Sceuring a home netwrk vs. incoming "stuff"

[Linna Heartbooger]

Please temporarily ignore the fact that is an oxymoron.

A close friend has given me the task of securing his family's home network versus that ubiquitous spectacle.

I told him basically, "what you do is this: you call your ISP, and you tell them you are cancelling an account. go off the grid. there is no other answer."
(j/k; not really!)

He's not buy-in' hit.
thinks his fam needs internet for "work and stuff."

he considered switching to lynx.
but, again, feasibility.
and those other browsers.

I think we got at least 2 peeps on this site who could be good at this goal, if you're willing to advise.

My friend wants his defense against this to be - not perfect - but say in the top .01% of networks.

Let's pretend I can assemble a team of 5 competent volunteers + me and an advisory team of >10 experts from various parts of the field.
I have 30 hours a week to work on this starting in May.
My volunteers' hours I have difficulty estimating.

[wayfriend]

Your description of the problem is confusing and strange. I'm not sure I understand.

You can secure your home wireless network with encryption. No one will break in that way.

Any number of computer security products will protect you from viruses and intrusions on the internet.

I don't recommend switching to linux. If you're not computer savvy it'll be too hard to grapple with.

[Savor Dam]

Linna, there appears to be some confusion as to your meaning. When you say "incoming exhibitionist content", is it porn / erotica that your friend's household are seeking to block?

[Linna Heartbooger]

thank you very much, SD. that's right.

[wayfriend]

Is this about a Victoria's secret ad showing up when reading the news? Or is this about blocking someone from seeking out X-rated material when their parents aren't around?

[Vraith]

Linna, there appears to be some confusion as to your meaning. When you say "incoming exhibitionist content", is it porn / erotica that your friend's household are seeking to block?

Yea, confusing question...and weird language. I'm not entirely convinced it IS Linna.

But...pretty much every browser and every search engine has block settings for "adult" content...safe search, parental controls, and such. [if the problem is content that shows up].

Password your network, use anti-virus and an ad-blocker.

If those things are in place, then the problem is MOSTLY/USUALLY not the intruder...the problem is someone is INVITING that shit in.
there are exceptions...but 99% of the time, they get things related to what they're looking for, not unrelated things they're avoiding....

If Porn-related isn't the problem...yea, get off the net.
[[really goddamn bad choice.]]

What WF said...if you aren't VERY competent with all things computer/net...which this person and you don't really seem to be considering the strangeness of the question...stay the fuck away from LINUX

[Linna Heartbooger]

wayfriend-
Point! There's certainly anxiety on the part of the parents.
The kids are getting older, 'n stuff.

Password your network, use anti-virus and an ad-blocker.

good idea on that second call.
I should work on finding a good ad-blocker for Safari, there are macs o.

If those things are in place, then the problem is MOSTLY/USUALLY not the intruder...
there are exceptions...but 99% of the time, they get things related to what they're looking for, not unrelated things they're avoiding....

sighhhh... point.

For this reason, I sometimes wonder how different "the internet" looks to different people.

[wayfriend]

There are parental control firewalls out there which can prevent a child's account from accessing things that they should not be. I used one for a while. The firewall blocks anything known to be adults-only, or anything else you want to block. It's contingent on the child having a different account to access the computer, one without privileges to change things.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

I know where the "browser history" files are stored for Firefox and Chrome, so when the kids were a little younger I had shortcuts on my computer which would connect to the computer they used, allowing me to copy their history with only two or three clicks without their knowledge.

These days they are 16 and 18; the younger one's only restriction is "don't surf pr0n" while Liebeschoen is technically an adult and may do with her computer whatever she pleases--I ask only that she not break it because I cannot afford to replace it right now.

[Linna Heartbooger]

that is a great idea. (those shortcuts.)
Can I ask if that was in Win NT, or some plain-ole "whatever Windows was standard that year" ...or what platform(s)?

also, the precedent of treating an 18 year old as an adult. (though questions of how I'll relate to my kids as adults are yet up ahead, Lor' willin'.)

wf- thanks.
It's kind of weird of me, but whenever I think "firewall" I think "this is gonna be a pain and annoying / confusing to set up / overly-restrictive."

dunno why that is. thanks for reminding me firewalls exist and are surely an option.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Those shortcuts were set up in Win7 but the file locations are the same in Windows10.

The only "how do I secure my network?" advice I normally give is to make the SSID so that it does not broadcast and set the default IP range to something not normally used. Almost every home router is going to default to something like 192.168.0.1, 192.168.0.254, 172.16.1.1, or 10.0.0.1. No, no, no. If you set up your home equipment for Class B addressing then you can use all the way up to 172.31.x.y, so do something different like 172.26.59.254 on the router then give out addresses in descending order.