OK, I can see I need to study up on this wireless stuff, because I don't think I'm understanding what y'all are saying. I kinda thought it was some little gadget that would go in place of a regular network card, with a little radio in it to communicate to a base unit, and the base unit would have a newtwork card that I'd connect up to our LAN. If I'm understanding y'all, the wireless part is actually a little network all by itself, whcih I then connect to our LAN?
Time for more reading.
Re access control. That is a large part of what I'm worrying about, and I agree that it would be good if we could watch all the time to see what she is doing. But I also know that she is a lot like me, needing some peace and quiet to be able to concentrate on stuff like writing or programming, and that peace and quiet are hard to get in our house (she has two little brothers and a little sister). Her room is her refuge from the noise and commotion, and she'd like to be able to write or play games in there. Hmmm, since she wants a notebook computer, I wonder if I can set things up so that she can use her computer or even connect to our LAN from her room or anywhere else in the house, but will need to be plugged in someplace public to connect to the internet? Yeah, I think I could do that...
I'm also hoping to find some software that instead of filtering will just block everything except what I specifically enable. If she wants to visit a site we haven't already approved, she would have to ask me to put it on the approved list. Same thing would be good for email - if I could make a list of email addresses she could send to and receive mail from. Not so sure about that part from any commercial product, might have to try coding it myself.
I can think of a lot of temporary measures that will work now, when she is 12, but not sure how well they will continue to work as she gets older and more experienced with computers. It isn't a battle that can be won once and for all, rather a continuing series of engagements that will continue and require adaptation over the years.
SpaceBadger