Remote Shutdown of XBOX360.

So I have a typical teen boy who refuses to get off the console after his time is up. I'm sick of hearing the wife yell down stairs and hime reply back with his annoyed "OK!" etc... I'm sure you all know how it is.

What I want is a system that would provide me with the post control in shutting off the XBOX and/or the TV. I'm not worried about him being able to mess with it. If he tries to thwart the system he will just get grounded and not be able to play anyway.

What are you suggestions?

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tiersten

Use the Family Timer built into the 360 itself?

It does appear that there is some kind of reset code for it but its generated based on your serial number.

RobertKaucher

That's excellent! I can set limits with that but I want a true remote shutdown as well. Yesterday, for example, he took 15 minutes to come to breakfast after being called 3 times. This was around 9:00 AM and during a part of his day where he can do whatever he wants - but still needs to eat with the rest of the family during meals (which may vary in time). And for a kid that eats like a Dyson, cold food is apparently not a negative consequence.

tiersten

You could rig something with some of the remotely operated appliance modules that you get for the aftermarket home automation systems like Z-Wave and X10.

It'd be incredibly easy to circumvent with little indication that its been bypassed temporarily though. You'd need to work out some way of locking the plug into the module and also ensuring that the end that plugs into the console can't be removed at all since the power lead is a standard one and can be replaced by anything that fits.

If you tell him just not to mess with the module then you might as well just say if you don't come down within 5 minutes of being called then you get X minutes knocked off your daily/weekly limit.

ehnde

TV Timer Hopscotch BOB

These cost $100. You could, say, set a 5 hour daily limit, removing 30 minutes for tomorrow for every minute he's late coming to dinner. It blocks off time for sleep too, I think. I prefer doing stuff like this to beating them senseless like my step-father did to me

SteveLord

RobertKaucher wrote: »

If he tries to thwart the system he will just get grounded and not be able to play anyway.

What are you suggestions?

So why not just ground him in the first place?

Anonymouse

Why do you have to do a remote shut down? Do you know how to discipline your child face to face? Your the boss and he's not listening to you. He keeps playing his 360? Threaten to take it away. Did that not work? Ok then take it and lock it up somewhere in the house.

My father never had to worry about me being a brat like that. Belt to the ass and no SNES if I was being a dumbass like your kid. What are you going to do when he starts driving and isn't following his curfew? Take the battery out of his car?

qcomer

Rather than contributing to his poor attitude by lettin him control the situation why not show him some consequences by disciplining him? Throughout life there are consequences for our actions and better he learn it now than when it's too late.

Are you not the adult? Are you not the boss? Get control of this pitiful situation.

If it sounds like I am coming off hard it's because I am. I am 22 years old with two kids and commonly looked down upon due to my age. I will tell you what though - I am damn successful and have some of the most disciplined and well mannered kids. They get rewarded for their good actions and disciplined for the bad.

I work around kids every day in a school district and a lot of them are apoiled brats who listen to no one. Guess where it starts. At a young age in the home.

qcomer

Spoiled*
Can't find a way to edit on my phone.

Priston

Most remote controls are infrared, which means you'll have to be in the same room as him to turn it off. So, walking up to the tv and turning it off would be a simple solution.

Repo Man

Is he playing games online or offline? If online could you remotely configure your router to block the internet connection to the xbox?

erpadmin

I kind of have to agree with the majority of posters, Robert. Whether it's 1988 or 2011, some things never change and work for a reason--discipline.

My mom and dad would not let me play NES/Sega Genesis until/unless I did my homework and sat with them at the dinner table. Then there was bedtime. All of that had to be complied with or the NES and 19" TV would be taken away from my room. Their methods were quite effective, and did not need to be very technical or fancy either. Their word was law.

I believe this is an indication of the ----ifcation of America--too often we allow our nation's children to become brats and many parents succumb to their "I-want-it-now" mentality, in part, because they became too busy in their work/other lives to deal with the kid, so they'd rather just pacify them. My own parents weren't having that...when I become a parent, I won't either.

Your best bet, Robert, is going low-tech on this one...start laying down the law and having a real heart-to-heart with your teen as you do so. The fact that you show genuine interest in what's going on with him also will go a long way with him as well.

There...you just saved some money too.

za3bour

he will find a way that's for sure he will search online for some sort of solution and may find and will ultimately ruin whatever you have in place. I gotta agree with the majority here, it's not what you use its how you use it.

Old fashion ways still works just set him a time for TV/Games and that's it no discussion about it period.

ehnde

Just as there is no tried and true method of parenting, every child is different and needs different amounts of discipline according to their behavior. Some kids are highly motivated and hate video games....I for one got in trouble as a kid for ignoring everyone - spending all my time reading.

Parental locks and controls do have their place, especially if your kids get home from school before you get home from work. You can't be constantly overlording your children all the time micromanaging everything they do!

SteveLord

erpadmin wrote: »

I kind of have to agree with the majority of posters, Robert. Whether it's 1988 or 2011, some things never change and work for a reason--discipline.

I wanted to touch upon that subject more, but knowing some in this crowd...I was worried I would get slammed with bad reps.

tpatt100

My wife needs to put parental controls on my wow account

RobertKaucher

qcomer wrote: »

Rather than contributing to his poor attitude by lettin him control the situation why not show him some consequences by disciplining him? Throughout life there are consequences for our actions and better he learn it now than when it's too late.

Are you not the adult? Are you not the boss? Get control of this pitiful situation.

If it sounds like I am coming off hard it's because I am. I am 22 years old with two kids and commonly looked down upon due to my age. I will tell you what though - I am damn successful and have some of the most disciplined and well mannered kids. They get rewarded for their good actions and disciplined for the bad.

I work around kids every day in a school district and a lot of them are apoiled brats who listen to no one. Guess where it starts. At a young age in the home.

Um, this is so not the sort of info I was asking for. He does get consequences. But I am right now more concerned about the tech aspect of this. This kid is a very well behaved young man who does not need to be punished for this. He works his ass off and has very little time to play like this. It's only for about 2 months in the winter that he has any degree of free time. So what I don't want is anything that will escalate the situation like a punishment.

I understand why he is doing it. So if you cannot contribute, please don't.

But I'll tell you right now you have read tooo much into this situation and need to back off. Your opinion of how I raise my kid based on 5 or 6 sentences of a forum post is uncalled for.

RobertKaucher

SteveLord wrote: »

So why not just ground him in the first place?

Don't want to. It's not really worth it. I want to prevent the situation from occuring. If it's 10 PM on a Saturday - I just want to go to bed. I don't want to hear the redneck intercom "TIME FOR BEEEED!" being shouted and then "JUUUST A MINUUUUUUTE!" I want "You have 5 minutes and then I turn it off."

SteveLord

You can always disable the internet access at a certain time through your router (if you arent already). Obviously, this only cuts off Xbox Live though.

Hypntick

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Don't want to. It's not really worth it. I want to prevent the situation from occuring. If it's 10 PM on a Saturday - I just want to go to bed. I don't want to hear the redneck intercom "TIME FOR BEEEED!" being shouted and then "JUUUST A MINUUUUUUTE!" I want "You have 5 minutes and then I turn it off."

You could just take the controllers from him or something along those lines. That's about the only way I can think, otherwise disabling internet access is just going to cut off the internet portion of his gaming. Now if he's big into the FPS games out there, that might be enough.

Computadora

You should try implementing some "Tiger Mom" policies, of course their is a slight chance of mutiny with the end result being your kid hating you for the rest of your life

za3bour

Ok back to the subject, can you give us more details about what you need? a remote controller will shut it down but you will have to be in the same room so that won't really be a practical solution. What else do you have in mind?

SteveLord

How about powerstrips with remotes? They are pretty cheap. I use them for Christmas lights.

tpatt100

My mom had a remote solution to get me off the Atari when I was a kid. She would throw a shoe at me.

za3bour

tpatt100 wrote: »

My mom had a remote solution to get me off the Atari when I was a kid. She would throw a shoe at me.

and did it work

MAC_Addy

I know you can set limitations on the actualy xbox itself... but you might want to try; Start, Run, CMD, shutdown -i

I know the xbox won't show up on the local network, but if you get the ip address this may work. I haven't actually tried this... but in theory, it should work.

RobertKaucher

SteveLord wrote: »

How about powerstrips with remotes? They are pretty cheap. I use them for Christmas lights.

If it prevents me from having to get out of bed, or from hearing my wife yell down the steps that his time is up, I am all for it. Could something like this damage the XBOX or TV?

I also want to point out to people out there that there are options to situations other than simple punishment and reward. Sometimes it is better to not punish a behavior, but to simply prevent the behavior from occuring in the first place - which is what I want here.

Prevent the wife from yelling down the steps.
Prevent the child from yelling response up the steps.
Prevent occassions when he does not come up right away.
Prevent the need to ground him because he does not respond immediately.

Why? Because simply handing out a grounding would have no influence on the first two - which are the two that annoy me the most. All of the above contribute to a lower "Mariage Interference Factor" and greater pre-sleep contentment.

MAC_Addy

I have the answer to all of your worries mate.

Turn on the xbox;

Go to My Xbox, either go to Family Center (if you're an xbox live family center member) or go to Family Settings.

From there you can set daily timers. Say you want him to only play 2 hours per day. Then set for 2 hours per day.

Easy.

RobertKaucher

Remotely Power Off Xbox From Pc? - Scenyx Entertainment Community

Here is some stuff I just found...

Devilsbane

Just make sure his bedroom is all on the same breaker. When it is time to go to bed just flash the power on him.

My dad used to threaten the same thing, as well as turn off the hot water if showers went too long.

Ahh, good memories

RobertKaucher

jamie.english wrote: »

I have the answer to all of your worries mate.

Turn on the xbox;

Go to My Xbox, either go to Family Center (if you're an xbox live family center member) or go to Family Settings.

From there you can set daily timers. Say you want him to only play 2 hours per day. Then set for 2 hours per day.

Easy.

Ok, and when the time limit is dynamically expanded by parental permission so that he can play until 10:30 instead of 10:00 I have to get off my lazy @$$ and adjust the time. The answer must enhance my ability to stay in bed and not have to hear yelling (not angry yelling - just to communicate) and would ideally inhibit situations where he comes up later than he really should.

But it looks like there is some sort of web-based system that can be used for remote admin. So I think that solves the problem. If not the shutdown XBE file seems it will do the trick.

Devilsbane wrote: »

Just make sure his bedroom is all on the same breaker. When it is time to go to bed just flash the power on him.

My dad used to threaten the same thing, as well as turn off the hot water if showers went too long.

Ahh, good memories

There are no games in his bed room. This is the downstairs family room. And again, this requires that I exit the bed I am in. It does nothing to enable my laziness.