The Complete Guide on Monitoring and Parental Control on a Chromebook and Disabling Incognito Mode - Part 3

[This is a 5-part series. Here are links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.]

Problem Statement:

Know what web sites my daughter wastes time on when she is at home with a school managed Google Suite account (because her school has monitoring of their own) without me spending too much time or spend any money on new hardware devices.

Option 2: Remote Access

2.1 VNC Viewers

VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. It is "a graphical desktop-sharing system that uses the Remote Frame Buffer protocol (RFB) to remotely control another computer", according to wikipedia. VNC allows you to remotely view another computer's screen without the user of that computer knowing. You can also send keyboard and mouse events to the remote computer as if you were sitting in front of that computer.

Several companies offer free VNC apps, such as UltraVNC, TigerVNC, and RealVNC. I have actually used UltraVNC extensively on my home network computers and am finding it very useful (especially with my super old and slow windows 10 computers). The way it works is that you can install a VNC server on the computer you want to monitor and then simply run a client viewer on your computer to connect to that server on the remote computer.

UltraVNC

TigerVNC

RealVNC

Having had great experience with VNC viewers, I searched for a solution on Chromebook and found the VNC Viewer for Google Chrome extension by RealVNC in the Chrome web store. Very excited, I gave it a try, and then very sadly, found out that they don't have a client you can install on a Chromebook. So the extension is only good for the case where you want to control another non-Chromebook computer from your Chromebook. Further research found that the reason there's no client for Chromebook is because Chromebook doesn't use X11 (and is pretty locked down), according to a developer from TigerVNC.

This means VNC is not a solution for me either.

2.2 TeamViewer

TeamViewer is another remote support/monitor app that has a free version for personal use that I have been using frequently for my home network computers. You can set up your computers to automatically accept TeamViewer sessions, which allows you to immediately see what is going on with the remote computer. When I searched and found out that TeamViewer has a Remote Desktop for Chrome OS, I got super excited and quickly got it set up on my daughter's Chromebook. But once again, my hope was crushed when I realized that this Chrome App only allows me to remotely connect to other computers FROM the Chromebook, as confirmed by TeamViewer developer in this web page, because they don't have a client that you can install on Chrome OS due to the way Chromebook works.

In a similar boat is another remote support app called Zoho Assist.

So is there no way to do remote support on a Chromebook? There actually is one called:

2.3 Chrome Remote Desktop

Chrome Remote Desktop is Google's answer to remotely controlling computers. It is a Chrome App that you can install from chrome web store and requires the control computer and the destination computer to both run Chrome. Chromebook, of course, runs Chrome. Once installed, this Chrome App actually allows remote control across multiple platforms, such as controlling a Mac from a Windows PC.

But how does Chrome Remote Desktop work?

First, both the control computer and the remote computer need to have the Chrome app installed. Then the remote computer can initiate a support session (generate code) and then provide a unique code to the control computer in order to connect to the session. The code will only work one time and the remote computer needs to confirm sharing every 30 minutes. Follow the link below for detailed instructions.

How to use Chrome Remote Desktop to access another computer

But you see, if I have to ask my daughter to initiate a remote session, that completely defeats the purpose of monitoring. She can easily close all the Chrome windows/tabs she was wasting time on before allowing me to connect to her computer. Again, not a solution for me. 😕

That's it for today's post. Make sure to read:

Part 4 of the Complete Guide

Video of the Day:

Found this YouTube playlist with lots of 80's greatest hits!

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

The Complete Guide on Monitoring and Parental Control on a Chromebook and Disabling Incognito Mode - Part 2

[This is a 5-part series. Here are links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.]

Problem Statement:

Know what web sites my daughter wastes time on when she is at home with a school managed Google Suite account (because her school has monitoring of their own) without me spending too much time or spend any money on new hardware devices.

Option 1: Control at the router and network level

1.2 Parental Control on the Router

Another place to implement parental control is right on your router, whether it is a modem/router combo device or a separate WiFi router you connect to the ISP modem.

Most routers sold today offer some kind of parental control. Even my five-year-old Motorola model/router has it. However, with so many variety of makes and models of routers out there, the level of parental control you get is a total YMMV (Your Mile May Vary). Generally you login to the admin console of the router (normally just type 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 into your browser address bar), and create your custom rules there.

So what kind of parental control might be available on a router?

Control Internet Access at the Device Level

Pretty much all routers will allow you to disable Internet access based on device MAC address (a unique id for any network device) because that is an essential function of a router. Most routers will also allow you to create device level schedules that determines when a device can get online (even my 5-year old Motorola router has that).

Filter and Block Contents at the Device Level

Again, most routers today will allow you to block websites at a device level, and possibly with a schedule so certain websites can only be visited during allowed time (my 5-year old Motorola router does that). This helps, for example, if you don't want your kids watching YouTube all night. However, the duty is on you to identify all the websites you want to block or control, and if your kids are smart enough to find other video web sites (such as dailymotion or disneynow) that you are not aware of, you are in trouble (once you find out, of course, they are now in trouble 😉).

Some router might offer list of websites or even categories you can select from. But these are rare.

Control How Much Time a Device Can Stay Online

This is a more flexible and advanced control, because now you don't have to specify fixed schedules on when your kids can get online. They have X amount of time to have Internet access for that day, and they can choose to use it anytime they want. However, this is an overall Internet access control, not control based on which website they visit. So you can't say, for example, 15 minutes on Instagram each day.

Some routers offer this capability right on the router, such as this cheap TP-Link AC1750 WiFi Router for $57.99.

TP-Link AC1750 Dual Band Gigbit WiFi Router 

Keep Track of What Websites Your Kids Are Visiting

Knowing what websites my kids are visiting is the most beneficial feature for me for my daughter's case. Some routers offer to keep a history of all websites visited (can be filtered by device), such as some NetGear routers as described in this How-To article.

Most NetGear router you can buy today seems to offload the website visit history function to the Circle App on your smart phone (you just have to go through the hassle to download the app and configure it), such as this NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1750 WiFi Router for $88.

NEGEAR Nighthawk AC1750 Gigbit WiFi Router

Since I don't intend to buy any new devices and spend more time reconfiguring my entire home network, this is not a solution for me.

You might ask, what is this Circle App thing? That naturally leads to the next possible solution, an additional monitoring/control device on your home network.

1.3 Circle with Disney

So what is Circle with Disney?

Circle with Disney is a physical box that wirelessly connects to your home network to monitor, control and report on internet activity.

I can't figure out why this device has Disney's name associated with it. It is made by a company in Oregon. Customers do feel a bit safer when they see Disney's name.

This is an add-on device to your network that allows you to manage the following through the MyCircle app on your smart phone:

Basic features:

• Online content filters per device from existing categories.
• Time online tracking per device and stats (graphs).
• Breakdown of which sites were visited per device throughout the day.

Premium features:

• Limit online time per device.
• Bedtime control (basically scheduling Internet off)
• Pause Internet for a device from your app.
• Location tracking for mobile devices. (This is more for convenience of stats in one place. Your mobile devices can already do this by their own.)
• Rewards of extra online time (Basically the same as you increasing allowed time online.)

Although this is not a solution for me because I don't intend to spend extra money, this does sound like a great solution. The Circle for Disney device sells for $99.99.

Circle for Disney

Before you pull the trigger and buy this device though, be aware that there is a catch:
What you are buying for $99.99 is the device and a one-year subscription which includes all the premium services. After one-year subscription is up, you will have to pay $9.99/month to keep using the premium services. My understanding is that you should still be able to get the basic features for free. And you should be able to obtain the other features from other means most likely for free.

1.4 Google Mesh WiFi

Google Mesh WiFi is a product to improve WiFi signals at your home especially for those spotty areas. It is also a WiFi router so you don't need a separate WiFi router solution. I already have Google Mesh WiFi at my house. A 3-pack (nodes) Google Mesh WiFi sells for $239.

If you already have Google Mesh WiFi or are planning to get them to improve WiFi signals anyway, you should definitely take advantage of the parental control functions that come with it for free.

The control and monitoring happens on a smart phone app you download to manage your Google WiFi. Inside the app there's a function called Family WiFi. There are four main features:

1. You can group devices with labels and then monitoring and control at a group level.
2. You can apply Google's SafeSearch filter on a device or a group of devices to block adult web sites automatically (same SafeSearch in Google search engine).
3. Schedule Internet time-outs. For example, shutdown Internet access to a device or a group of devices at 9:30pm during weekdays and 10:30pm at weekends.
4. Pause/Un-pause Wi-Fi access on demand directly from your own smart phone.

To read more about the Family WiFi features, you can read this Google Help Page.

But there is one feature lacking, website visit history. Google actually sell this as a privacy feature as described in this Google Help Page. We all know that Google is already tracking everything about you, your search history from the search engine, your schedule from your calendars, your hobbies from your emails, places you visit from your smart phone geo data, and your conversations at home from Google Home voice assistants. So please stop pretending and just give us the website monitoring feature for heaven's sake!

I take full advantage of the Google Mesh WiFi's Family WiFi parental control features. But because of the lack of history logs, this is also not a solution to my problem.

By the way, if you do want to get Google Mesh WiFi and also want to use Google Home, make sure to read my other blog post about how to make them work together.

That's it for today's post. Make sure to read:

Part 3 of the Complete Guide

You will get paint on you when you paint, no matter how careful you are.

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

The Complete Guide on Monitoring and Parental Control on a Chromebook and Disabling Incognito Mode - Part 1

[This is a 5-part series. Here are links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.]

My teenage daughter uses a Chromebook for her school work and assignments. Chromebook is a lightweight laptop computer running Chrome OS. Here lightweight is both in terms of the computing power and the actual weight. The biggest benefits of a Chromebook is that: 1. It is very cheap!! (Such as the one below for only $139.91 on Amazon.) 2. It has long battery life (11+ hours). 3. It is very light (Solid State Drive) and also durable (Solid State Drive).

As a responsible parent, I want to make sure that when my teenage daughter uses the laptop, she is not wasting time watching online videos, online window shopping, access inappropriate contents, or wasting time on social media. So in this post I'll share my findings on the many ways of monitoring and parental control on a Chromebook.

Problem Statement:

Know what web sites my daughter wastes time on when she is at home with a school managed Google Suite account (because her school has monitoring of their own) without me spending too much time or spend any money on new hardware devices.

Option 1: Control at the router and network level

1.1 Use DNS Servers

DNS stands for Domain Name Server. The server is responsible for translating easy to memorize domain names (such as lannyland.com) to an IP address (such as 67.222.38.97), so your app or browser can find the actual web server hosting the service. Without a DNS server, your device would have no idea where to go when you put in a web address. All your phones and computers are configured to use a DNS server so they can function correctly. In most cases, the DNS server is managed by your Internet Service Provider or a big tech company that offers free ones (e.g., Google).

Since a DNS server is the translator in between, it can do two things:
1. Log what translation queries it received, and
2. Decide if a translation should be made.

For parents, this means:
1. You can see what web sites and web pages were visited in logs.
2. Use a filter service on the DNS server to deny translation requests for bad web sites by their names (URLs).

If you are an expert in managing computer networks, you can run your own DNS server at home. It has been a long time since I ran full suite of networking services at home, and I don't want to spend the time to set all these up at home. So not a solution for me.

Another option is to use free services like OpenDNS (they have paid services too). You will need to sign up an account with them and then configure your system(s) to use their DNS servers.

Pros:

• Even the free version lets you see stats and logs of domains visited (only for 14 days).
• With the free version you can also block individual domains or user existing filters to block websites by category (e.g., Social Media Sites).

Cons:

• You need to know your router's IPV4 address at your ISP in order to create the network in OpenDNS dashboard. It's actually really easy to find it. Simply type "what is my ip address" in your Google search box while connected to your home network and Google will tell you. Your IPV4 address is most likely a dynamic IP address (vs. a static IP address), which means it can change from time to time (luckily, not very often). OpenVPN's solution is to install a client on your computer that will automatically update OpenVPN when the IP address changes. But you will have to install that on a different computer, because there is no client available for Chromebook. Or, just update the IP address in OpenDNS settings when it changes.
• If you set your router to use OpenDNS's DNS servers, you can't tell who visited the web sites (e.g., both my wife and my daughter visit shopping web sites). So instead, you should set up custom DNS just for the computer you want to monitor. This also means it works best when you only need to monitor one kid.
• This only works if the device you want to monitor connects to your home network.
• Stats are logs are only made available to you once each hour with a big delay (hours). If you don't need to know very quickly what your kids are browsing, this might be a solution for you.
• Stats and logs are actually not very informative:
• There's no timestamp on when a domain is visited and how much time is spent there. 
• The smallest range is a day, so you can't pin point domains visited by hour.
• Logging is also at domain/subdomain level, so there's no info on what web pages were visited.
• All the domains visited by scripts in web pages (such as auto ads, tracking, etc.) are also tracked, creating a long list of entries. For example, during the 6 hours I tracked, my daughter visited 724 unique domains, and during the peak hour, she visited over 500 unique domains (see screen captures below). This makes finding what websites she really visited a very time consuming task.

Example of useless domains tracked. Note the number of entries.

Example graph for unique domains visited during a 6-hour period.

If you think this meet your parental control needs, go to the links below to get more information. But it is clearly not a satisfactory solution for me.

Differences Between the Free and Paid Service Plans
How to Use OpenDNS on Your Router, PC, Tablet, or Smartphone
How to Change the DNS Server on a Chromebook


That's it for today's post. Make sure to read:

Part 2 of the Complete Guide

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: Make Google Mesh WiFi and Google Home (Mini) Work Together

Google Mesh WiFi is a great solution for homes that have bad or spotty WiFi signals. You can get as many nodes as you want and then put them in different parts of your home. They mesh together and provide good quality WiFi coverage throughout your home.

You can also use the Google WiFi app (only available on your smart phones) to manage WiFi connections to all your devices and schedule when they can have WiFi access or filter unsafe, inappropriate contents for your children.

It supports typical router functionalities such as port forwarding, static IP, prioritized streaming, and more. However, it doesn't log what websites your WiFi devices are visiting.

Google Home series of devices (Google Home, Google Home Max, Google Home Mini, Google Hub) are voice assistant devices similar to Amazon Echo series. You can ask them to look up information such as knowledge facts, weather, traffic, news, or control smart home devices with your voice (by the way, Vivint products such as thermostat, locks, lights, etc., are all compatible with Google Home). But most people use them mainly for music and alarm/timer. My kids like to use them to check their homework.

Since I have both Amazon and Google voice assistants, I only have 3 Google Home devices.

Both Google products are useful. But when I got my Google Mesh WiFi and tried to get my Google Home devices connected to my Google Mesh WiFi, it became a disaster.

Google Mesh WiFi supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi signals. One "nice" feature of Google Mesh WiFi is that for both frequencies, the WiFi network you create will only have one name. This eliminates the confusion when you try to add devices to your home WiFi network because there is only one network to connect to. However, this also created big problem when connecting Google Home devices, because there was no way to specify if you want to connect a device to the 2.4GHz network or the 5GHz network. After I successfully connected my main Google Home to my Google Mesh WiFi, installing Google Home mini turned disastrous. Following the app flow to install mini would get stuck and no error message is given on why it would get stuck.

The funniest part was that when I called Google Home support line, the support staff actually told me that Google Home devices are not compatible with Google Mesh WiFi! Come on Google, you can't even make your own products work together?

Of course, that customer service representative just didn't know what he was talking about, and the knowledge base he used to search for solutions didn't return a viable solution. There is actually a way to get them working together!

The core problem with the set up is really that all the Google Home devices need to be on the same WiFi frequency. Of course, I wish Google would have either:

1. enabled Google Mesh WiFi to take care of this, or

2. allowed me to specify which WiFi frequency to use when connecting Google Home mini to my WiFi network, or

3. at least returned informative error messages on the limitation.

After hours spent troubleshooting to identify this problem, I finally found the solution: you can force all your Google Home devices to connect only to the 2.4GHz WiFi network.

The benefit of 5GHz WiFi is that you can get higher throughput, meaning you can transfer data much faster. However, the benefit of 2.4GHz WiFi is that the WiFi signal can travel much further. Typical range for 2.4GHz WiFi signal is 150 feet (46m) indoor and 300 feet (92m) outdoor. The range for 5GHz is only one third of that. So in order to make sure you only connect to the 2.4GHz WiFi network, you just have to make sure you are far away from your router (or your Google Mesh WiFi nodes).

So there I was, outside my home a long distance away from my router with a long extension cord on a code rainy night way past midnight, using my smart phone to make sure I could only connect to my 2.4GHz WiFi and not my 5GHz WiFi, and then one after another, installing my Google Home series devices. But at least I proved the Google Home CSR was wrong! Google Mesh WiFi and Google Home devices DO WORK TOGETHER!

Well, once I got them working, they worked pretty well since, and I never had to reconfigure them again. So if you were also struggling to get them working together, now you know how.

Best luck with all your daily battles!

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: How to get rid of unwanted items in your Google Calendar

If you use Google Calendar, you probably noticed recently that a lot of extra events just start to pop up in your calendar, such as hotels you reserved and flights you booked, meeting invitation you received, or worse, notifications on the prize money you just won with bogus phishing links embedded such as this one below:

So what is going on?

This is actually the results of Google AI trying to be smart and convenient for you by scanning your emails and then automatically adding items to your calendar. However, Google messed up by allowing spam invitations sent to your to also show up in your Google Calendar even though your Gmail correctly classified it as spam and shoved it into the spam folder.

On the other hand, it might be convenient for some people to have their travel itinerary automatically inserted into their calendars based on email confirmation they receive, some people might not want that at all! And guess what, I am one of them!!

My wife works as a travel agent, and she sometimes forwards me emails containing hotel reservations and flight info so I can track the credit card charges. Google AI just automatically assumed that I was traveling and then spammed the heck out of my calendar with all these events I have no interest tracking. And it would have been better if I got an email asking me if I want to opt into such "smart" service. But nope, Google just decided to make that the default.

Whining aside, how can you turn these things off and get life back to normal? Let me show you:

Go to Google Calendar and then click the gear icon to get into settings. Then uncheck "Automatically add events from Gmail to my calendar" under Events from Gmail.

Next go to Event settings and change the selection under Automatically add invitations to "Yes, but don't send event notification unless I have responded".

That should disable the evil Google AI from trying to determine your calendar for you!

Moving on to my next battles!!

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com