I use a secured wireless network at home which my children access from
machines using either Vista or XP. I restrict access to the internet by
running the router on a timer which powers off at bedtime.



Unfortunately, one of my neighbours is running an unsecured network with an
SSID of "belkin54g". This allows the older children to manually connect to
this network when mine powers down which defeats the object of my limiting
their access at betime. In an ideal world they would not do this. In reality
I am fed up having to police their doing so.

I have removed this network from the preferred network list on all machines,
but it reappears each time the machines are restarted.

Can anyone tell me how I can definitively stop both an XP and Vista machine
from either a) seeing the network on the list of available networks, or b)
disable their ability to connect to this network even though it may appear as
an available network.

I am seeking a solution that will be a one time fix and not require the type
of monitoring that I am currently having to undertake to monitor their use of
the internet.

Thank you in advance for any help that you are able to provide.

I would make sure each child has a password protected limited or standard
user account and that your account has admin privileges and is protected by
a strong password. Don't give out your password to them. That way they can
not change or disable the following...:-)

Install parental control software that would limit when a child could
actually log on the PC and if they can access the internet when logged on.
Vista has parental control software built while you would need to add
third-party parental control software to XP including the free from MSFT
SteadyState tool to lockdown a XP PC...

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...lcontrols.mspx
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...8efc51033.mspx

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19203758

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...s/default.mspx

Some ISPs provide free parental control software so check with them. How I
did that once upon a time with free software from my ISP Cox...

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,13574572

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375


"Wildwood" <Wildwood@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:0A037392-4520-4CB5-9370-BA12DC4F40FC@xxxxxx

>I use a secured wireless network at home which my children access from
> machines using either Vista or XP. I restrict access to the internet by
> running the router on a timer which powers off at bedtime.
>
> Unfortunately, one of my neighbours is running an unsecured network with
> an
> SSID of "belkin54g". This allows the older children to manually connect to
> this network when mine powers down which defeats the object of my limiting
> their access at betime. In an ideal world they would not do this. In
> reality
> I am fed up having to police their doing so.
>
> I have removed this network from the preferred network list on all
> machines,
> but it reappears each time the machines are restarted.
>
> Can anyone tell me how I can definitively stop both an XP and Vista
> machine
> from either a) seeing the network on the list of available networks, or b)
> disable their ability to connect to this network even though it may appear
> as
> an available network.
>
> I am seeking a solution that will be a one time fix and not require the
> type
> of monitoring that I am currently having to undertake to monitor their use
> of
> the internet.
>
> Thank you in advance for any help that you are able to provide.