wifi router access , blocked for several hours suggestions?

[#1]

I'm on my 2nd 24 month contract, on full fibre package with the 'latest' plusnet router. l want to ask if possible to block access to my kids to use of wifi for couple hours a day while leaving wifi on so l can use it for work, without me having to manually change the pw everytime? perhaps let me alternate between 2 pw's which can be activated and deactivated with a click?

thanks.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

@nixodian I think the Access controls facility of the Hub 2 may be able to help

You can create 'Groups' of devices e.g all the kids devices and then ( I assume, since my Hub 2 isnt connected at the moment ) disable/enable or schedule access for the group. This thread https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Access-Control-not-working-on-Hub-Two-after-reset/td-p/18779... may help get you started.

[#3]

Most modern wifi adapters used in, laptops, tablets and mobile phones default setting is to randomise the MAC address, an new MAC address will result in a new IP Address being allocated.

Would this not render this method of blocking wifi access useless?

[#4]

MAC randomisation is typically 'sticky' though, in that it will retain the same randomised MAC address for each stored Wi-Fi network.

This does make it fairly trivial to bypass if you know how to 'refresh' the MAC association, but if you don't, then it may still prove fit for purpose.

[#5]

A thought

Buy a Modem/Router which has a guest wireless network, changing all passwords (admin and wireless) away from the defaults

or

Buy a wireless access point and set with is own SSID and to turn off during the required times, changing the admin password to prevent tampering, at the same time on the Plus Net Hub, change and the admin and wifi passwords from the defaults on the label

In either case resting the devices to the factory defaults negates everything, but at least you'll know it has happened!

[#6]

got it set up , works fine, very user unfriendly though. theyre only kids 11 and 12 theyre not that tech savvy yet, even l not sure what mac or ip address is!