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How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

Waddyuk — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 19:41:45 GMT

Noticed last few weeks he's been shouting playing games so is online with friends, however he shouldn't be able to at certain times as he's restricted via the BT router admin, any ideas how he's managed to bypass this. He's a sneaky so can't have him out smarting me.

I've noticed his Xbox appears 3 times in the devices list in the BT router admin as we named it his name and 2020 on the router with different MAC and IP addresses. Wondering if he is changing MAC address, he's aware enough to google stuff to find out and all his mates are hardcore gamers so they will probably know.

I'm on BT broadband.

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

imjolly — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 19:53:48 GMT

Could he be using a VPN?

You could just turn wifi off and see his reaction

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

Waddyuk — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 20:00:32 GMT

Wifi is used all around the house though.

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

licquorice — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 20:07:26 GMT

Trying to outwit kids with technology is never going to work.

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

Keith_Beddoe — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 20:36:33 GMT

Changing MAC addresses is quite easy on many devices, in fact Apple do it all the time on IOS14, which defeats access controls.

Its also very easy to change it on the Xbox, its a built in feature.

Google "xbox change MAC address"

Eventually the home hub will run out of IP allocations, and then nobody will be able to connect, until you factory reset the home hub.

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

Waddyuk — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 20:45:58 GMT

What does BT router use to ban sending wifi to a device, MAC or IP address?

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

Carlusha — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 20:49:35 GMT

@Waddyukwrote:
Wifi is used all around the house though.

Not if, as advised, you turn it off.

You can carry on assuming you are ethernet connected.

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

imjolly — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 21:04:53 GMT

If you do turn off the home wifi to show who is in charge you can always connect to BTWIFI using your BTID and password

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

iniltous — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 08:32:56 GMT

Chances are ( as already stated ) he is ‘spoofing’ the MAC address , and as the WiFi password is known , simply rejoins the network as a new device, so as you ban one MAC address, he simply obtains a new one, he obviously knows you are trying to limit his access , so it shouldn’t surprise him if you tried something more direct, like a physical barrier , removing the device from his room at an agreed time for example

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 09:05:42 GMT

@Waddyuk

Another option is to use a different router which has wireless MAC filtering and access controls. The cheapest one costs about £35.

You simply allow the MAC address of all your own devices, plus the current MAC address from his Xbox. All other MAC addresses will not get access.

His MAC address would have the access controls applied, and if he changes the MAC address, he would then lose all access, as the new MAC address would not be in the "allowed" list of devices.

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

gspearson — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 13:46:10 GMT

Is it not just time to have one of those parent/almost adult son conversations and come to a reasoned conclusion?

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

brookheather — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 13:53:30 GMT

I wouldn't bother with trying to get MAC address filtering working - they will just workaround it by cloning another device's MAC address which is allowed access (e.g. a smart TV or Alexa or smart plug etc.) - or they can just set a static IP address on the device bypassing the DHCP controls.

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 13:55:18 GMT

@brookheather wrote:

I wouldn't bother with trying to get MAC address filtering working - they will just workaround it by cloning another device's MAC address which is allowed access (e.g. a smart TV or Alexa or smart plug etc.).

They would have to know what those MAC addresses were, and if they did find one, the router would reject it as a duplicate device on the network, as that MAC would have already been allocated to an IP address.

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

gg30340 — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 14:01:40 GMT

By far the best Parental Controls are ...... the parent. Take the device away from him until he learns the rules of the house. That means removal completely not just at a designated time.

Re: How's son bypassing BT wifi time restrictions on his Xbox to play online late at night?

brookheather — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 18:08:03 GMT

Lots of devices will show their MAC address either on a display or printed on the device. You can also use an app like Net Scan on a phone which will show you all the connected device MAC addresses and IP addresses. So long as that device is turned off then there wouldn't be a conflict.