Internet activity monitor

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My kids are getting to the age at which they'll be surfing the internet, and i'm looking to monitor the kind of things they are looking at.

At the moment I have a home-hub providing internet access, with a microserver plugged. Ideally, i'd like the microserver to sit on the side and have internet activity sent to it (or a piece of software which can see activity).

I'd rather not have another link in the chain (proxy). Is there any software I can use on the microserver to provide me with reports?
 
Yes there is. With the Microserver as VM or standalone with Untangle installed in bridge mode. It's free and you can block and monitor your children's activity with it. With comprehensive reports.

Here is download link

http://www.untangle.com/get-untangle

Very easy to install and the interface is very easy to understand. It provides level 7 filtering, and is actually a UTM (Unified Threat Manager more than a firewall. Although its now called NG Firewall. It works very well in a VM on a Microserver or standalone.

Bridge mode is easy to setup and all your internet traffic will go through this on to your home hub. One thing you will require though is another network card. I recommend a CT intel 1000 which will install in the PCIe slot. Also if connecting many devices behind you will need a switch if you plan on protecting wireless devices as well you will need an access point plugged into the switch behind Untangle. All your wireless clients will then obtain internet via the access point. You will need to disable the BT wireless or password protect access from your Children.

If you can obtain another router and it can be set to access point easily you may not require the switch as the router may have enough ports for you to use.

Actually the best way in this situation is to use Untangle not in bridge mode but in router mode and set this as the front facing edge device instead of your homehub, and then set the homehub behind Untangle as the access point. This would save you having to buy or obtain the switch or another router. Untangle set up like this is the router a software one.

Another free way although too easy to circumvent is to use Opendns and setup filtering online. This will block certain sites, but it will not monitor individual machines. It will provide a report of all users using the connection and if the connection drops and your hub gets another IP well they will have full access again. So it's a very basic way of protection. If i were you try Untangle takes around 15 mins to install and works very well.
 
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Seems very odd that you want to monitor, report and filter web access, but don't want to use a proxy? :confused:

That's EXACTLY what a proxy is for!

With that in mind, pFsense with squid, squidguard and sarg installed.
 
I'll have a play with untangle then... Was hoping to rather not have a bridge in there, but will give it a shot.

The second way I mentioned there is no bridge. The bridge mentioned earlier is only a mode the traffic has to flow through a device to be report monitor traffic without this there would be no way of determining who is doing what on your line.

Setup Untangle in router mode disconnect your BT Homehub and enter login details into Untangle and connect and have a play. You won't have wireless unless you later have the home hub as a access point, but with wired clients you will be able to get a feel how powerful and simply displayed Untangle is.

Install the lite applications they are all free.

I myself wouldn't go down the squid guard snort route. I have pfsense as my main firewall and use squid, but every upgrade seems to cause problems. Untangle is easier to setup and trial.
 
opendns with dynamic dns

set up router with opendns and your ip (or use dynamic dns to update dns)

in opendns you can restrict what categories of sites they can/cant go on?
 
If it was got just a few PC's i'd say K9 is pretty good. You'd just need to install it on the kids laptops + PC's. its free at least but its not centrally managed and if they've got any android tablets they'll just be able to use that to get passed any blocks. but maybe K9 + opendns working together is something to look at.
 
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