Okay, that's what I was afraid of (only good for wireless).

The reason my kids don't have wireless is (1) 2 of the computers didn't come with wireless and (2) my older daughter's laptop had its wireless disabled when she attended a therapeutic boarding school (otherwise, we would have never given her a laptop at all).

By keeping their computers wired only, it ensures that their internet activities are done in a family room instead of their bedrooms. Our younger daughter will respect our rules and take the consequences when she does not (and she also earns many privileges), but our older daughter is very difficult to handle. She's 18, a year behind in school, and extremely rebellious. She breaks rules just to break them. She does not respond to consequences either (and she has very few privileges). She has no ambition, says she does not want to work because it's not fun, and has "Peter Pan Syndrome" in which she refuses to grow up and take the responsibilities of someone her age (and rejects any desire for the freedoms that come with it). It has taken us over 4 years of intensive therapy of all kinds to finally come to understand that she truly does have some sort of mental illness. Her behavior is basically that of a 2 year old, but she has the physical strength of an adult.

So there is no way I want her to have access to the internet in her bedroom. It is our house, and we have every right to determine what goes on inside of it. If she wants the freedom of choosing for herself, then she could earn her own money and get her own place. However, she's more likely to be one of these kids you hear about who's still living at home at 30 years old with no job and spending every waking moment on the computer. I am adamant that I will not allow her to do that, no matter what it takes. I refuse to enable her. However, what do you do with a child 18 years old who has had this attitude for at least 4-5 years already? Drive her to some street and push her out of the car? It is a very big problem. She can't drive; doesn't want to learn. She can't work; refuses to get a job. She isn't well educated; she's in "Special Education for Emotionally Disturbed" because of her problems which has greatly interrupted her education and she refuses to study. She can't go to any friends' houses because she had no friends; she rejects everyone. We can't take her to any family on my husband's side because they've all passed away. We can't take her to any family on my side because I have no contact with them due to the physical, emotional and sexual abuse I endured from them. What can we do? My husband's much softer on her than I am, and if I had it my way, I would put her on the street unless she is in school or working. But it's easier said than done when it's your own child. If she gets put on the street, she will likely be abused. She has no drive, no ambition, no common sense, nothing. Four years ago, I was afraid she might be one of the children you read about that murder their family as she was intensely angry at me (I'm the closest one to her so I'm her target most times) and consistently wrote horrifyingly detailed accounts of murdering me. We've managed to get her passed that stage. Her anger is gone; she never could come up with a reason of why she was ever angry at me other than because I am the one closest to her. Now we need to get her to at least get a high school education and try to get he motivated to want to grow up. One way to motivate a kid like that is to not allow their home experience to be too comfy. So there are a number of things she is not allowed to do unless she earns it by growing up and getting her own life.

But one of the first things we are doing is maintaining our right to determine what is allowed and not allowed within the confines of our house. No internet in bedrooms, period. And once I can figure out how to do it, I want to control access to the internet to only 2 (maybe 3 for good behavior) hours during school. She cannot be trusted to not break those rules (in fact, it is a challenge to her TO break them), and there is only so much two parents can do (can't stay up all night to stop her from getting on the internet). So I have to find a way to block the internet from her and her sister's computers.

If it was up to me, I'd throw her laptop in a landfill, give her absolutely no passwords on any other computer, and tell her all internet is 100% gone until she earns it. But my husband is too soft and thinks I'm being too harsh. She threatens to cut herself more (hell, let her, I say; I'm tired of being threatened by her).

Anyway, you can see I have a real problem on my hands. And even if I did allow her access to the internet wirelessly so I could block her using her MAC address, that won't stop her from plugging her computer into an ethernet cable from a printer or other computer.

I don't really know what to do at this point. Apple did not make it clear that the Timed Access was only for wireless connections. Why would they not make it work for all connections is beyond me!

At this point, I'm thinking of how I could split the network so the kids' computers are on a switch or hub that is put on a physical timer with that timer locked up. So the power would be shut off to their switch/hub that gives them access to the network and the internet. To accomplish this, I'd also need to lock up the switch that her father and I use. The modem would also have to be locked up, as well. So no one could possibly connect on the parent's part of the network via an ethernet cable.

You would think for as long as parents have had this issue, someone would have come up with a sure-fire way to handle this.

I will figure out a way somehow. If anyone has any ideas, I'm open to hearing them. I could use all the help I can get.

What about a software solution - e.g. something as simple as a script that disables the Ethernet connection between certain hours. This could be installed as a "login hook" on the kids' accounts. See: http://www.bombich.com/mactips/loginhooks.html

I could do that with the Mac, but the kids use the PCs most. My younger daughter uses a desktop and my older daughter now covets her laptop.

That's part of the problem. I don't know Windows. I can control the Mac just fine. It's the PCs that I don't know how to block. That's one reason I had hoped to block them by using their MAC addresses.

That kind of solution seems like it would work.
And it would be simpler than you seem to think.
All you would need is a switch or hub that sits inside the same locked box where the Airport base station is.
Then instead of connecting the Ethernet cables from the kids' computers to the Airport base station, connect them to this new switch. And connect the "uplink" port of the switch to the Airport base station. After that everything is exactly as you have it now except that there is a switch between the kid's computers and the Airport base station. So just turn off the power to that switch with a timer as desired.

There may still be a way to use the Timed Access feature of the Airport Extreme, but it is a bit of a hack. If you relocate the Windows desktop (that your younger daughter likes to use) to the same location as the Windows laptop (that your older daughter likes to use), you could use your old Airport to provide access to those to computers.

Connect those two computers to the old Airport via Ethernet and set up that Airport to be a wireless client of your new Airport Extreme. You can then set the Timed Access such that the old Airport gets cut off at a certain time, effectively cutting the two Windows PCs off from the internet.

Like I said, it is a bit of a hack, but it wouldn't involve buying anything new. Would this work for you?

Thanks for the suggestions. wdympcf, I can't move the desktop PC to the desk with the laptop because it can't fit two people at the same time, and my younger daughter has earned the right to not be required to sit directly beside her sister.

Hayne, I'll look at how I may be able to do what you've suggested. But at the same time, listening to myself type all that above has made me absolutely furious. I have an adult in my home who openly refuses to follow the rules, threatens physical harm if we enforce them, and is refusing to do anything that would help her have a life. This is absolutely unacceptable to me.

At this very moment, I'm in her psychiatrist's office. She refused to go to her appointment until she was threatened with loss of her computer. This is absurd!

I'm going to go in with her at the beginning and make it clear that I have had it. If she doesn't follow the rules, I will physically remove the laptop and password protect all other computers. If she threatens to harm herself or others, I'll call 911 and have her removed. If that happens, in our county, that will require that paramedics pick her up, take her to a regular hospital under the constant watch of a guard, and she is then involuntarily committed. This has already happened once. But she was a minor. At this point, she is an adult, and I have no legal requirement to pick her back up.

Either she learns to follow the rules our she's out. If my husband blocks me, then he can go with her. I know that allowing her to continue on this path is only harmful to her. Something has to change. And I should not be required to physically put locks all over my house to prevent someone from doing things we have said they are not to do. Daughter or not, it's time for a wake up call.

One thing that the Airport Extreme will do is let me know if she connects to the network after hours. If so, then no computer. And the process from above can begin if that's what SHE chooses.

Vicki, I wish you good luck with your difficult situation.

Trevor

I want to echo Trevor's sentiments. As a parent of young children, I can only imagine what you are going through.

Thanks. Well, I solved my problem. No locks. No software to disconnect anything. No hardware to push anyone off the internet. If she cannot follow our rules, then she's out. Period.

Sometimes I guess it's too easy to slip into something without realizing it, but while I hadn't planned on writing why I had the need (or thought I had the need) to restrict the internet, writing it out made me wake up and realize what the hell was going on. I have an 18 year old child that is openly refusing to follow the rules? Not at my house!

I read her the riot act with her doctor sitting right beside her, nodding his head. She knows that if she pulls those stunts with us again, she is out. We're so tired of her behavior. She may have emotional problems, but that's no reason for her to disobey the rules of the house or threaten to cause harm to herself or others.

She will take her medicine, she will get her act straight, she will go to school when it starts, on day 1 and every other school day unless she has a measurable illness. And I will not hear her mouth say ever again that she refuses to work because it's not fun.

If she can't handle that, then she's out. She'd better find a friend soon so she'll have some place to go because underpasses of freeways aren't very comfortable.

So my problem is solved. It's so simple, really. The only people allowed in my home are people who follow our rules. Done deal. :)