Router timing restrictions not restricting - what am I doing wrong?

[SE13Mummy]

As thread title suggests, I have attempted to set our Belkin N Wireless router to restrict wi-fi access for DD's iPod Touch 4 between 8pm and 8am but it's not working.

Earlier this evening I had thought I'd cracked it as Instagram wouldn't refresh, nor would the weather and the App Store won't open either. However, when I sent a direct message to DD on Instagram, it arrived immediately. Since then, an Instagram notification from one of her school friends has popped up and lets me click through to see the actual post so it's clearly not blocked!

It seems as though somethings are being blocked but not imessages and Instagram (which are the two things I'm interested in blocking as they're the ones that her class mates use to send messages ridiculously late at night). What might I have done wrong?

She usually listens to audiobooks or music on her iPod as she's going to sleep but I don't want her up all night, tempted to read every notification that pops up from a friend. DH and I are both teachers who tend to use our computers in the evenings when the DDs are in bed for school work - DH in particular as his school are very in to setting/submitting/marking work on the VLE - otherwise we'd simply switch wi-fi off during the evenings. At the moment, if we have work to do online, she has to leave her iPod downstairs at bedtime which she's absolutely fine about but I'd like the router timing to work if possible!

[NetworkGuy]

What model router is it, and what is it offering in the way of restriction?

In the past I've helped a client with restricting late night activity, and from memory that used the MAC address of his son's computer to identify it.

[Cindy34]

You may be blocking some protocols and not others.
MAC address filtering rule, all protocols. See if the router will let you set something like that, so it isolates the particular device and cuts off everything, not just Http.

[SE13Mummy]

It's a Belkin N router NetworkGuy - the Client IP filters option is the only one that allows me to restrict access by day/time etc. so I've filled that in.

The MAC address filtering doesn't have an all protocols option Cindy34. It has three columns: block - host - MAC address with a fourth column for deleting/adding a device.

Could it be that our router is too old to do this? Or that I'm too dense?! Is it going to be easier to buy a new, more fancy router that can sing, dance and isolate the iPod?

[NetworkGuy]

I cannot be sure any newer router would do much more anyway.

As you are using Client IP, see if you can ensure the iPod gets the same address (it may be an option box to tick within the router menus... something like check the local devices, getting more info about the iPod when you've identified it, then set the router to always give it same address).

I just took a quick look at the manual for the Play N600 Belkin router (probably one of a dozen models they make) and saw nothing useful about the methods of control (as it just says to use the web browser and has no screen shots to view - ie pretty useless, in my view), so cannot easily see what you'd be seeing on screen.

[Cindy34]

Could you set Do Not Disturb on the ipod Touch so that it is scheduled between the desired hours. That may stop the notifications coming up.

Ideally you want something that disables wifi between certain times. That does not seem possible on IOS, can't find any apps which will do it.

[Cindy34]

Siri can turn off wifi. Does the ipod touch have Siri? Not sure if siri could set up a reminder which turns off wifi, maybe worth a try.

[OMGtwins]

Can your router have more than one ssid for the wireless? Then you can set the wireless your dd connects via to turn off at a certain time and create a new one for you and your dh to leave on. If you want to be even more sneaky you could have the new ssid not broadcast itself so your dd can't see any wifi.

[SE13Mummy]

Thanks for the ideas. I will look into Siri and the SSID.. Do not disturb seems to be an on and off function on DD's iPod rather than anything that can be scheduled to happen at particular times.

I'm also going to try to fix the IP address that the iPod gets - since I've been trying to restrict access I've noticed that the IP address varies (which obviously limits the usefulness of an IP block!).