Parental control and curfew, time settings

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Astralv

Astralv

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Hey guys!

I built Haswell 4770K with Asus Z87 Pro motherboard computer for my son. Now we have a problem with parental control and curfew. It is sat to restrict him from using computer from 11 PM to 9 am and supposed to lock his computer twice a day for an hour break. We had it set up the same way on his old Windows 7 computer and it worked great. On this computer I believe, it worked at first, but then it started to lock computer later and later and now it does not lock computer at all. I am so used to rely on it- it used to be that at 11 pm, computer would lock and my child would go to bed. Now he gets up in the middle of the night while I am sleeping and playing Minecraft, he is up in 5 in the morning, he takes no breaks on weekends and I do not understand why it does not work. I am checking the settings from administrator account for the curfew times-- everything is set as it was on his account. The time zone and computer time is appropriate. I can not think of anything else that could be wrong with it. The only thing is that we were experimenting with dual boot and it would mass up time after booting from another drive, but it was a while ago- time settings are correct now.

The time is set to be synchronized with time.windows.com which was default setting. I need to make this work again or my child will grow in to cyber reality. Thank you.
 
Solution
Tom Tancredi
My first concern as your dual booting, is that when the BIOS scans for the Bootloader for 'where is the OS to run me', it runs into the code for the other OS as the bootloader. This would be started first, and depending on what that other OS is, it maybe altering the time just by 'booting' the computer, not even getting to the Windows Code yet, since Windows is not SOLE OS on the computer (Windows doesn't like to dual boot since Vista).

My second concern it maybe simple Level 1 issue, the onboard battery watch just may need replacing. To do so, unplug the power, wait 15 minutes for it to 'de-energize' (else you may short the computer). Then remove from the Mobo the watch battery and replace. If the time is 'losing' this would be the...
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Tom Tancredi

Tom Tancredi

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ROUTER. In your Router is a table setting, many of them have the ability to set 'hours' to a particular device (device being the MAC Addressing of the Wireless/Wired NIC). I would rely on this then a 'software' solution (Windows, applications, add ons, etc.) that can be bypassed if your son has the access privileges (Admin rights) or just turned off by booting SAFE MODE, disable them, reboot play all he wants, reenable, shut down, none the wiser you be.
 
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Astralv

Astralv

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Thank you for your replies. I have 3 desktops connected to the same router, I do not see time changes. OS X dual boot would mass up time as it uses universal time. But I did not use dual boot in a while and the problem persists.

My son is not that smart- he is 9. Also I suspect- he may know some of my passwords because he uses my iPad while I sleep. But I do not think he boots in safe mode. Also I can see him playing, 11 pm comes and nothing happens. It used to lock computer, it would give warning and then lock. Then it was locking 1.5 hors later. And now- not locking at all. But all settings are still in place. Weird.
 
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Astralv

Astralv

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Last night the computer did not lock at 11 pm and was not locked this morning when it was supposed to be, but then suddenly it locked at 12 pm as scheduled. I do not understand what it is. I am wondering if some games can prevent it from locking. Also my child was playing Minecraft in the evening and in the day and in the day it worked.

Are the parental control tools that are part of Windows 8 actually small programs? Would there be a way to uninstall and reinstall them?

Any other parental control software you can think of that can affect 1 account but not all accounts? Thank you.
 
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Tom Tancredi

Tom Tancredi

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Astralv: First, you mention this is a Dual boot system? That would affect it because, while you may not be booting to the other OS, Windows 8 isn't the 'primary - only OS', and thus may not be taking the time clock correctly (as you noted already) and this will continue to be a issue.

Second, Did you check TIME ZONE, to make sure it is set to the right timezone. Often I seen where for no reason this gets reset to Greenwich Mean Time or worse somewhere in Ukraine.

Lastly, in all my experience and numerous articles since Windows Parental Controls was first added, then in comparision to all 'add on' parental controls; all can be bypassed / corrupted by simply changing the TIME in Windows to another 'TIME' that is allowed (so for example setting it to AM instead of PM) or as I mentioned the easier boot hit F8 in safemode deactivate (say from startup) the software / service reboot and now no parental controls till you change it back. YES 9 year old kids know this as well younger ones once they understand reading and Google searches (looks at my own 6 and 9 year old).

That said, you have to have a 'Router' that routes all these computers together to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) connection to have Internet service. In the Router, simple access the webpage (like 192.168.1.1 or whatever your network router IP is) then go through the menues one at a time. There is usually one under security that you can LIMIT the hours of activation for a 'device' (the computer your son uses) and you can set it in there and always make sure no software hiccup happens. This is the most reliable method I ever found (having the last two of eight kids and some underage teenagers as well having this issue).

In the recent case of my two children, honestly, if he won't follow the rules, then you need to enforce them which means take the computer away from him if he violates your rules, my children were off the Internet for a month because they couldn't follow the rules as we came to a head (first lost a weekend, then a week, then 2 weeks, then finally a month). Worst case, you can actually take the power plug off the computer if you can't "trust" your child that much to even be punished. Really no hardware/software can enforce better then your personal parental skills.
 
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Astralv

Astralv

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Tom, thank you for your reply.

It is dual boot system. The other OS uses universal time, this is why every time that OS is used, it masses up something and changes Windows clock. However, I am not sure how it gets massed up. I assume- other OS changes time in BIOS, but Windows do not set time by BIOS. This computer is set to sync to the Internet time server time.windows.com. It supposed to sync it like every 5 days. But the time displayed is correct. The time zone is correct as well.

My child can not change time to different time as he is not on administrator account. When you try to change it without admin privileges, it would be grayed out. So I don't think he is changing the time. Yesterday I manually synced the time to the server (even through it was showing the right time). I don't think the curfew worked last night but today it worked at 12 pm.

I will not be able to limit time to the computer because my son is not the only user- my boyfriend is using it too.

Thank you for the parental wisdom. He was on the restriction for 3 weeks due to spending money with in-app purchase in Apple app store with my iPad. He was very guilty, however- he would get up at 5 am while I sleep and try to use iPad or get on the computer. I unplug the cables, but he plugs them back. He just earned his computer back, but he can not help it- he wants to get up at 7 am on weekend and play the game, and I want him to sleep longer. We have the rules, but if we enforce them, he would never get to use computer. lol.

He was pretty good with curfew. When it locks up, he would go to bed and sleep till 9 am when it unlocks. I would like it to work again. I need to look and see what time is in the BIOS. I was told that there is a registry fix to set Windows to Universal time as well, that way there will be no time switching issue after other OS is used. But I do not use that OS often, time showing correct, so why is the problem? I did not alter the registry, but it still masses with parental control even when time setting is correct.
 
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Tom Tancredi

Tom Tancredi

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My first concern as your dual booting, is that when the BIOS scans for the Bootloader for 'where is the OS to run me', it runs into the code for the other OS as the bootloader. This would be started first, and depending on what that other OS is, it maybe altering the time just by 'booting' the computer, not even getting to the Windows Code yet, since Windows is not SOLE OS on the computer (Windows doesn't like to dual boot since Vista).

My second concern it maybe simple Level 1 issue, the onboard battery watch just may need replacing. To do so, unplug the power, wait 15 minutes for it to 'de-energize' (else you may short the computer). Then remove from the Mobo the watch battery and replace. If the time is 'losing' this would be the normal answer I would have suggested, but you have (as you responded and I am mentioned) a base OS bootcode that uses a 'different' time setting, which maybe confusing Windows when it loads SECOND to the Dual Boot OS bootcode.

Third would be to NOT use time.windows.com but instead use the Federal Time NIST servers, which should be listed or you can google them. This might help keep the time, but your already pointing (the Dual Boot OS) to a known issue, so this may again not even help.

I am not sure what you mean though by UNIVERSAL TIME? You talking GMT? You can't actually do that with Windows unless your IN GMT timezone, because Windows needs to use that time function to understand how to 'transmit and receive' the right data packets when communicating, and it uses time as a way to stamp them and make sure they are received in order (besides many other uses it does to confirm patch dates, updates, etc.). Windows will actually 'hose up' if the Time is off, and in some weird cases actually discuss itself with the Microsoft Activation Server (it repeatedly does this randomly whenever Windows is running to continually validate legal copies from illegal copies) and with the time 'off' and the wrong zone (GMT would mean it was a European copy of Windows, not a American copy) it would nullify the Activation and claim it is a stolen copy of Windows because it claims to be someplace that according to the communications log says it isn't (indicating a stolen or illegal used copy of Windows).

I think the last and final solution maybe even simpler, load the other 'OS' and set it to the right time zone and time. This might in the end be the simplest and most effective solution.
 
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Solution
M

mc962

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Did you check that the time in BIOS is set correctly? I found that certain applications that relied on correct time being set were not working for mysterious reasons, even though Windows was set correctly. After going into the BIOS I found that the time was incorrectly set. After changing it to the proper time everything worked perfectly. I don't know for sure that bad BIOS time would cause it, but it's worth the several seconds it takes to look
 
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