Manage local network Internet usage

Question

I have a LAN with 6 PCs in my office and one Internet connection. I share this internet connection by Windows VPN service.(using windows 2003 on server)

But I want more control on users bandwith usage, set a maximum amount for they usage , also I can manage that some software such as flash get can be used on other PC,

Would any one suggest me a software or some setting on windows 2003 to do this?

Thanks

Answer 1

SQUID won't do bandwidth control, but you can use it to see what users have been downloading and to restrict what they can download. See http://www.ratsauce.co.uk/notablog/squid27setup.asp for my setup guide.

Remember you need to use a group policy to configure Internet Explorer to use SQUID as the proxy server.

JR

To answer Ashian's question (this is a bit long to put in a comment):

local_network.txt contains your local network address. Open a command prompt and type ipconfig. You'll see something like:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.16.128
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.16.254

If the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 (it usually is) then the network address is the IP address with the last number set to zero. So in the example above it would be 192.168.16.0. In that case local_network.txt needs to contain the one line:

192.168.16.0/24

The default local_network.txt contains "192.168.255.0/24" as an example and you will almost certainly have to change it to match your network. Remember you need to restart the Squid service after making the change. If it still doesn't work post the ouput you get from ipconfig here.

Answer 2

It depends!

For instance if you want to restrict that one of the machines can only ever use 25% of the bandwidth (or 1Mbps) then checkout the Draytek routers. With these you can allocate bandwidth per physical port - most routers have 4 ports which may be sufficiently granular for what you're doing.

Also if on a budget checkout the DD-WRT firmware for many routers, most notably Linksys and Buffalo.

Lastly if you want to monitor web usage and restrict by user (not just machine!) then checkout MS ISA Server. This can log all traffic in to SQL Server for monitoring as well as limit by time of day etc. You can get MS ISA Server included with Small Business Server which may be appropriate.

With regard to Flash Get, as far as I'm aware that's Firefox only which is going to restrict policy usage. I believe ISA Server can potentially block flash on the way through if that's truly what you want to achieve.

Answer 3

try Squid +: free (GNU), lot FAQ and expierenced users in internet -: unix-like style of config

Answer 4

Some of the better "business grade" router/firewalls can do this, eg SonicWall, Juniper and Cisco type devices (not sure which does, but some do)

Answer 5

Get a cheap cheap sub-$200 computer, put 2 network cards in it and then run one of the open source Firewall distros on it such as SmoothWall, IPCop, Untangle, or any of their variants. This is the easiest way to manage network protocols and control bandwidth. The other suggestions in this thread are more difficult.