Controlling Internet

[mrsiva]

Please advice what is the best solution to control internet in the office ? I have 18 pcs all connected to the internet for staff to check and reply thier email. The main problem instead of checking emails, they download music, chat...etc. It has come to a point of unbearable tolerance and unproductive. You cannot be on thier back all day long and I need a solution.

At present i have a dlink router that connects to a dsl and all the PC's are on a workgroup. Its the best way to share interent i find and stable connection.

It it possible to use Windows 2003 to control internet in the office ? I know that Windows 2003 has ICS and firewall that allows me to block http, ftp... etc? Can i set that every user will login and windows 2003 will authenticate each login account and provide internet access according to individual settings? for example account A can browse internet, while account B can just check email?

I really need your advice .... I have tried once a few years back wingate but found the software hangs after sometime.

[mairving]

You can't really do much with ICS. Your best bet would be to get a security appliance like those made by SonicWall or Firebox and buy the web filter. As a free option, you can put Linux or FreeBSD on an older computer, install Squid and Dansguardian and do the filtering for free.

[thefultonhow]

Easier than setting up a Linux box with filtering is to download Endian Firewall. It is a turnkey Linux distribution with Smoothwall and Dansguardian built in. It requires a bit of upfront configuration (e.g. DHCP is not configured by default), but all administration is done through a web interface, so it couldn't be easier to use after the initial setup. And if you have an older computer (PII or better) you can put it on and a couple of NICs lying around to put in the computer, it's completely free.