Thursday, April 14, 2016

[Quick Install: Control User A/c]: Timekpr – Control the Computer usage of user accounts

Timekpr – Control the Computer usage of user accounts

timekpr
Nowadays, Every schools are slowly adapting Digital learning method over textbook learning method. So, kids are likely to spend more time on Computers than the text books. So, ultimately, as parent and a teacher, you must keep an eye on them how much time they are spending time on Computers, and you should limit their computer usage when it’s not necessary. There are plenty of parental control applications available to get this job done. The one today we are going to discuss is Timekpr.
Timekpr is a parental control application that can be used to control the Computer usage. We can set time limit for the Computer for the Kid’s user account, and prevent them to use Computer for a very long time. We can set time duration, and at what time the Kid can able to login to the Computer. In layman terms, you can easily limit their daily usage based on a timed access duration and configure periods of day when they can or cannot log in.

Install Timekpr in Ubuntu

I tested this application in Lubuntu 14.04 LTS version. It worked like a charm.
To install the latest version, add the following PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mjasnik/ppa
Update the repository lists:
sudo apt-get update
Finally, install it using the following command:
sudo apt-get install timekpr
Alternatively, you can download the .deb file from here depending upon your system’s architecture, and manually install it as shown below.
sudo apt-get install gdebi
32 bit TimeKpr:
sudo gdebi timekpr_0.3.5~ppa1~ubuntu10~ubuntu15.10.1_i386.deb
64 bit TimeKpr:
sudo gdebi timekpr_0.3.5~ppa1~ubuntu10~ubuntu15.10.1_amd64.deb

Usage

Launch Timekpr either from the Menu or Unity dash.
Or, just launch Timekpr from the command line as root by running:
timekpr-gui
The default interface of Timekpr will look like below.
timekpr_001
The usage of Timekpr is pretty easy, and straight forward. It has only two tabs.
The first tab is called Status that shows the status of the selected users. We didn’t do any restrictions yet, hence all buttons are green. If you have applied some restrictions already, you can clear them and remove the parental control for the selected user by clicking on the button “Clear all restrictions” from the Status tab. Also, to lock a user account, just select the user on the top and Click “Lock account” button.
The second tab is Limits & Boundaries, where we are going to do all restrictions.
This tab has two main options called “Limit access duration”, and “Limit time frame”.
  • Limit access duration – The total number of minutes you want to assign for the user to access the system ;
  • Limit time frame – The time range for each day.
Also, these two main options have sub options that allows you to set restrictions on a per day basis.
timekpr_002
Once you selected the required options, click Apply.
Now, you can view the applied restrictions from the Status tab.
timekpr_003
You there the green locks are turned into red locks.
The TImeKpr will keep reminding the user about the time left. Once the time is up, it will automatically force the user to log out.
Of-course, you can clear the restrictions at any time by clicking on the “Clear all restrictions” button.

Conclusion

Timekpr is a must have application for Home computers. Please be mindful that Timekpr isn’t a Firewall or any sort of Website blocker or application blocker. It will simply limit the Computer usage. Nothing more, nothing less.
It is not only for Kids, but also, you can use it in your office, or College to limit any user’s Computer usage. Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.
Hope this tutorial helps.
Thanks for stopping by. If you find this guide useful, please share it on your Network and support OSTechNix.
Happy weekend! Cheers!!

 

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