Selective control of net access in SOHO LAN

[Scott.Prive at storigen.com (Scott Prive)]

How much work is anyone willing to do? Does it need to be turnkey shareware?

Run Squid somewhere. It supports (I believe..) time-based ACL's you can slap on the kid's IP address.

Note that Squid runs on Windows also. In fact there are two ports: a native NT port, and a Cygwin port. Both versions can run as an NT Service/daemon. Squid comes with a DNS cache server.

An additional nicety of squid is the number of third-party plugin scripts. I used to use squid_redirect, which maintains a URL and pattern list of annoying advertisements & popups, and does a realtime substitution of something harmless (transparent GIF for ads, auto-kill of popup Javascript windows, etc)

I think Linux Gazette had an article on tuning Squid for small LANs. Can't recall the URL at the moment.

-Scott



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Horne [mailto:bill at horne.net]
> Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2002 8:50 PM
> To: BLU Discuss
> Subject: Selective control of net access in SOHO LAN
> 
> 
[snip]

> 
> Here's the new setup:
> 
> 1. ADSL Modem
> 2. Linksys BEFSR41 Router/Ethernet switch
> 3. All three computers connected directly to the Linksys.
>    A. Her "work" machine, which requires constant access to the net.
> (Machine A)
>    B. Her "home" machine, for her use. (Machine B)
>    C. The kids' machine. (Machine C)
> 
> Here's what she wants to do:
> 
> 1. Printer sharing still available between machines A, B, and C at all
> times. Printer attached to machine B.
> 2. Software control of machine C access to the net.
>   A. If possible, control of applications (IM, etc.)
>   B. If possible, options to make control automatic by time 
> of day/day of
> week, with manual override.
> 3. Shareware/freeware solution.
> 
> These are the solutions I've considered:
> 
> 1. "Parental control" software on machine C.
> 2. Windows based routing software on machine B. (Assumes machine C MAC
> address blocked from net in Linksys).
> 3. Linux router between machine C and rest of LAN.
> 
> Each solution has pros and cons: please tell me what has 
> worked for you, and
> suggest alternatives I haven't thought of. Thanks in advance.
> 
> Bill
> --
> Bill Horne
> 781 784-7287
> I'm a LAN/WAN Specialist and I'm looking for a job. Please tell your
> friends.
> 
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