What Advice For a Single Parent As Server Admin?

Dragon_Eater, with "lots of experience setting up PCs and a passable knowledge of Linux but severely lacking in the server/client department," writes with a situation that probably faces a lot of parents: I want to set up three kids, 12, 14, and 15, with newer computers so they will stop fighting for time on the one ten-year-old Dell they share now. I can get the individual computers and a server put together without any problems, but the computer-handicapped single parent needs to be able to do the following via an simple application/web page: View client computer status, On/off, sleeping etc.; Deny Internet access, not LAN, just the web; Schedule time usage of computer, ex. 7 am to 10 pm on school nights etc.; Force log-out and/or shutdown of clients, for grounding purposes; and Apply some kind of firewall filter for blocking undesired web content. And as the administrator for this network I would like the following options: Remote virus scanning of client machines, or scheduled task; Some kind of hardware monitor, high temp / fan speed low etc.; and Email alerts for various log files / alarms. Given the lists above I am thinking about a Linux-based router/server machine and running Windows on the clients for game compatibility. I also know that a server and network boot client is possible but not sure where to start on that one."

Comments

Ask the intelligence community

[Mindcontrolled]

For the amount of control you want to exert over your kids there, I'd suggest you ask some former Stasi or KGB man, I am sure they can give you all information you need about totalitarian control of resource usage and information flow. Don't just ask slashdot - go to the pros. You gotta think of the children after all.

Re:Ask the intelligence community

[Anonymous Coward]

Ding! I was in a super strict household when I was younger. Every moment was monitored, every slightly out of line behavior was punished. I spent more time grounded than not. I was the best behaved kid I knew, and also the most heavily punished for super minor infractions. I had every moment planned out and decided for me. I did NOT make my own decisions, I did NOT make good grades of my own volition. I did what I was told, and only what I was told. When I finally got off to college on my own I couldn't behave responsibly. I wasted time, played when I should have been working, and flunked out of college. A message to authoritarian parents: YOU ARE DOING YOUR CHILD NO FAVORS. THEY WILL FAIL AT ALL THE IMPORTANT STUFF.

I eventually got my shit together, but only after a LOT of psychotherapy and after completely wasting a lot of opportunities handed to me on a silver platter. Do not expect authoritarian bullshit to turn out good kids. It will make you FEEL like you live in a house full of people that act like you want, but it won't do your kids any favors.

To GP: I'm having a laugh riot over parents that think you can "control" kids and get good results out of it. If your kids won't cooperate enough for you to run the house as something other than an authoritarian dictatorship, you've fucked up as a parent and deserve every bad day those kids give you.

Re:Ask the intelligence community

[Totenglocke]

But occasionally you have to clean the house, cook dinner, go to the bathroom. Not all of us have the leisure to hover over children all day.

You SHOULDN'T be hovering over them all day, not even electronically. You teach your kids what they should and shouldn't do, then you let them live and if you had reasonable rules, they'll follow them. That's responsible parenting - teaching your kids and as they get older and older, you back the fuck off and let them start making their own decisions and you trust that they'll follow the rules while you occasionally check up to see if they're doing anything they shouldn't.

The people like you who think parenting is about having 100% absolute control over every thought and action of your children is downright psychotic and only serves your own lust for power, not the needs of your children. You're not raising children that way, you're raising slaves who are incapable of making their own decisions and being independent.

Re:Replacing good parenting with tech solutions ..

[Totenglocke]

I agree but one should still be able to review logs of places the kids (or their friends) have been. I'm their parent, not just their friend.

So I'm assuming you're one of the power obsessed parents who uses Verizon's "family stalker" app to make sure you know when your kid is peeing and if they stopped to get ice cream or not? That kind of control isn't parenting, it's being a dictator - not only will your children despise you for it for the rest of their lives, but you're teaching them that they should be controlled and to not make their own decisions.

On the bright side for your kids, parents like you teach them that every person in a position of authority is an egotistical asshole who's not worth a single ounce of respect.

Treat your kids like human beings instead of slaves - you'll thank yourself in 40 years when you need your kids to pay to support you.

Re:Clear rules

[Totenglocke]

Here's the approach I will likely take once my kids are old enough to use the net:

- Negotiate proper rules with them. - Have something log what sites they go to, when etc. - Let them know about the logging, and make it clear that you will review the logs if there is a need to do so. - Also, I don't believe that someone who is 12 needs unsupervised net access. Have a machine in the family room and let them browse when you're around.

Ultimately, the only common denominator for success is parenting.

Here's the approach I will take if I have kids (currently no plans, but we'll reconsider in 10 years or so):

- Let them have their own laptops

- Put proper AV / Firewall tools on it

- Let them use it

People like you commonly confuse "controlling every aspect of their lives" with "parenting". Parenting means that you teach them right and wrong, then you let them live and trust that they'll do the right thing. If they happen to do something blatantly wrong / you stumble across them doing something wrong, THEN you punish them to try to make sure they don't do it again.

Re:Holy shit

[Dun Malg]

take away the power cords when the kids are in trouble

Yeah, because no kid would EVER be able to scare up a fucking IEC standard power cord.

Re:Replacing good parenting with tech solutions ..

[Totenglocke]

You must be one of those kids who never knew that their parent's called your friend's parents and checked if you were actually there.

No, I know for a fact that they didn't. Hell, even from being as young as 5 or 6 years old I was allowed to go where I wanted in the summer - I didn't have to file any plans, I didn't have a radio tag on me, I was allowed to go where I wanted and do what I want with the only rule being "Be home by dark". My parents trusted me to not do something I shouldn't and not to do something stupid and get myself killed. That's what happens when parents treat kids like human beings - they become capable of making intelligent decisions and looking out for themselves from an early age. They used to do it that way for all of history up until the last 30-40 years, and it worked well for raising responsible people who could take care of themselves. I've have a job since I was 10 because I was already responsible enough for it - no complaining, never missed a day either.

By your animosity, either your parents were quite over the line of reasonable, or you feel you were raised fine with no parental involvement so someone else's kids should be too.

Neither - my parents did a great job of having rules and teaching us right from wrong, but they also treated us like human beings and let us make out own decisions - if we made a bad one, we had to suffer the consequences. That's part of being a good parent - teaching kids personal responsibility and teaching them to be independent.

Both are very weak arguments.

Amusingly, you provided no argument to support your position of ruling with an iron fist and treating children as inhuman creatures that are incapable of thought.

No one here is going to want to read this, but

[geekoid]

Win7 does all this pretty well. IN a surprisingly forward thinking move, MS has been planning and working towards have people with limited computer knowledge running home networks.

It's a lot easier then any Linux distro I have used for home management.