SBS 2008, Best way to control internet access?

AstroTurf

AstroTurf

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Hi,

Not had any issues for a while but we now have a quite a few new employees and several of them have decided to abuse our internet connection.

What is the best way out there (at a reasonable cost) to help control internet access in an SBS 2008 domain?

Basically everyone needs internet access but I would like to block porn, games, forums, facebook, buying/selling and similar.

Used to use Smoothwall and before that Wingate but this simply does not work in an SBS2008 environment.

Also, I have blocked all known torrent software from running on any of these machines.

They do need access to web searches and such but I want to limit social/entertainment.
 
Kerio Firewall (linux version).

So far one of the best firewalls that I have used. Full reporting per user. Block sites, etc. Data traffic per user (per day/week/month).

it runs completely independent of your SBS (but you need to set the firewall as "gateway" in your DHCP). And the linux version is quite light and runs very fast. two NICs are required (or more if you want to run load balancing or auto-failover)
 
webtailor said:
Kerio Firewall (linux version).

So far one of the best firewalls that I have used. Full reporting per user. Block sites, etc. Data traffic per user (per day/week/month).

it runs completely independent of your SBS (but you need to set the firewall as "gateway" in your DHCP). And the linux version is quite light and runs very fast. two NICs are required (or more if you want to run load balancing or auto-failover)
Click to expand...

This is what I ended up going with.
Ridiculously simple to install and works beautifully.
Oh, I put it on one of esquires microservers with a bit more RAM and an extra NIC.

I'll be adding another NIC soon for fail over :)

Still a few kinks I need to iron out but nothing huge.

:)

Thanks for the advice.
 
I have logs from January this year till now and is using 6GB of logs since then (with a 80GB HDD... 9% so far)
 
Set up something similar with a Zentyal Gateway here
 
pfsense. We have a pfsense box between our ADSL router and AP(WAP/LAN) at work, and we have total control over what flows over the network.
 
Anthro said:
Shot for this application - Im busy setting up Zentyal as we speak.. should be a cool learning curve
Click to expand...

Np,I use it in transparent mode so all the smartphones and tabs also benefit
Just remember to add a rule for https to the firewall if you do the same
 
nand said:
pfsense. We have a pfsense box between our ADSL router and AP(WAP/LAN) at work, and we have total control over what flows over the network.
Click to expand...

No. Just no. Rather use IPCop. I ran both. IPCop outlasted PFSense at the end.
 
webtailor said:
Kerio Firewall (linux version).

So far one of the best firewalls that I have used. Full reporting per user. Block sites, etc. Data traffic per user (per day/week/month).

it runs completely independent of your SBS (but you need to set the firewall as "gateway" in your DHCP). And the linux version is quite light and runs very fast. two NICs are required (or more if you want to run load balancing or auto-failover)
Click to expand...

What I use. Called Kerio Control.
Runs on an old Dell P4 server. Solid for many years now.
 
bekdik said:
How much disk is used for the log files?
Click to expand...

Thread necro:

I reloaded my kerio control server on 30'th September 2013 (I tend to break things first time around).
It has been running since.

As fast and smooth as day 1, works like a charm still.
Anyway, to answer your question after almost 2 years it is now using a total of just under 37GB for logs.
 
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