Internet Restriction over network

[jimbob1972]

Hey Guys

I got so much help on my first post that I thought I would try a different subject :-)

I 'look after' the Internet connection and network in my work but the internet is being abused terribly. People being on when they shouldn't be - work not getting done etc. etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for freedom of the internet and having it available to everyone but it needs to be restricted somehow.

We have a broadband connection which goes through a 3com Office Connect Firewall 25. This then feeds though to several Apple macs with their own individual IP addresses.

What I want to know is - is it possible to restrict certain IP addresses to certain times of the day, and if so could you point me in the general direction as to where to look or how to go about it.

Any help would be greatly apreciated.

Thanks in advance
Jimbob

[Mntsnow]

Doing some checking to see what would work since your using Mac's (nothing wrong with macs.) If you were on a windows 2K domain and 2k boxes you could have actual made a policy that would prevent the browser from working during certain periods of time.

Well one way would be to use a linksys or SMC broadband router/firewall as you can "disable/block" outgoing connectivity for specific ip's on the network. (in the linksys it's under the "security tab" and will look something like if my memory serves me correctly)

Exempt Computers: Enable Disable
From IP Address: 192.168.1. xx
To IP Address: 192.168.1. xx

[jimbob1972]

Thanks MntSnow for the reply.

My problem with your suggestion is that I don't want them blocked completely. I just want more restrictions, e.g. certain times of day or for a certain length of time in a day - say half an hour per day.

We have a strange setup in our network. Our server is an NT server connected to a RAID system and also 25 macs and 2 PC's. Sometimes it's a nightmare to get things to work properly. And before you ask it wasn't our idea :-) A customer insisted it was put in.

There is software available from 3Com which will do exactly what I want - called the "Office Connect Web Site Filter" but my boss will never spend the money on a yearly subscription. I was wondering if you had heard of something similiar only cheap or free to use.

Thanks again

[DVNT1]

Not a pretty method and requires a lot of work without the right tools but, free...

1) Create two batch files. One that changes the IP routing table to remove the Default gateway ( ex: route delete 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 -p ). And create one that restores it )ie: route add 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 -p ). BTW, on the last line on the batch file put EXIT to ensure a DOS window isn't left open.

2) Use Task Scheduler to schedule those files to be ran at the appropriate times.

You would have to copy the files and Tasks to each computer you want to limit.