Internet Bandwidth control

[pilks]

It has finally happened. I am on the other side of Corporate Internet police war.

I currently need to block certain sites and stop and/or just limit p2p traffic.

My current set up is each machine on the network just goes straight to the router and out on to the Internet. My router is a residential router so any router level stuff is most likely out.
I want to route the traffic through my server Server 2012.
Any ideas on how?
I have access to BizSpark Level MSDN subscription. I am happy to fire up a VM and run Linux but that is only if a Windows solution can't not be found without me forking out money

Thanks

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

It has finally happened. I am on the other side of Corporate Internet police war.

I currently need to block certain sites and stop and/or just limit p2p traffic.

My current set up is each machine on the network just goes straight to the router and out on to the Internet. My router is a residential router so any router level stuff is most likely out.
I want to route the traffic through my server Server 2012.
Any ideas on how?
I have access to BizSpark Level MSDN subscription. I am happy to fire up a VM and run Linux but that is only if a Windows solution can't not be found without me forking out money

Thanks

Don't use your Windows server as a firewall.

Easy solution: Get yourself a MikroTik router.
Cheap solution: If you have a spare old PC lying around, chuck two network cards in it and install a firewall distro like pfSense or Smoothwall.

 

[w1z4rd]

Don't use your Windows server as a firewall.

Easy solution: Get yourself a MikroTik router.
Cheap solution: If you have a spare old PC lying around, chuck two network cards in it and install a firewall distro like pfSense or Smoothwall.

Pretty much this :/ Forget MS for this.

 

[grim]

TMG would work if you still have that on your subscription.

 

[web_dude]

a linux firewall with two NICs will do the trick.

You don't need to be a linux expert to make it work as everything is 100% customizable through a webpage (same way as you change settings in any router).

Now all goes down to the options required.
I tested Clear OS before and I was OK. I haven't use Tangled, but I heard good comments. My favourite so far (at least for me) is Kerio Firewall Linux (not the windows version) as is fast, full reporting, real-time traffic, I can force all the traffic to be authorized on the firewall per user, etc. I can also set incoming rules, such as specific IPs to be allowed for incoming traffic, etc.

Even you put more than two NICs you can use failover and load balancing.

 

[pilks]

Hi

Thanks for all the options going to try TMG first as I am a little short on ram on server and firing up another VM is only a last resort. Start up company problems :S

 

[grim]

Hi

Thanks for all the options going to try TMG first as I am a little short on ram on server and firing up another VM is only a last resort. Start up company problems :S

I wouldn't advise running TMG on a server that has other roles installed, you are most likely going to run into issues doing that.

Also TMG needs two NICs to be able to publish anything other than Exchange or act as a proxy server

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

I wouldn't advise running TMG on a server that has other roles installed, you are most likely going to run into issues doing that.

Also TMG needs two NICs to be able to publish anything other than Exchange or act as a proxy server

I would agree.