the router to only identify a device by its code numbers not changeable name.. ?!

[#4]

I appreciate what you are trying to do, but if they don't have wifi, won't their phones have a data connection anyway?

Mark

[#5]

Why don't you buy a third party router that does what you want - it's very easy to setup a third party router to work with PlusNet.

I agree with others - this is only worth doing if your 3G/4G mobile coverage is so poor that they can't just drop back to cellular data.

[#6]

Hi, yes, good point well made, they do have data, but by design/budget not enough to watch Youtube for a couple of hours a night every night. Enough to keep beloved snapchat fed while they're out. And if they go into the £2.50 data safety buffer there are consequences. So its certainly the wifi that stops/allows the late night screentime. I'm on an extremely tight budget so buying a new router would be a punishment that comes out of the guilty kids' Christmas present budget and would probably wipe it all out.

I can't believe that the router I have allows this kid hack, which is hardly sophisticated! It makes me wonder how much else is insecure....

Is there a way of stopping any new device from connecting via the push button, then I could change the password and then 'George' and all the aliases couldn't connect?

[#7 · Accepted solution]

I don't have my router yet, but normally there is an option in the settings to turn off WPS. This will stop them pressing and connecting.

[#8]

Any half-decent router would allow you to disable WPS "feature" - but your router may be lacking in abilities.

Try looking at what you can do in the wireless section of the admin functions to see if you can disable it.

Bear in mind that its very easy to spoof a MAC address and that there is no point banning certain web sites, since they can be easily accessed via a proxy.

Have you considered putting the router in a lockable cupboard?

[#9]

i don't know about iphones but can't you change the password and then put the password on their phones yourself so that only you know it ? i don't think that a phone shows the password after it has been entered , mine doesn't ?

[#10]

@carolinefish

This is a common but tricky problem and the Plusnet "free" router isn't really equipped to support you in the parent vs teenager "tech war".

The thing I would consider is a second physically separate device to create a wifi network for your children and de-power it between 10pm and 7am (alternatively unplug the connection between the second device and your "main" router).

Change the password on your main router, issue the new password on the understanding that it will be off at certain times and (give or take a teenager tantrum or two) the job will be done.

If you have changed suppliers for broadband you may have a spare device with a "WAN" port on it that could be used, otherwise ask around, I'm sure someone you know will have something you could use.

[#11]

Interesting @markhawkin

So yes it will be a bit complex to setup but to have two free router devices on different subnets? I only know that from work.

Then the secondary one (if it allows it) has the default gateway back to the first but has to be the same subnet. So you can mess around with that yourself if you want.

I'm cursious, but I am sure it can be done - just depends on how much work and expense you want to put into it.

Don't think it'll be too hard, pain to set up but once you're done you're happy.

[#12]

No need for separate subnets. Just a second access point with a different name and password.

I have and old Technicolor TG582n  which I run as a secondary access point - it has a fixed IP on the same subnet as my main PN router.

[#13]

This might be a bit of a radical idea but have you thought about making the children do what they are told😂

[#14]

@skygrowler an attractive idea but this can be challenging to implement !

[#15]

@Alex this was the solution I could think of that has minimal cost and should be relatively simple to implement.

When I've put a domestic router "behind" another router I had one on 192.168.0.1 and the other on 192.168.1.1 and in this case I would leave the subnet of the Plusnet router "as is" and change the other device as required.

While double NATing can cause problems, arguably this doesn't impact anything I would want a teenager to do.