The Secret Final Boss: How Sibling WiFi Sabotage Silenced a Call of Duty Screamer
If you’ve ever had your sleep destroyed by a family member screaming at video games into the early hours, you know a special kind of rage — and desperation. But what if you could become the silent puppet master, taking back your nights without ever revealing your hand? That’s exactly what one Redditor did, as documented in a viral r/PettyRevenge post that’s as relatable as it is ingenious.
Picture it: your brother’s room above yours, the thump of feet and the war cry of “UNFAIR!” echoing through your ceiling at 2 a.m. You’ve pleaded, you’ve reasoned, you’ve lost sleep (and, tragically, a job interview). What’s left when diplomacy fails and direct confrontation risks an all-out family war? Enter: the WiFi whisperer.
When Diplomacy Fails, Go Incognito Admin
Our hero, u/PremiumOxygen, found themselves at the end of their rope. Their brother, a “bit of a psycho” in his Call of Duty days, would rage until the early hours, headset on, stomping so hard the bedroom below shook. Asking him to quiet down was as effective as tossing a marshmallow at a tank. “If I did anything by force like switch his Playstation off or whatever then he’d likely retaliate far more severely,” OP explained. Clearly, subtlety was key.
So OP decided to fight fire with… router admin access. Like a stealthy IT ninja, they’d log into the family WiFi router from their phone and change the password—just for a moment. This would boot every device (including the brother’s shrieking PS4) off the network, making it look like a random internet hiccup. Once things calmed, the password would go back to normal and the internet would magically return.
Rinse, repeat. Every time the upstairs stomp-fest resumed, so did the “server issues.” Eventually, the brother got so fed up he’d just quit gaming for the night, never suspecting the true cause. “I think it also created a ‘Pavlov’s dog’ response in him not to get so angry at it or it would mysteriously disconnect,” OP mused. As one commenter, u/FlirtyBisc, put it: “u were the final boss and he didn’t even know it.”
The Art of Petty Tech Revenge: You’re Not Alone
The post struck a massive chord, racking up over 10,000 upvotes and a treasure trove of similar stories in the comments. Turns out, WiFi warfare is a time-honored tradition in households everywhere. As u/sysadminbj confessed, “I set QoS rules to throttle the shit out of online gaming from like 12:00 to 5:00. My kids were always super annoyed that lag got so bad during those times. I told them that it must be a ton of people using the same services during those times and to just get some sleep.”
Others, like u/DarthJarJar242, took revenge on bandwidth-hogging roommates by secretly throttling their downloads or capping their devices’ speeds. One especially devilish commenter, u/RayEd29, suggested randomizing router dropouts so the gamer never figures out the pattern: “Set the whole system to drop for 3-5 minutes at random through the night so brother doesn’t realize he’s been targeted. Or similar to what OP did.”
Even parents are getting in on the action. As u/Will2LiveFading shared, “I just add their devices mac address to the blacklist and when they aren’t doing what they’re supposed to I activate the blacklist. Usually they will get their shit done after that.” Sometimes, the most effective parenting tool isn’t a stern lecture — it’s a flick of the WiFi switch.
Is It Genius, Petty, or Both?
This story isn’t just about sweet, silent revenge; it’s also about the evolution of tech-savvy family dynamics. Many commenters reminisced about older, analog forms of retaliation: pulling TV aerials, hiding power cords, or, as u/itstheballroomblitz joked, picking up the house phone to boot someone off dial-up. But today’s digital arsenal is far more sophisticated — and far more satisfying.
There’s a definite consensus: creative, covert actions beat open conflict, especially when the culprit is unlikely to respond to reason. As u/serinmcdaniel quipped, “The scientific explanation for poltergeists,” pointing out the almost supernatural training effect OP had on their brother.
Yet, not everyone saw it as purely clever. Some, like u/OkAssignment6163, pointed out that the real issue was a lack of parental intervention: “Because reading through all the technical solutions and the pranks is really great, but the main issue is that the parents failed to parent their son.” OP clarified: “My dad worked nights and my mum couldn’t hear him from her room. Though tbf, he wouldn’t have listened to her either way, he was a bit of a psycho.”
Still, as u/NavyShooter_NS summed up: “Perfectly Petty. Just what the situation Called for....” Sometimes, justice really is best served over WiFi.
Lessons from the WiFi Wars
What can we take away from this saga of sibling sabotage? First: Never underestimate the power of the home network admin. Second: Sometimes the best revenge is the one they never see coming. And third: In the battle for household peace, a little petty creativity goes a long, long way.
Whether you see it as genius, petty, or both, this story is a reminder that with a dash of tech knowledge, even the most sleepless situations can be solved — one mysterious outage at a time.
So, have you ever waged silent war through your router settings? Or been the victim of a well-timed “server issue”? Share your stories — and your best tech tricks — below. After all, in the age of endless online gaming, we could all use a few more tools in our digital arsenal.
Happy (and hopefully peaceful) surfing!
Original Reddit Post: I used to remotely tamper with our family WiFi router to get some sleep from my brother screaming at Call of Duty all night