The problem
I have a problem. I have a kid that plays Roblox too much, and I want to stop him. Removing the game from the computer seems like it makes too much sense (and I don’t mind him playing on the weekends). Since Roblox needs internet access, maybe the next best thing is to just clip its wings with firewall rules.
So the requirements are:
- Turn off network access for Roblox
- Reinstate network access to Roblox
The solution
Likely the easiest way to achieve this would be to use New-NetFirewallRule in PowerShell to create a firewall rule specifically for Roblox, and either enable/disable the rule thru some of the other NetSecurity PowerShell commands (Enable-NetFirewallRule/Disable-NetFirewallRule).
How does New-NetFirewallRule work? Where is the Roblox binary? This has to be done with an admin PS instance…
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Roblox" -Direction Inbound -Program "C:/path/to/roblox.esxe" -Action Block
And to enable the firewall rule:
Enable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Roblox" [-Confirm]
Then to disable the firewall rule:
Disable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Roblox"
And that’s good parenting thru PowerShell.