Parenting issue.

[Rod]

I have just supplied my 13yo with a you-beaut
XP with a good graphics card, and the lad
is having a great time, his games are whizz bang
and chatting on Messenger is intoxicating.

Me, on Win98 have been consuming about 5mb
a day on ADSL, now the child from hell is racking
up around 100Mb a day.

Now the initial terror has subsided, can anyone suggest
a reasonable download quota, for a child of this age?
I need to build my Phone budget scheme around
dowload expectations.

He is a good kid really, does not game on line,
and will curtail his music downloads.
If I say sign up for 1Gb per month, is that
reasonable for adequate usage?

Does chatting (with smileys et al) gobble up
a lot of data?

Thanks for any sage advice,
from a learner parent.

 

[Mike Cawood, HND BIT]

I have just supplied my 13yo with a you-beaut
XP with a good graphics card, and the lad
is having a great time, his games are whizz bang
and chatting on Messenger is intoxicating.

Me, on Win98 have been consuming about 5mb
a day on ADSL, now the child from hell is racking
up around 100Mb a day.

Now the initial terror has subsided, can anyone suggest
a reasonable download quota, for a child of this age?
I need to build my Phone budget scheme around
dowload expectations.

He is a good kid really, does not game on line,
and will curtail his music downloads.
If I say sign up for 1Gb per month, is that
reasonable for adequate usage?

Does chatting (with smileys et al) gobble up
a lot of data?

Thanks for any sage advice,
from a learner parent.

The trouble with kids is that they soon get more knowledgeable than the
parents with computers.
I reckon you need about 5GB per month.
Regards Mike.

 

[Rod]

The trouble with kids is that they soon get more knowledgeable than the
parents with computers.
I reckon you need about 5GB per month.
Regards Mike.

Are you serious Mike?
in his dreams maybe.

What I might have to do is monitor his usage
just chatting for perhaps a two hour stint.
Use that as a guage .

 

[glee]

Are you serious Mike?
in his dreams maybe.

What I might have to do is monitor his usage
just chatting for perhaps a two hour stint.
Use that as a guage .

I don't agree with a lot of parents who just let their kids "have at it" online
unsupervised, in their own room, at that age. Try putting the computer in a family
room where you are often present during its use, the better to judge what is being
done. I know many families that have used this method with great success (and a lot
of kids who didn't like it, but many who had no problem with it).

You will probably have to monitor as you say, at least for a while to get a feel for
what he really requires rather than what he'll use if you give him free reign.

 

[Gene K]

Rod,
Start your son with what you consider a fairly reasonable figure; 1GB
a month is a good start, you can always change it at a later date when
justified. 100MB a day, in my my personal opinion, is way too much usage.
Tell him of that limitation so that he will learn to live, as we all have to
eventually, within rules and limitations.
WATCH OUT on his usage of chat rooms! Check that often. I also agree that
his computer should be where you can observe it, not hidden away in his
bedroom.
Gene K

 

[Alias]

I have just supplied my 13yo with a you-beaut
XP with a good graphics card, and the lad
is having a great time, his games are whizz bang
and chatting on Messenger is intoxicating.

Me, on Win98 have been consuming about 5mb
a day on ADSL, now the child from hell is racking
up around 100Mb a day.

Now the initial terror has subsided, can anyone suggest
a reasonable download quota, for a child of this age?
I need to build my Phone budget scheme around
dowload expectations.

He is a good kid really, does not game on line,
and will curtail his music downloads.
If I say sign up for 1Gb per month, is that
reasonable for adequate usage?

Does chatting (with smileys et al) gobble up
a lot of data?

Thanks for any sage advice,
from a learner parent.

There is no flat rate broadband where you live?

 

[HeyBub]

Rod,
Start your son with what you consider a fairly reasonable
figure; 1GB a month is a good start, you can always change it at a
later date when justified. 100MB a day, in my my personal opinion, is
way too much usage. Tell him of that limitation so that he will learn
to live, as we all have to eventually, within rules and limitations.
WATCH OUT on his usage of chat rooms! Check that often. I also agree
that his computer should be where you can observe it, not hidden away
in his bedroom.

You must be kidding. Just one porn movie can eat up 700Mb by itself.

We're talking a 13-year old male, here.

 

[Rod]

Rod,
Start your son with what you consider a fairly reasonable figure; 1GB
a month is a good start, you can always change it at a later date when
justified. 100MB a day, in my my personal opinion, is way too much usage.
Tell him of that limitation so that he will learn to live, as we all have to
eventually, within rules and limitations.
WATCH OUT on his usage of chat rooms! Check that often. I also agree that
his computer should be where you can observe it, not hidden away in his
bedroom.
Gene K

Thanks Gene,
yeah, I think you have it in one, good advice.
I'll leave it on 500Mb, and "top up" as necessary
an extra 1Gb is $5, and one click.

The Australian Government offers free "Net Nanny" style
software aps, which can limit his "chat room" addresses.
I've installed it and will start with a position of trust,
if he transgresses then I guess we can cut the chat rooms,
at the moment he limits to his friends in Grade 7.

Alias: I have no idea what "flat rate" is?
we have our landline phone, mobiles etc
all hooked to the one provider, and we get
credits.
Our normal monthly phone bill is around $70
$35 landline rental and calls, $35 broadband
limited to 500 Mb.
1 Gb increases the rate to $39.95
but one has to watch upgrading, they can
tie you in to a 24 month contract which I want to avoid.

Cheers

 

[Alias]

Thanks Gene,
yeah, I think you have it in one, good advice.
I'll leave it on 500Mb, and "top up" as necessary
an extra 1Gb is $5, and one click.

The Australian Government offers free "Net Nanny" style
software aps, which can limit his "chat room" addresses.
I've installed it and will start with a position of trust,
if he transgresses then I guess we can cut the chat rooms,
at the moment he limits to his friends in Grade 7.

Alias: I have no idea what "flat rate" is?
we have our landline phone, mobiles etc
all hooked to the one provider, and we get
credits.
Our normal monthly phone bill is around $70
$35 landline rental and calls, $35 broadband
limited to 500 Mb.
1 Gb increases the rate to $39.95
but one has to watch upgrading, they can
tie you in to a 24 month contract which I want to avoid.

Cheers

What I mean by flat rate is that you pay the same amount no matter how
much you download or upload. Do you also have a limit on uploads?

 

[Rod]

What I mean by flat rate is that you pay the same amount no matter how
much you download or upload. Do you also have a limit on uploads?
Alias

I just had a bo peep,
$90 seems top rate (up to 40Gb dl)
I couldn't see any ref to uploads

 

[Rod]

Rod wrote:

What I mean by flat rate is that you pay the same amount no matter how
much you download or upload. Do you also have a limit on uploads?
Alias

Just an aside, the family was away camping over
the weekend, and I used my sons computer
for ease of use.
My normal usage around 5-7 Mb on the W98se box
jumped alarmingly to 15Mb on the XP

Now that's because the speed and ease of use
on the XP encouraged me to use it more,
or Messenger was running in the background
(I am not au fait with the program and when it
loaded I clicked "busy" on the icon)

But going on how much I used it 15Mb a day
is absolutely minimum
I would need 50Mb a day based on that consumption.

 

[cornedbeef007-groups]

Just an aside, the family was away camping over
the weekend, and I used my sons computer
for ease of use.
My normal usage around 5-7 Mb on the W98se box
jumped alarmingly to 15Mb on the XP

Now that's because the speed and ease of use
on the XP encouraged me to use it more,
or Messenger was running in the background
(I am not au fait with the program and when it
loaded I clicked "busy" on the icon)

But going on how much I used it 15Mb a day
is absolutely minimum
I would need 50Mb a day based on that consumption.

If you load Wireshark (Ethereal) www.wireshark.org you can actually
track/log EVERYTHING coming and going from your machine.
Or, use TCPVIEW from Sysinternals http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/tcpview.mspx
to watch what the TCP stack is doing.
Both these tools are free, although Wireshark will use up 17.4 meg of
download just getting it and is probably overkill for your situation,
but it WILL show you what's coming and going.

Good Luck.

 

[Rod]

If you load Wireshark (Ethereal) www.wireshark.org you can actually
track/log EVERYTHING coming and going from your machine.
Or, use TCPVIEW from Sysinternals http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/tcpview.mspx
to watch what the TCP stack is doing.
Both these tools are free, although Wireshark will use up 17.4 meg of
download just getting it and is probably overkill for your situation,
but it WILL show you what's coming and going.
Good Luck.

Thanks Corned Beef
I'll keep your post
just in case I need to get nosey.
Cheers.

 

[dobey]

Thanks Corned Beef
I'll keep your post
just in case I need to get nosey.
Cheers.

Go to whirlpool.net.au and you can compare broadband plans for Australia,
including availability.

Soul are doing unlimited 256 Kb for $30 per month at the moment which I'm
fairly certain is available anywhere.

15Mb a day would be easily consumed with YouTube browsing and the like, (or
have you blocked those as well?). Many web pages can run to over 1 MB since
they embed flash animations.

You'd better hope one of his school friend doesn't put him onto knoppix.

 

[Rod]

15Mb a day would be easily consumed with YouTube browsing and the like, (or
have you blocked those as well?). Many web pages can run to over 1 MB since
they embed flash animations.
You'd better hope one of his school friend doesn't put him onto knoppix.

Cheers,
we were watching whilst messenger was running
using net limiter, and we could see the constant
data transfer.
Rather than block everything, we prefer a
discipline stance, up to now probably youthful
exhuberance, but thanks for the heads up (and whirlpool)
Rod