[SOLVED] How to buy my own data/wifi plan

Feb 15, 2020
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Hi - I would like to be able to use my own data plan for my laptop, phone and to watch TV at home. We have to unplug our existing wifi from our provider due to my son's addiction to gaming. I can't control his access without unplugging the whole box. He's too savvy and find a way to circumvent each solution. How can I buy my own private hidden plan? Thanks.
 
Solution
Hi - I would like to be able to use my own data plan for my laptop, phone and to watch TV at home. We have to unplug our existing wifi from our provider due to my son's addiction to gaming. I can't control his access without unplugging the whole box. He's too savvy and find a way to circumvent each solution. How can I buy my own private hidden plan? Thanks.

Actually you can control his access... take away the PC. :unsure:

Setup up an Admin/Password to the Router he can't guess.
Setup a WPS/PIN option and change the pin weekly. Mount the Router in a clear lockbox where only you have access to that button, there is nothing he can do to authenticate without physically having access to the hardware.

Enable WPA2 Wireless...

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
To get a second connection, talk to your ISP.
But you may just need more bandwidth on your current connection.
What do you pay for?
What type of connection?
How many devices?
Are they wired or WiFi, and how many of each?
Is your laptop wired or WiFi?
 

delaro

Judicious
Ambassador
Hi - I would like to be able to use my own data plan for my laptop, phone and to watch TV at home. We have to unplug our existing wifi from our provider due to my son's addiction to gaming. I can't control his access without unplugging the whole box. He's too savvy and find a way to circumvent each solution. How can I buy my own private hidden plan? Thanks.

Actually you can control his access... take away the PC. :unsure:

Setup up an Admin/Password to the Router he can't guess.
Setup a WPS/PIN option and change the pin weekly. Mount the Router in a clear lockbox where only you have access to that button, there is nothing he can do to authenticate without physically having access to the hardware.

Enable WPA2 Wireless Encryption; Create a Strong SSID Network Name and Preshared Key
Turn on the Firewalls Stealth mode
Block access to the servers of the Games he plays and block out the commonly used ports needed.

If he can bypass all of that then he should be working for the NSA.
 
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Solution
Feb 15, 2020
9
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I would appreciate not being judged. You don't know what I'm dealing with. I asked how to buy my own source please. You have no idea the struggle I am going through.
 
Feb 15, 2020
9
0
10
Actually you can control his access... take away the PC. :unsure:

Setup up an Admin/Password to the Router he can't guess.
Setup a WPS/PIN option and change the pin weekly. Mount the Router in a clear lockbox where only you have access to that button, there is nothing he can do to authenticate without physically having access to the hardware.

Enable WPA2 Wireless Encryption; Create a Strong SSID Network Name and Preshared Key
Turn on the Firewalls Stealth mode
Block access to the servers of the Games he plays and block out the commonly used ports needed.

If he can bypass all of that then he should be working for the NSA.
thank you
 
Feb 15, 2020
9
0
10
To get a second connection, talk to your ISP.
But you may just need more bandwidth on your current connection.
What do you pay for?
What type of connection?
How many devices?
Are they wired or WiFi, and how many of each?
Is your laptop wired or WiFi?
My laptop is wifi. I need something totally separate from my current plan for the house.
 

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
No one is judging you parenting style. To me though it would seem that taking away the system or making it unusable would be the same as getting rid of his internet access and the consequences of doing those would be the same unless it's just a matter of keeping him offline so he plays only single player games (I've met my fair share of those heavily addicted to online/MMO games, 14+ hours per day, calling out/losing jobs, etc).

Getting back to your original question if your phone does have a unlimited data plan you should be able to setup a personal hotspot with password and use that for the online access for your other devices. While this probably won't be as good as your regular wifi this is the simplest method I'm aware of. Change password on a regular basis to keep him offline.
 
Feb 15, 2020
9
0
10
No one is judging you parenting style. To me though it would seem that taking away the system or making it unusable would be the same as getting rid of his internet access and the consequences of doing those would be the same unless it's just a matter of keeping him offline so he plays only single player games (I've met my fair share of those heavily addicted to online/MMO games, 14+ hours per day, calling out/losing jobs, etc).

Getting back to your original question if your phone does have a unlimited data plan you should be able to setup a personal hotspot with password and use that for the online access for your other devices. While this probably won't be as good as your regular wifi this is the simplest method I'm aware of. Change password on a regular basis to keep him offline.
Thank you. Here's another complication. My mobile phone is a work phone/personal phone so I am not going to use their data for my hotspot. I guess I need to buy another phone and then use that.
 
Feb 15, 2020
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Thank you. Here's another complication. My mobile phone is a work phone/personal phone so I am not going to use their data for my hotspot. I guess I need to buy another phone and then use that.
Yes, he needs a little bit of time on the computer for homework and it's an outlet for severe stress and severe anxiety.
 

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
Thank you. Here's another complication. My mobile phone is a work phone/personal phone so I am not going to use their data for my hotspot. I guess I need to buy another phone and then use that.
Contact the ISP, find out which plan will be cheaper and easier for you.

I use Visible which is a app based company, $40/month for unlimited data, talk & text but I think this depends on your location. TomsGuide did a review but it's much improved since then and I think worth looking into.
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/visible-wireless,review-6036.html
 
You are going to have the same issues no matter what you do. If you restrict the main access he will just attempt to use your new connections. The largest issues comes to what extent he will go. Will he physically take your laptop to try to get the wifi password for the new connection.

You should not actually need a second connection the main problems are the same. You need to prevent physical access to the router and you have to prevent him from getting passwords he is not allowed to have.

First and most important is make sure you completely disable the WPS feature. The comment above about changing the pin weekly is invalid. That is one of the key problems with WPS is you can not change the PIN and it only takes a couple minutes to hack even with a cell phone.

After that you want a router that lets you assign multiple SSID. In the simplest case you give him the password for one of the SSID and not the other. You then manually log into the router and disable the SSID when you do not want him to have access.

You do not really even need a fancy router to do this. You can use a cheap second router plugged into the first and just put a power timer on it that turns the power off to the second router. If you use different SSID he can not access the main router.

There are many more advanced things you can do with parental controls but it depends on the router. For really fancy ones you need to load third party firmware like dd-wrt. It is almost impossible to filter content because of encryption and the easy access to things like vpn. The completely on/off is almost impossible to defeat without physically hacking the devices.