Greetings,
I am looking for a way to do Parental Control where I can choose an amount of online time in a 24h.
I saw may options here were the time restriction is based on beginning and end times.
That is often unmanageable due to dynamic kids schedule.
Best would be, example, to choose 2h during the day (or within 24h). When those 2 hours are used, access to the all internet for the specific device (MAC is best) is simply denied.
That is something I cant manage to do or find in packages.
Anyone has a good solution with it?
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Addition to above or even a separate solution...
Would it be possible to further restrict specific sites time based? (not beginning and end time but total amount of time spent on a specific IP or a group of IPs) (of course its my duty to find the group of IP related to a specific game. wireshark is a great tool for that)
General online time can be managed using radius. I.e. to be used together with wifi-login, or a captive portal, like coova-chilli. Special sites to supervise timewise is not simple, but possible using customized squid-proxy, which then also allows supervision of general online time per IP or MAC. However, steep learning curve for both approaches. I abandoned my hobby, Parental Control, incl. your requested functions, because of lack of public interest.
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Its a pity.
And surprising that there is a lack of public interest since I read a lot about it but by buying and installing software. Or even DNS providers that do what I look for in openwrt.
I have looked once in squid proxy software in openwrt but for some reason I could not manage to get the interface to work (if any web gui) and start configuring. I will try to use a raspberry pi with squid proxy and try that approach.
I think even more today with all those lock-downs and home schooling and home working, is increasingly important to have an automated kids control rather than keep looking at them.
Thanks for your reply anyway.
at least I know its not me missing something out.
I did a lot of squid-cutomizations on openwrt. However, I never used the uci for it, because not flexible enough. And too complicated. Just plain and simple /etc/squid/squid.conf . And I always get rid of openwrt firewall, just to use plain and well documented iptables rules. Which better work together with advanced squid setup, like https-intercept.
You might consider set up squid on any real Linux, and then port everything directly to openwrt, in case you want to run it there.
I have been exploring Time and Content based controls.
I own Luma Wifi (Linux Based) https://forum.openwrt.org/t/luma-home-wifi-support/50630/9
i assume now OpenWrt is supported, but i have not flashed yet, in fear of bricking the device and losing some of the parental control features.
It has nice time base control feature see the screen shot.
Also age based content control.(Cloud Based, No Reporting accessible to customers)
Nowadays many routers are equipped with these functionality (Time Based Control, Pause Internet and Content filtering)
I'm wondering if time based control is available in OpenWrt either out of the box or through any plugins, if not then Why?
What does it mean to use a site for 1 hour? For example my son goes to a retro gaming site, he fires up a JavaScript based emulator of 1980s era centipede, then he can play the game for hours without any network interaction at all.... The routers promise something it is probably impossible to deliver...
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That’s interesting.
Could you please share the game link.
Offline games and offline content is never been the scope of parental control solution providers.
Even Browsers like Edge on iOS provides to launch the game when offline.Play until battery drains.
Time base and content control is required with client and server communication or session based.
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Much of my kids computer/phone time lately is online. I am interested on limiting online time. Offline I can control it personally.
I have tried successfully with Luma by limiting internet time by hours. It just knocks the device offline. Yes, off course offline would need either physical handover of the device or you will have to manage by device management tools by installing the app which will lock the screen as parents set them from the management device.
I'm not sure if there is anyway in openwrt with plugins to limit internet time schedules, other than you will need to create FW rules for specific device and block internet access based on schedules.
But i haven't across other than commercial routers, few router have capability of tracking device time online and based on time quota allocated, just knocks out the devices from being online. e.g. 2hrs per day, after that device will not have any internet access.
Try also Fing App or Fing device to connect to your router. I assume it has some device controls.
If you use nftables you can give a byte quota to individual devices
