Ask Me Help Desk - Internet control on Network

Hi we have one main computer windows XP Professional (SP2), this computer is directly connected to Internet Through Router and with this computer we sharing the internet to 10 Different COmputers with the help of Lan Sitch, the problem is from main computer I want to control Internet on different computer, how I can restrict people on some websites through this computer and how I can restrict some people to stop downloading this through this computer to some people want to allow and to some people don't want to allow

Any Body Can Help me in THis problem

You will need to use a Proxy server that can perform rules based Internet access. We use Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server for this purpose. It is not only a Firewall server but also a Proxy server. Many of the appliances or service based routers will not perform both and allow for Active Directory based authentication.

The rules can be set up to filter web sites, TCP/UDP protocols, IP addresses, users or groups, etc. We have whitelist addresses in which all users are granted access, blacklist addresses in which no users may access. We have set up Internet Kiosk PC's which are allowed access based on the IP address and have set it to allow users and groups of users specific access to a collection of domains.

Just any way you can imagine, we grant or deny access to the Internet. All things are not equal. For example, you can go to all of the Yahoo web sites but if you try and access Yahoo, MSN or other well know Web Mail accounts, you are blocked.

Chukhole thanks for your ans, you said I can use ISA, but my question can we install this ISA software on Normal WindowsXP Professional or do we need Windows Server 2000 or 2003? please explain me. 2nd thing you said you people using Kiosk Pcs's what's that please explain me do we need to install Kisok Software on each computer or only need to install on main computer from where we sharing the internet? KIsok also need to install on windows server or windows xp professonal OS system which is sharing the internet?
Reply me as soon as posible

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuckhole

You will need to use a Proxy server that can perform rules based Internet access. We use Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server for this purpose. It is not only a Firewall server but also a Proxy server. Many of the appliances or service based routers will not perform both and allow for Active Directory based authentication.

The rules can be set up to filter web sites, TCP/UDP protocols, IP addresses, users or groups, etc. We have whitelist addresses in which all users are granted access, blacklist addresses in which no users may access. We have set up Internet Kiosk PC's which are allowed access based on the IP address and have set it to allow users and groups of users specific access to a collection of domains.

Just any way you can imagine, we grant or deny access to the Internet. All things are not equal. For example, you can go to all of the Yahoo web sites but if you try and access Yahoo, MSN or other well know Web Mail accounts, you are blocked.

Chukhole thanks for your ans, you said I can use ISA, but my question can we install this ISA software on Normal WindowsXP Professional or do we need Windows Server 2000 or 2003? please explain me. 2nd thing you said you people using Kiosk Pcs's what's that please explain me do we need to install Kisok Software on each computer or only need to install on main computer from where we sharing the internet? KIsok also need to install on windows server or windows xp professonal OS system which is sharing the internet?
Reply me as soon as posible

A Kiosk PC is a name or designation for a purpose meaning that it is for many users to access instead of being assigned to one or two users. Access to the Internet on these particuar computers is not restricted by user account. It is allowed by the IP address of the PC. This type of PC is used for Internet access only and does not have a bunch of other software tpes installed on it. This is just one of the examples of filtering that ISA is capable of.

ISA Server does require the installation of Microsoft Server software as the operating system. In a smaller office such as yours, I would suggest the use of Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS). It is limited to 100 user access licenses but it is an all inclusive server product. It is able to support a single domain with Active Directory and also has Exhange Email Server, ISA Server and Internet Information Services (IIS) Web Server included in a single server installation. Normally, these products would be installed on multiple servers but SBS is tuned for a single server installation.

Note that Windows 2000/XP/Vista workstations are limited to 10 concurrent users and do not support centralized security like a server does. The growth potential of a Windows Workgroup is not very high.