Advice needed: How to track employee internet usage.

Roger.Wilco said:
LOL, I so hope you're not an admin on a network?
Click to expand...

Nope, I'm not a network admin. The suggestion I gave is something thats the least effort & cost
to setup (since it sounds like DaBump is not a tech person), and the list of sites I gave are what the
majority of folks spend time/bandwidth on.
Yes it can be bypassed, but so can almost any filter.

Just because us IT savvy folks know about host files doesnt mean the vast majority of folks do!
 
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vanisa71 said:
hi,
Monitor Internet usage with WorkTime® Corporate, an automated Internet monitoring software system for Windows. WorkTime is field-tested under heavy loads (on sites with more than 1000 users). The software is compatible with Windows Terminal Services, Terminal Server.
Click to expand...

Queue plug!
 
ZeroAlpha said:
Nope, I'm not a network admin. The suggestion I gave is something thats the least effort & cost
to setup (since it sounds like DaBump is not a tech person), and the list of sites I gave are what the
majority of folks spend time/bandwidth on.
Yes it can be bypassed, but so can almost any filter.

Just because us IT savvy folks know about host files doesnt mean the vast majority of folks do!
Click to expand...

How you gonna deploy it to 50+ machines? :erm:

NOT for me, thanks. :D
 
DaBump said:
Hi guys! Thanks for the replies! MyADSL is the place to ask these kinds of questions, and you get lots of intelligent replies! thanks again! Ok, we're a linux shop, running ubuntu on desktops and centos as server environment. I'm not to clued up on network routing though, even though I'm the administrator (and also the owner of the company :) ) I do have a spare machine I can use as a server to setup the proxy / monitoring software. My question is just, if I have a wireless adsl router that does the adsl connection, and through wich the users connect to via WIFI, how would I stop internet connection on the router, route them through the wireless portion of the router to the linux machine, and then back out via the router as adsl, or do I need another pure WIFI router, and the adsl modem as the gateway? Once again thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Congrats on choosing a great network setup with Linux.

You need to setup a firewall probally to monitor your users. If you got someone who can setup Ubuntu then you should get that person to setup ClearOS. It does everything you want and is easy to install and manage.
 
ZeroAlpha said:
Simplest solution: Use the windows hosts file to block youtube.com, facebook.com and whatever news/sport sites you can think of.
No software needed.
Here a 3 links that should be able to help you out:
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Hosts-File-in-Windows
http://www.overclock.net/faqs/44143-how-use-hosts-file-block-websites.html
http://allthingsmarked.com/2006/08/28/howto-block-websites-using-the-hosts-file/
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His running Ubuntu desktops... it doesnt have a windows host file.
 
hungrybeaver said:
yep, open /etc/hosts with a text editor. You can copypasta the lines from your Windows hosts file and they will work fine.
Click to expand...

yeah, i was kinda making a statement with a query as to why he would suggest it doesnt.
 
tau1z said:
yeah, i was kinda making a statement with a query as to why he would suggest it doesnt.
Click to expand...
Open terminal:
sudo nano /etc/hosts

That was not my suggestion. I was pointing out that theyre Ubuntu desktops and dont have a windows host file.
 
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On the legal side. The lawyers' advice was that it can be a grey area so to keep things clear cut and keep you out of trouble get the employees to all sign a fair use policy and permission to monitor all email, internet usage etc. Be honest with the employees and expect the same from them. You should always keep everything on paper. 90% of winning CCMA cases is being prepared and having all your records.

Would you rather monitor traffic secretly and go through hell when one day someone takes you to court, even if you do win or would you rather be open and clear with your employees so that that they know where they stand?

I'd rather work for the latter.
 
I don't monitor, I block.

However, SARG shows a list of all sites visited per IP, but not contents of said visited sites. This is not monitoring the contents of said sites, merely what sites was visited.
 
+1

sometimes low tech is the best tech.

ZeroAlpha said:
Nope, I'm not a network admin. The suggestion I gave is something thats the least effort & cost
to setup (since it sounds like DaBump is not a tech person), and the list of sites I gave are what the
majority of folks spend time/bandwidth on.
Yes it can be bypassed, but so can almost any filter.

Just because us IT savvy folks know about host files doesnt mean the vast majority of folks do!
Click to expand...
 
GPSJane said:
On the legal side. The lawyers' advice was that it can be a grey area so to keep things clear cut and keep you out of trouble get the employees to all sign a fair use policy and permission to monitor all email, internet usage etc. Be honest with the employees and expect the same from them. You should always keep everything on paper. 90% of winning CCMA cases is being prepared and having all your records.

Would you rather monitor traffic secretly and go through hell when one day someone takes you to court, even if you do win or would you rather be open and clear with your employees so that that they know where they stand?

I'd rather work for the latter.
Click to expand...

Sure, but don't you already have a contract with your employees? If you goto any large company that runs exclusively on the internet (i.e. banks, insurance companies, medical aids, etc) you'll see how clear they are about internet usage in the office and how quickly can can get dismissed for not sticking to their rules.

It's their network, their equipment, their inernet bandwidth. You work for them and have to stick to their rules.
 
I don't think blocking is the best solution - unless if you have a tool to unblock the blocked sites when the employee is not working anymore. Something like block specific sites when the employee is working, then unblock it when not working anymore.

If you are only looking to track their internet usage to show how productive your employees are, there is lots of tool out there that can do that.

Employees are paid to work and not to wonder around the web which is not important for the company, then I guess you need to implement a computer user policy. You let them sign the written policy and enforce it. You as an employer need to talk with your employees about the policy and agree with the points of your policy and where it covers since there's a big difference between occasional personal use and chronic abuse (e.g checking a website to find an info or order lunch or email your kids about there whereabouts and chit chatting with friends, opening facebook, twitter, etc.)
 
Anyone checked out OpenDNS.com? I use them at one of my client sites and im quite impressed. Pretty much works as well as WebSense and its for Free...ish
 
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