Girlfriend's XP user access dilema

Geckovich

Geckovich

Geckovich

Associate
Joined
27 Nov 2008
Posts
2,268
Location
Cambridge
Ok gents, here's the scenario:

I recently built my girlfriend a computer, which she uses for gaming and Uni work. Her house-mate also uses it, but to a massive extent - she's pretty much abusing the fact that my girlfriend lets her use it in the first place (9 hour left 4 dead sessions only ending at 5am when another house-mate gets up for work and confronts her).

My girlfriend cant say anything, because her house-mate is really (stupidly) easily offended and there is already enough of an "atmosphere", but she wants to stop her being on it so much. Is there any way I can limit the amount of time she can spend on it? Preferably it needs to be subtle, so she thinks it's just the computer messing up rather than me sabotaging it. It has already got to the point that my girlfriend and another house-mate have hidden the DVI lead and said that someone borrowed it to stop her, but obviously this means that they can't use it for legitimate reasons - like the odd tf2 game or essay.

The friend already has her own windows login (non-admin on windows xp home) so I was hoping there would be something I could set in place to stop this madness.
 
inph said:
Abuse the hosts file. Steam Auth servers spring to mind.
Click to expand...

Can't do that I don't think, the girlfriend plays l4d too so I think it would cripple hers - she just asked me to clarify that it's not for 9 hours a day.

Even though they have different steam accounts and both bought the game, I was under the impression that there would only be one set of game files.

This is going to be harder than I first thought.
 
dk345 said:
Windows SteadyState maybe??

I once fiddled around with it on a friends machine, but we installed for a client at work. It gives you a pretty extensive feature set, but I haven't used it for too long a period, so I can't say for sure.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx

It's free if your Windows is genuine, so it could be worth a look?
Click to expand...

Of course it's genuine, what do you have me down for :P

Does look like it could be what I need though.
 
It doesn't matter what you do, she's going to notice. Especially when your missus is playing L4D with no hassle and she isn't.

And when she does notice you can guarantee she'll be moaning to your missus about it.

Sooner or later someone is going to have to have it out with this girl so save yourself the hassle of messing about with the PC and talk to her. Either take her access away completely or make her realise that it's not her PC and as such she's got to respect the wishes of the person who owns it.
 
Geckovich said:
Of course it's genuine, what do you have me down for :P

Does look like it could be what I need though.
Click to expand...

Well, you know what people are like these days :P

And it looks like it could help with your problem. It gives you the ability to set times for when users can access the web, how long they can be logged on for and probably lots of other things as well. Like I said, I haven't used it all that much, but from what I have seen and read, it could help.

But like others have said, whatever you do, she's going to notice at some point. I think the software can be configured to silently make these changes, but she has to twig at some point, and then your girlfriend will get it.
 
Thanks for all the replies so far, you've really given me some food for thought and set me in the right direction.

Sadly the general consensus is also true, no matter what I do it will be discovered soon enough. I wish they girls could just get it all out in the open and tell the "friend" she's no longer allowed on the PC. The trouble is the internet is registered in the name of the "friend" (though they all pay), and she uses the router as a form of control when they argue.

If they tell her outright that she's not allowed on it she'll either: change the router password for a few days, or simply cripple the speeds for everyone by torrenting GB after GB of anime.
 
Last edited:
Geckovich said:
Ok gents, here's the scenario:

I recently built my girlfriend a computer, which she uses for gaming and Uni work. Her house-mate also uses it, but to a massive extent - she's pretty much abusing the fact that my girlfriend lets her use it in the first place (9 hour left 4 dead sessions only ending at 5am when another house-mate gets up for work and confronts her).
Click to expand...

Where do you meet these women? :eek:

Me want. :p
 
Geckovich said:
Thanks for all the replies so far, you've really given me some food for thought and set me in the right direction.

Sadly the general consensus is also true, no matter what I do it will be discovered soon enough. I wish they girls could just get it all out in the open and tell the "friend" she's no longer allowed on the PC. The trouble is the internet is registered in the name of the "friend" (though they all pay), and she uses the router as a form of control when they argue.

If they tell her outright that she's not allowed on it she'll either: change the router password for a few days, or simply cripple the speeds for everyone by torrenting GB after GB of anime.
Click to expand...

Tbh, if she gets like that and the internet is in her name and getting money out of her account they can refuse to pay her, as they aren't using the internet. Tell them to speak to her politely and ask her to stop using the net at odd times, or to at least do it quietly.
 
Mattf121 said:
Tbh, if she gets like that and the internet is in her name and getting money out of her account they can refuse to pay her, as they aren't using the internet. Tell them to speak to her politely and ask her to stop using the net at odd times, or to at least do it quietly.
Click to expand...

This. If she threatens to take the router away, don't pay her the money!
 
They already paid in advance. It was an unlimited usage plan so they knew what it would cost over the 12 months.

This girl is ridiculously unreasonable too; with a habit of shrugging off confrontation with feigned illness or hiding in her room.

I'll be installing steadystate soon though so I'll see what I can do for now.
 
Unplug the vga/dvi cable and say that its broke, chances are she wont know how to fix it. Then get your missus to lock/shut the door when she uses the pc.

Also complain that people are loosing sleep to her late night gaming sessions.

If she unplugs the router and/or refuses to let people use the internet then everyone has a right to complain to the landlord (especially if everyone pays their equal share) whether its in her name or not)

She wont make any friends if she continues.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom