As others have pointed out, Accounts in System Preferences has parental controls which allow you to limit computer time or specific applications, but not time for particular applications. However, your friend could set up two accounts and limit internet applications but not time on one account and limit the time but not the internet applications on the other account. On the full time account, he can also be a little more specific and block Safari and iChat while allowing Mail for specific addresses, for example. There is also a logging feature which he might find useful.
This seems to me to be easier to set up than the other solutions that have been proposed. If his son needs to download files for use outside his open internet interval (for school work, for example), he will need to set his downloads folder to be either his public folder or the shared folder. On Dec 22, 2009, at 11:00 PM, COMPUTERGUYS-L automatic digest system wrote: > From: mike <[email protected]> > Subject: os x and limiting net access > > I've got a friend with a os x machine and he wants to limit his sons > internet time to 30 minutes...I'm not quite sure if or how to do this on the > mac. He wants his son to have full access to the machine 24/7, but limit > internet connectivity to a specified time period. Any advice appreciated. > ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
