You're right. I asked for options, not opinions. Not my kid, and it's not like I am going to pass on criticism of their parenting on to them.

Like I said, I don't know what he is doing and I don't know if it's my buddy's wife overreacting. I'll pass on the suggestions and find out more.

Locking it at the BIOS level may be the best idea. Of course that could also seriously fvck things up if they ever forget the password.

Which is why I suggested pairing it with a physical lock on the box.

As PB points out, a jumper (or often just removing the battery) clears the password, problem solved. Which is why physically locking the system would be necessary if that's the route they go.

It's a good suggestion. But it's not really a deterrent, just a speed bump.

Perhaps, but a far larger speedbump than any software solution.

Thanks GD. Appreciate it.

In addition to the other suggestions, any option they choose which involves a password needs to be a secure password. Birthdates, pet names, dictionary words are useless. They need to get a strong password. A minimum of ten characters long (more is better) using mixed case letters, numbers, and punctuation. Absolutely no names, partial names, nor any word which appears in the dictionary.

Under no circumstances should this password be written down and placed near the computer! This "kid" sounds pretty sneaky, if they write down the password, he'll find it.

If they can't think of a good password on their own, go here and get a "random" one-time-use password.

I got nothing to offer that much brighter minds than I have posted, but I am really curious what this kid is doing.


Then just write the password on a Post-It and stick it on the monitor - I found that is very helpful for passwords I forget.


The never-ending fun that is my boss and technology...

Since we are a small (7 people) company, we do not use an Exchange Server: we just use POP email from Go Daddy. Not the best solution, but it gets the job done. I am the one who does the minor maintenance (adding/deleting users, etc.), so I have access to our Admin on Go Daddy.

A while back, the ever-paranoid boss wanted his password changed for his email so that no-one would know what it was - even me. I didn't bother to tell him that I can see his email at any time I want through the Admin function.

He recently got an iPhone and wanted his work email synced with his iPhone. He completely forgot that he set his password to something opnly he knew and did not know what it was (and also claimed that he never did this). So I reset it for him.

Might be easier to use software to TRACK what he does, rather than stop it. And use another form of punishment when he violates their "trust". They could probably put some sort of tracker on at the network level if they have it set up that way (the way companies do). But you'd know more about that than I do.

But in terms of teaching the kid something, forcing him to make the right choices (correcting him when he makes poor choices) rather than making the choices for him will teach him more.

Now, HERE'S a frickin password:
ba^0e6uak-ZKKJWHwi)6=eWcG@nlsOy';>5^^yfOaV{TrbW~Xv&N.M3r1[@dStJ