Restricting router access for hardwired devices

[puffylovett]

Hello, is there anybody tech savvy out there that can help? I have two sons 18 and 16, both in to gaming.
the youngest is also off school (please no judgments we have had a dreadful time of it for 2 years and he is finally receiving treatment). The eldest is undiagnosed but definitely on the spectrum, probably Audhd and very addicted, also currently unemployed.
their gaming PCs are both hard wired into our router to prevent lagging.
I need to work out how to restrict their internet access without turning off the router in its entirety as we need access to our ring doorbell at night for security (partners work van) and also to our mother in laws cameras (she sometimes falls at night and partner has to go help her).
the eldest is extremely tech savvy and when we block wifi access he just bypasses it by renaming his PC. Clearly we need to find a way to control via their IP address but I have no idea how to do this! For a while we had smart sockets (which we had to superglue in place) and that worked, but they broke.
does anybody have any clever ideas please?
both kids are bored stiff, they often just use their computers to watch Netflix so they aren’t gaming all the time, but eldest often forgets to eat. Neither will engage in activities outside the home, eldest only has friends online. So I’m partly terrified of removing their support networks, but we cannot carry on like this and I can’t go cold turkey with them as the youngest has expressed suicidal thoughts to his therapist.
both my partner and I work full time long hours, so being there to physically prevent them isn’t an option.
Thank you

You’ll probably get more responses from techy people on the tech tips topic:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/tech_tips_and_queries

Thank you

If you block the ips and they are tech savvy they will probably just use a vpn to get round it.

A VPN won't get round a block on the PC's local IP address. But it's trivially easy to change a PC's IP. You could block on MAC address but that can usually be changed as well. It's a tricky one.

Realistically, as long as they've a) got wired connections, b) presumably have full admin access to their PCs, and c) have long periods of time left unsupervised then there's not much you can do. You might be able to find some high-end router that allows you to disable the Ethernet ports on a timer but I don't know of any off the top of my head that are aimed at home users. You could do it with the Cisco and Juniper routers we use at work but you really won't want to pay those prices or for having to get a network geek like me in to configure it.

What I did, albeit in a less adversarial situation than the one you're in, is to forget about wired connections and just bought a second wifi access point that I plugged in to the router. The router's built-in wifi was on all the time but only I had the password for it and I used that for things that had to be live all the time plus my own laptop/phone/etc. I also changed the admin password for the router itself and turned off WPS. The DCs only had the wifi password for the second wifi access point. That had a built-in timer that turned off at a sensible time.

One obvious but expensive way of doing things is to pay for two ISPs and run a separate router for the Ring doorbell etc, but you probably don't want to do this as it would involve paying two subscriptions. Overall though I feel like you need a better solution than trying to block them with technology, because that's not solving the problem long term.

I think a physical barrier or solution is likely to be less hackable long term. Like you say, they are clever kids.

Thank you guys. Very helpful to at least talk about it! I took the router plug to work with me this morning and left them a list. We have decided to try the smart plugs again and the router is going off at night, will just have to sacrifice the security element and rely on MIL button monitor to call us if any issues. We’ve also put a lock on the kitchen door to stop the midnight snacking. Hoping it does the trick although am still waiting for ds2 to have his first shower in 3 days 🙈
failing that, the backup plan is to put wifi dongles on their pcs and have them put up with the lag, although ds1 asssures me he has a workaround for that, too 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️