Internet access control

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nGAGEd55

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At my school we have a network of four Windows XP Pro workstations and one Windows 2003 Standard Edition Server. (might sound like very few PC's, but we're only 50 in the school ;)) Now they're planning on getting wireless internet from one of the local wireless ISP's (either RedSky or eXpress Net or something like that). Now I'm supposed to set the thing up so that we can limit internet usage, and prevent people from going on when they're not supposed to.

So what I'm looking for is basicaly something that will allow me to control the time at which people are allowed to go onto the internet, the ammount of bandwidth theyre allowed to use. And maybe provide a wi-fi hotspot logon style screen each time you open a web browser, where each one will use their own username and password.

Any advice will be apreciated! ;)
 
nGAGEd55 said:
At my school we have a network of four Windows XP Pro workstations and one Windows 2003 Standard Edition Server. (might sound like very few PC's, but we're only 50 in the school ;)) Now they're planning on getting wireless internet from one of the local wireless ISP's (either RedSky or eXpress Net or something like that). Now I'm supposed to set the thing up so that we can limit internet usage, and prevent people from going on when they're not supposed to.

So what I'm looking for is basicaly something that will allow me to control the time at which people are allowed to go onto the internet, the ammount of bandwidth theyre allowed to use. And maybe provide a wi-fi hotspot logon style screen each time you open a web browser, where each one will use their own username and password.

Any advice will be apreciated! ;)
Click to expand...

Like and internet cafe type program ? I'll have a look around.

Hey, seeing as there are only 5 pc's just walk round and check what the people are doing. :P You could be the network limiter.:cool:
 
For limiting time there is User Time Control, not sure about the bandwidth issue.

You must have a "wireless certificate" based system where each certificate is unique to that user.
 
Person said:
Like and internet cafe type program ? I'll have a look around.

Hey, seeing as there are only 5 pc's just walk round and check what the people are doing. :P You could be the network limiter.:cool:
Click to expand...
lol.. could probably just do that :p

BTW, something thats free and that would run on the server would be preferred

Thanks for your help :)
 
Dominic Rooney said:
For limiting time there is User Time Control, not sure about the bandwidth issue.
Click to expand...
Only problem with that is its a seperate program that runs on each computer, to set it up for each user on each computer could be a pain,

Something centralized would be nice.
 
Easy in *nix

squid can do everything you want, and more. Not sure if it'll run under windows (maybe under cygwin), use a old pc and load bsd or linux (shudder).

squid is free offcourse (GPL)

- twiga
 
twiga said:
squid can do everything you want, and more. Not sure if it'll run under windows (maybe under cygwin), use a old pc and load bsd or linux (shudder).

squid is free offcourse (GPL)

- twiga
Click to expand...
Squid you say, mmm, will check it out, thanks :)
 
Ok so before I go think myself into oblivion trying to figure out whether this will work, let just ask you.

Where on the network will this linux box have to sit? before or after the server? Because the server is also used as a workstation so the internet access on it will also have to be limited.

/me sits and scratches mine head hard...
 
Put the linux box between the Internet and the lan. This way you can physically seperate the two networks, and do caching and firewalling on the linux box. You can put your own mailserver on there, also use it as a file server, etc, etc. Only problem is the learning curve working with linux.

<Internet> ----- <Linux> ---- LAN

- twiga
 
there is a port of squid for windows called SquidNT. it will run on 2003 server.

i've used it many times before learning linux. i have set up everything that you mention here. shout (pm) if you need help.

squid has some nice features like bandwidth-limiting certain url's, or files bigger than a certain size, or a certain user at a specified time on a specified url from a specific ip address downloading a specific type of file that is bigger or smaller than a specified size.

you can do some crazy things with squid...
 
nGAGEd55 said:
Where on the network will this linux box have to sit? before or after the server? Because the server is also used as a workstation so the internet access on it will also have to be limited.
Click to expand...

Yes, probably best to have the squid server as a separate PC, sitting somewhere in a dark room. Plug the wireless internet provider into the one side of the box and your school LAN into the other connection. (AKA, before the server.) Any old PC should work fine. In the school context, probably a good idea to have it locked away, so that nobody tries to bypass it.
 
andres101 said:
there is a port of squid for windows called SquidNT. it will run on 2003 server.

i've used it many times before learning linux. i have set up everything that you mention here. shout (pm) if you need help.

squid has some nice features like bandwidth-limiting certain url's, or files bigger than a certain size, or a certain user at a specified time on a specified url from a specific ip address downloading a specific type of file that is bigger or smaller than a specified size.

you can do some crazy things with squid...
Click to expand...
Hey andres, thanks A LOT MAN!!!:);) this is going to help quite a bit.
 
purchase the appropriate and good wireless access point and the features you require will be in the AP/router software.
 
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