Is there any free software that manages Internet usage in network?

apaullo

Posts: 80   +0
Hi! it's Apaullo again and i have several questions to you tech engineers :p

First off, i wanna describe my work so you guys will have an idea on how to help me :p, im a network administrator's assistant here at our company and he assigned me to solve our current dilemma.

We will about to install a T1 internet connection in our company with 164 pc/users who uses internet on a daily basis, and our network is DHCP enabled. But since we are expanding our current internet bandwidth cannot serve its purpose anymore so we upgraded it, my concern now is this..is there any way that i can manage or control the websites visited by our personnel? And by mean of control, can i disable video streaming and torrents using only the setting of the router CISCO 1841?

and if there are tips on how to effectively manage the internet, pls lemme know it will be greatly appreciated ;)

thanks!
 
Could I suggest that maybe some self regulation so that the one in onehundredandsixtyfour user feels like they are contributing in your effort to cut back on usage. This is what is sitting at the top of my browser page you just watch the green worm grow, the box is a mouse-over display it's called Net Usage Item
Net_User_Item.jpg

And on the other point of disabling software there is heaps of programs that will bar visitation to sites eg. Internet Filters but what happens if it affects other staff. I mean do you know which of your bosses likes to watch porn in their lunch hour. It might take a bit more work but perhaps choking-off feed to a crawl might get you out of trouble rather than dropping you in the *sheat*. At least that way when Boss strolls into your mod you can just enable his/hers computer ISP or Cable # to those sites without any real delay (overnight). By the way do you really think that kind of boss should be sitting in a *Glass Wall Office* ?? :rolleyes:
 
In a corporate / business environment, there are components the the home user just doesn't see,
eg Domain Controller, Active Directory and a company owned and controlled DNS.
To monitor and actively control staff access to the Internet, two things must be true:
  1. the client PC usage of standard ports like FTP HTTP must be denied
  2. and each client PC configured (from the Domain) to use a Proxy Server on the Domain Controller
logistically, normal networks typically look like
Code:
Gateway Router/Firewall to the ISP 
             |
   First Corp Router---- Domain Controller, AD, DHCP & DNS servers
     |   |   |   |
fan out switch to departments
   | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
      staff PCs
To implement (1), you may need to change the physical network so that restricted ports are not accessible at the gateway,
such as adding another router and port forwarding the restricted ports to a non-existant unused IP address

With the addition of a Proxy Server, there's another layer for the Staff PCs
Code:
Gateway Router/Firewall to the ISP 
             |
   First Corp Router---- Domain Controller, AD, DHCP & DNS servers (new Proxy Server)
            |
     (logical, not physical 
           Proxy Server
     )
     |   |   |   |
fan out switch to departments
   | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
      staff PCs
Once the Staff PCs can only get Internet service via the Proxy Server,
you control and monitor with the Proxy Configuration.

Start research & start reading on Proxy Servers.
 
thanks guys..sorry for replying late, hell busy at work

Bosses are not allowedd to watch porn during lunch hour :p and i will show the Net Usage Item software to my superior if he likes it :) it does look like it can solve my problem with the stats showing

and jobeard, yeah we are discussing on our options if we need a proxy server or not to effectively control and manipulate with the proxy configuration..

thanks guys for the tips :) ill post here and let you what happens :)
 
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