PDA

View Full Version : Recommend Proxy server software for 50 users.

196
25th January 2008, 12:05 AM
After an ugly porn incident on a school computer I've been asked to install proxy server software for my school's pitiable 500 kb satellite Internet system. We have about 15-20 students on at a time (yes it gets slow). Staff members also use it to prepare lessons, to take courses, and some of the smarter ones also read the JREF Forum ;).

Can you recommend proxy server software? I just want to be able to log Internet activity in the computer lab and restrict certain MACs to particular times of day. Caching would be nice, but I don't know if this is an extra-cost feature.
Segnosaur
25th January 2008, 08:53 AM
Can you recommend proxy server software? I just want to be able to log Internet activity in the computer lab and restrict certain MACs to particular times of day. Caching would be nice, but I don't know if this is an extra-cost feature.

Just a little note: You didn't mention what operating system you're running.

I've set up Squid before, but this was a few years ago (and I was just playing with it, not using it for serious work.) But, its free (covered under the GPL license) and it might serve your purposes. (It also caches.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squid_cache
BenBurch
25th January 2008, 10:34 AM
Just be aware that no proxy is going to block all porn. Can't be done. You would have to subscribe to a totally filtered ISP like Mayberry or similar to get that, and those also block any site that might discuss adult issues, such as this one.

For Macs, you can already restrict what hours certain accounts can log in from the Parental Controls control panel, and you can administer this remotely.
Yalius
25th January 2008, 10:00 PM
For Macs, you can already restrict what hours certain accounts can log in from the Parental Controls control panel, and you can administer this remotely.

Got a feeling he means to block certain MAC addresses. Don't it get annoying when the same words get re-used?
196
26th January 2008, 11:27 AM
Thank you for your advice. To be clear, I'm not trying to block websites based on content. I want to log the Internet activity of a specific group of computers on our network. I also want to restrict the Internet access of a specific group of computers to certain times of the day. My goal is to establish a climate of accountability for use of school computers.

MAC - Media Access Control, a unique identifier for every device that accesses a network

I have nothing against Apple Macs. ;)

We are running Windows XP on old donated computers. They are nice Dell OptiPlexes (Pentium 3). In addition to upgrading to XP, I've been increasing the memory to 256 Mb.