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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."
It's amazing what kids can figure out when it comes to getting by the restrictions their parents set forth.
They're going to learn about networking, proxies, virtual machines, ip spoofing etc. All because they want to get on Facebook. Which they will.
the simplest and most effective block is to go over and shut the computer off. Take away the computer if you have to (or just the cords if that's too much trouble).
Where to start: Scrap all your ideas and start over.
Yes, everything you asked for can be done. The reality is though is that, with the amount of complexity you are asking for, you will be a full time sysadmin for them - you might as well quit your day job now.
Your setup is simply too complex for a non-techie (and to be honest, as a techie, I don't want to have to admin something that complex at home). You need to stop asking "can I" and ask "should I?"
Windows PCs joined to active directory can let you manage them, set logon hours, etc.
Why do you care to know if the PCs are sleeping/on/off/whatever?
A router running DD-WRT will let you deny internet access based on hours and/or PCs in a simple manner. To be perfectly honest, I hate the concept of internet filtering (by parents or otherwise) as I believe it is another step toward turning people into drones, rather than teaching them to think for themselves, so I'm not even going to offer any suggestions on that subject.
I agree with the other posters, the system you have suggested will end as follows:
1. The kids will learn how to hack around it. This can be a good thing or bad thing, depending on your point of view
2. The system is so complex it will never work and the parent will never use it as they have no clue
3. You will grow to hate it as it will take too much of your time.
As a parent, you are supposed to exert some control over your children. That is why they are called children... That are not yet adults, and are not yet expected to show adult responsibility.
Where N is the number of computer users and you want them in a shared space, not in each child's room. Providing each child a personal computer, especially in his room, is a guarantee that any kind of interaction between you and your kids and between themselves will end. Ensuring computer "scarcity" will force you and, more importantly, your kids to interact with each other. It may even force you and your kids, gasp, to share a computer.
This also has a couple side benefits:
1. There are no "secrets" on the computers so you have no need for the tight monitoring and/or policing you seem to think you want.
2. Virus infections become a shared painful experience with obvious lessons being learned on how to avoid it the next time.
HW monitoring is kind of pointless as it won't tell you anything.
This only leaves you with a couple problems to deal with:
1. backup - there are plenty of backup solutions out there. Generally, you'll want some kind of external drive setup with automated user data backups.
2. virus recovery - If you like anti-virus software, use it. However, you should probably also keep a fresh install method handy so you can simply re-install without having to deal with the mess (this is where a good backup becomes very important). Taken a step further and to save lots of time you could have all your machines running VM hosted Windows images. Then when one of the images gets infected or otherwise "goes bad" you simply revert to the latest and greatest clean VM image (user data backup is still very important).
Keeping an eye on your kids is not the same thing as having a totalitarian regime. I think that logging what your kids do and when is completely acceptable. Whether you reveal this information to them or not is a different story.
When I was a teenager, I got in all kinds of mischief. It turns out that my parents knew about pretty much all of it, but I did not know about this at the time. They didn't interfere unless they thought that I was getting into something over my head... like when I became very depressed, for a long period of time, and I bought myself a bottle of sleeping pills. That was an important intervention.
Children have no right to privacy. Teenagers chafe at the idea, of course, but the fact is that they are children, and good parenting means making decisions that are in their best interests, not their greatest desires. When they're able to weigh their actions with the consequences of those actions (i.e., becoming an adult), then they get privacy.
When your daughter starts googling birth control, it's time to have a chat.
Agreed. The whole project could be tackled this way: content filtering firewall of some sort + take away the power cords when the kids are in trouble.
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
The thing is, the requirements are extra-detailed and a little anal, which make them seem over-the-top, but they basically boil down to:
(1) Restrict internet usage to normal times so the kids don't stay up until three am on a school night. Reasonable.
(2) Revoke access as a punishment. Kids have been getting grounded for how long?
(3) Block access to some sites. Entirely reasonable if you're talking really bad sites or malware infected stuff. It doesn't necessarily equate to some active proxy reading their facebook posts. Besides, I'm sure the kids don't want to see goatse any more than you.
I'm sure plenty of good parents keep guns in a safe and liquor in a locked liquor cabinet. Obviously a gun or booze is more dangerous than the internet, I'm not trying to equate them, but there are advantages to a layered system of trust. Technology and good parenting aren't mutually exclusive.
Can you construct some sort of rudimentary lathe?
Or...focus on logging instead of actual restriction. Make sure they know what they can and can't do, and if the logs show they're frequently abusing the machines, do some parenting.
Ask the two oldest kids for technical support? You can put up any barrier you want but they will find a way around it.
Seriously: At that age you can guide them but you can't control them. Keep the machine(s) in a public area of the house. Observe what they are doing. Talk to them. The most important thing is to be honest with them. At that point in life you are preparing them to leave the nest. In 3 or 4 years they will ready to leave and face a world without parental controls or filters. Prepare them the best you can and have some confidence in them. Letting go is very difficult.
I totally understand where you are coming from, but I think restriction might be the better option. Logs will allow you to see if your child is visiting sites you do not approve of, but it won't make the 12 year old unsee that video of "Hot Asian slut taking it in all three holes at once". (I'd assume this is one of the things that he is trying to filter out). Also, it may not be the child's intent to go look at said video. It might be a bait and switch link that takes them there, some malware infestation, the 15 year old jumping on the 12 year old's machine to do his porn surfing, or some other scenario where it really isn't the 12 year old's fault.
Plus, depending on how much surfing the kids are doing, there could be a pretty big list of logs to go through every day.
And of course the biggest issue.....do you think the parent has the time for the hours of talk/psychological help that would be required if one of the kids ran into goatse.cx? One bad click and the kid would be damaged for life. The parent could only hold the child as they rocked back and forth trying to sleep but unable to remove the image that has burned itself into the retinas.
I want to set up three kids, 12, 14 and 15
Not only that, but those are seriously crappy names for kids.