How do you disable an actiontec Verizon wireless router?

[TerryJ2]

I'm tired of turning off my router to get difficult child off of the computer, and a friend said I should be able to type instructions on my hard drive just to shut off the other computer but not mine. I've gone through Control Panel and other areas and am lost. Help!

P.S. difficult child just racked up $325 worth of charges on txt msg reponses, such as ring tones ... I am barely speaking to him. When we set up T-Mobile, we told them to make sure there was no access. Someohow, someone got through. This is so similar to what we went through with-the add-ons for online gaming, to the tune of $300, that today when I got the bill, I told difficult child about it and went straight to bed. It hit me like a ton of bricks and I coudln't even function. I called TMobile from bed and they told me they'd request refunds but I had to pay the full amt first and then they'd refund me.
husband called them back and came up with-a better plan. Not sure what it is. But he read them the riot act because difficult child wasn't to have access at all.

I asked about suspending svc for 2 wks and they said you had to be in the military or leaving the country. Not what I had in mind.

difficult child said someone hacked his FB. What's that got to go with-his cell ph?

During the hurricane and storms, I turned off the router so many times, between the power surges and difficult child not wanting to get off, and my forcing him off, that something finally went wrong with-the battery backup and tech support had me going from rooom to room and the battery back up and unplugging everything and resetting it.
But now I think that glitch wasn't only Verizon--I think it was the on-again off-again issue.

Which windows to I open to turn off difficult child's wireless in the other room? Is it in control panel?

Thanks for listening.

I've got to figure out how to turn off ONLY difficult child's Internet access.

 

[HaoZi]

I think it would be in the router's control panel (rather than your comp's normal control panel), but I'll nose around some and see what else I can find.

ETA: Have you set up controls on his computer where you're an admin and he's just a user? Then you can set specific times his user name can be logged into the computer and it will log out automatically.

 

[susiestar]

I don't know the answers, but I do understand and sympathize. I can remember once commenting to Wiz after similar shenanigans that I totally understood why angel fish eat their young when upset.

NOT the best thing to tell your ten or twelve year old, but it sure got his attention. I wasn't even really talking to him, just muttering to myself.

Have you called either the company that makes the router or Verizon and had tech support walk you through it? Do you know someone who is very tech savvy and could come help with this, a friend or relative or even one of your husband's chiro patients who would barter help with this kind of thing for husband's services or some of your art?

If that doesn't work, call the computer science dept at a nearby university and ask if they have a student or grad assistant who would do this for cash or barter. If my husband can't fix a problem I call the husband of a high school/college friend who's husband has a computer repair business and he comes and helps us. A couple of times he gave us help for his cost of parts or whatever in exchange for helping them learn to handle their son - an aspie - and the whole school mess that can be part of getting an IEP, etc....

As for difficult child's phone, it might be worth it to put his phone on vacation or inactive status (used to be able to do this - makes the rate cheaper as long as the phone is not used that month) until the contract ends and get a pay as you go phone for difficult child. Tracfone and Net10 have phones are good prices (lots cheaper than the other services), and if he gets a very set limit on the minutes he has. I would urge you to consider Net10 rather than Tracfone because when you look at the cost of minutes there is NO way to get tracfone minutes down to the price of net10 minutes, not even with the double or triple minutes for the life of the phone. They each have at least one very basic phone that cannot go online that is quite cheap. Net10 has a deal that for $25 a month you get 750 minutes and 30 days of service. The minutes you don't use do not carry over, but it is still very very cheap - esp as texts are one minute to send and one to receive, and airtime is billed as minutes. He will be able to use minutes to buy ringtones, etc... but if he is out of minutes and does not have an account set up to buy more then he can't get more minutes, send more texts or buy stuff online.

Tracfone is similar and actually they use the same system, but you cannot use a tracfone with net10 mins or vice versa.

Target had the LG900G for $27 about a month ago and it is awesome. It is an mp3 player, can do a lot online, etc... but won't let me go over my minutes unless I give the right authorization info.

The LG300 is available and has NO internet capability. It can text, but it is very basic. They are sold in BigLots here for ten or fifteen bucks but they have no airtime.

in my opinion this is going to be about the only way to keep him from charging stuff on his phone. As for the router, I hope someone can help with that.

I would be selling his phone and computer and mp3 player and favorite clothes and toys and game systems to earn the money to pay for what he charged. I would probably pawn them and tell him that the money from the pawn broker is yours to pay for what he stole using your card. If he wants the stuff back he has 90 days to earn the $$ to get it back and if he doesn't then he isn't going to have them for a year or so.

If it happened one time I might not have been that strict, but he keeps doing it. You also might consider having a cop talk to him and give him a tour of the police station so he can see where he is headed if he keeps committing theft and credit card fraud. Cause charging the stuff is stealing the $$ you have to pay the company AND it is fraud because he is not the cardholder or an authorized user.

Probably the only ways he is going to get the message that he can't do that kind of stuff is to have the police address the issue with him and by making darn sure that if he uses something to go charge things with-o permission, even a dollar item, then he simply will not have that item until he is old enough to work at a job and support himself and purchase it. Yup, harsh. But what is going to happen when he does this on a friend's or teacher's or stranger's phone (that the stranger lost or that someone stole and gave difficult child) and they track it back to him? Taking his stuff away to pay for his charges is reality, as are the criminal charges that he is going to face when he does it to someone not you or husband, Know what I mean??

One of the things that we combined iwth the selling/pawning to pay the bill, was to insist on hard physical labor from Wiz. My dad, mom, husband or I would go work with him, to keep him moving, but he did a LOT of hard labor. The therapist we saw encouraged it and the neuropsychologist said it is one of the most effective tools for getting them to not want to do something. It involves very different parts of their body and brains to do hard labor than to deal with getting his stuff out of the pawn shop, etc...

by the way, if difficult child tries to sell or damage your stuff because you pawned his stuff, that is theft and the cops come. It happens, and is fair and reasonable, because difficult child CAN'T own anything - ownership is part of a legal contract. Messing up or selling your stuff is theft/property damage because you DO own the stuff. This was something from the love and logic book. When I took the one day L&L seminar there was a guy in the audience, clearly NOT a plant because I knew he worked iwth my dad as a teacher, who blurted out in a totally stunned voice that L&L was where his mom got this from! He was a 20something and his mom, a teacher, had done the whole pawn thing and calling the cops when he tried to take her stereo to get his stuff from the pawnnshop. It truly shocked him (and infuriated him - he was 16 or 17 at the time) but it was a real turning point for him according to his mom.

I KNOW this stuff is hard to handle. You might get a lot of other ideas and help in how to implement them if you found one of the L&L seminars (one day, used to be about $100). It really reinforced what I read in the book and I got lots of tips to make sure that Wiz didn't have wiggle room.

(((((hugs)))))

 

[keista]

Is he getting a wireless signal? How many computers on your network? How many getting wireless and how many are hard wired?

If he is getting a wireless signal, you will NOT be able to just get him off, unless he's the ONLY one getting a wireless signal. Haozi's idea would work though. Go directly on his computer and set time limits for usage.

 

[DammitJanet]

Yes I believe you can set limits on his computer specifically as a user with you as the admin. I have no idea about the verizon router, we have the netgear router and have never had to limit anyones usage. As far as that phone, I dont know who you have it with, sounds like Tmobile....I had some trouble with them when someone called CANADA from my phone...lol. Supposedly it wasnt able to call outside the country or so I was told. At that time I didnt know anyone except Joybells and I hadnt called her. Turned out it was Jamies first fiance calling men online...sigh but I got them reversed on my bill.

Check you statement online and see if there is anything on there about parental controls. I know on my Sprint account, I see some place I can click to set stuff up but I have never actually clicked on it to see what is under there because I have no need for it right now. Might someday...lol.

 

[Mattsmom277]

I can access controls for access to my router by typing in a series of numbers in my internet browser (for example: 123.456.68.9 - this is not a real code but demonstrates the format). If you google your exact router it may help you find how to get to your routers number. When I type in mine, all of the information for my network comes up and I can set any limits I want. You can see what computers or devices are authorized on your router for access.

You could also change your routers password, that way the computers that do not update to the new password will not have access to the internet.

 

[DammitJanet]

yeah...I do believe my techy is up..let me go ask him.

 

[DammitJanet]

you need to go into your router configuration usualy by going into your web browser and entering the address 192.168.1.1 and entering the administrative password for the hourter usualy its admin admin or something like that you may need to call verizon to ask them for the pw
if his computer is currently connected you can probly see him as a current client u then copy his mac (serial number) from the clients to your routers blacklist he shouldnt be able to connect after

 

[Star*]

CALL verizon or call Janets son.

 

[DammitJanet]

That was Billy...couldnt you tell by the misspellings...lmao. He may be borderline genius and Aspie but he is also dysgraphic.

 

[Star*]

SOrry Boo......Auntie Star not with it ------

 

[DammitJanet]

Did you honestly think I could have come up with that???? LOL I can barely find my way around this thing...

 

[Star*]

Well you ARE his Mother. Honestly woman.......credit credit credit!

 

[TerryJ2]

Thank you all!
Yes, that is the # to type in ... I've been booted offline so many times, I pretty much have it memorized. I'll work on it tomorrow and probably have my techie friend come over.
I tried to turn it off last night at 5 a.m. It SAID it was off, didn't show a signal in the lower rh corner.
But difficult child was at the screen mid-morning, happy as a clam.

At least he did most of his chores.

 

[DammitJanet]

If all else fails, take his computer and password it at BIOS and make him bring it to you to log in and you go into the bathroom behind a locked door to log him in.