Turning Off The Internet

Today's mail brings a question:

Dear Brainhead,

Is there some way you know of to just make it impossible for my teenager to surf the web until he has finished his homework?  I would basically like to be able to shut off all web access like I have a secret switch in a secret drawer somewhere that only I have the key to open.

Signed,
Not Brainhead

Sure, that's definitely possible. I assume that your house has multiple computers, and you only need to disable internet access for one of them. Just disconnect that computer from the router until the homework is finished. How you do it depends on the router.

And I'm sure there must be tons of parental control type software available that will do exactly what you want.