Moniter My sons Computer

[Kinstonian]

so i have it locked down at the router through a couple different ways including Linksys' own parental controls. a couple of the ip addresses i have blocked but i have to keep others for certian forums and what not because of cross hosting. that article from 2010 i have some of it but not others so i think that will be a good place to start. as well as dansguardian will be. i have been watching my logs because we had a couple firewall intrusion attempts. i mean both the wifes and myselfs work computers are locked down really really well but it is a computer, and it does run windows and there are always ways around everything. as i read through logs and his web history if/when i get the chance i lock down prob a new site a week. its just bloody hard to keep up. i can leave my router in a n open place because funny enough the reset button doesnt work and its a combo unit. idk. thank you all for the suggestions they will make a huge difference im sure.

is there still anyway to remote view his activity on his computer. like not at the same time but just a history?

Are you using a blacklist? People already make blacklists that have a bunch of "bad" sites, so much of the work is done for you... Both DansGuardian and OpenDNS can apparently log. However, I just looked at DansGuardian some more and apparently it's a proxy that likely should be installed on another computer. That might be too much of a hassle. OpenDNS would probably be a simpler way to both filter and log. Although, the OpenDNS logs won't show you exactly which computer on your network went to a site.

[Kinstonian]

Another question:

I think I'll need something at the router level (D-link), since we have some wi-fi devices (iTouch and Android). ... really, a mix of a lot: Windows PC, Ubuntu PC, etc. Guarding against dangerous sites is time consuming -- and I've put off for too long....

Thanks All!!

Can you configure your router to use the OpenDNS servers? That's as much of a "router level" as you will probably get without making your own from an old computer and Linux. If by router level you mean network, then maybe DansGuardian would work. Hopefully someone else who actually used it before could verify, or you could go ask them on their site.

[Ubu_Fester]

Here's some add'l links:

http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/

http://www.consumersearch.com/parental-control-software

http://www.safefamilies.org/parents.php

[cortman]

so i have it locked down at the router through a couple different ways including Linksys' own parental controls. a couple of the ip addresses i have blocked but i have to keep others for certian forums and what not because of cross hosting. that article from 2010 i have some of it but not others so i think that will be a good place to start. as well as dansguardian will be. i have been watching my logs because we had a couple firewall intrusion attempts. i mean both the wifes and myselfs work computers are locked down really really well but it is a computer, and it does run windows and there are always ways around everything. as i read through logs and his web history if/when i get the chance i lock down prob a new site a week. its just bloody hard to keep up. i can leave my router in a n open place because funny enough the reset button doesnt work and its a combo unit. idk. thank you all for the suggestions they will make a huge difference im sure.

is there still anyway to remote view his activity on his computer. like not at the same time but just a history?

Check out Net Responsibility- it logs ALL internet activity and emails it to your desired email address. It runs as a daemon and will alert you if ever shut down.
I use it for myself and have been quite pleased.

[chadk5utc]

Hello I have a couple suggestions to add to the list purely as options as from what Ive read most of the earlier suggestions require traffic to be routed through a single machine. These are a couple of suggestions that will need to be installed on a computer and ran on their own they are complete operating system router firewall dns dhcp and more with logs charts graphing you can see whos doing what and secure the entire network. These are based and built on Debian and can be run on older hardware so if you have an older machine your set. The first is pfsense and another is untangle both of these will do everything your looking for including routing giving you a lot more control of your network hook this up with a simple switch plug every pc into it and eliminate your existing router. I believe they can be setup for wireless AP's as well. Heres a list for more and certainly worth a look. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._distributions

[mr-woof]

Hi,

as said above in this thread, you'll need a transparent proxy between your modem/router and the internal network. I am going to recommend Smoothwall with the url filter addon installed, something along these lines:

internet --> Modem/router ..> smoothwall -> clients

You can filter what websites you can view using url filter, block IP ranges, log IM conversations, log pop3 email, you can also block what traffic can get out onto the internet, all sorts of things. It'll run on old hardware, you just need an old pc with two network cards.

Any questions/problems with the setup, ask away and I'll try my best to get you up and running.

[el_heffe]

I guess we kinda need to know how computer-oriented you are, and how computer-oriented your son is.

IMO your only real control will be:

1. Lock your cable modem in a closet.
2. Connect a transparent proxy between the cable modem and your switch/wireless router/the rest of your internal network into a closet and hide the key.
3. Figure out what things to monitor, and make sure everything else of interest is accounted for.

This. There are still ways to get around a transparent proxy(VPN, SSH tunnel) but this will work for the lazy kids. It does not have to be a high end computer. I am going to be doing this with an Atom 1.6GHz with 1.5GB ram and I honestly think this is overkill. You can even have antivirus monitor the cache to ensure no leaks of that nature get through.

There are a plethora of options available to do this with too- installing pfsense is a simple way of doing things, but I am going to go with ubuntu as it is a more familiar playground for me. I plan to do this tonight in fact, and will be following this guide:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=926001
Once I get the basics installed I intend to install squid and possibly follow this link:
http://kokikode.wordpress.com/2010/0...buntu-reviews/

More to follow at a later point in time.

[el_heffe]

Another question:

I think I'll need something at the router level (D-link), since we have some wi-fi devices (iTouch and Android). ... really, a mix of a lot: Windows PC, Ubuntu PC, etc. Guarding against dangerous sites is time consuming -- and I've put off for too long....

Thanks All!!

If you have a wireless router, you can turn off DHCP and use one of the switch ports as a up-link port and run Ubuntu as your DHCP server. This will utilize the routers wireless and wired ports. Unless you have DD-WRT or tomato or some such, you cannot use the WAN port. As I have DD-WRT I can set the WAN port as a switch port, and any device, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, can connect to the routers wireless and pull DHCP from the transparent proxy machine running Ubuntu. Really nifty actually.

For the sake of clarity- I am running pfsense 2.0.1 currently on my machine. It is running HAVP, Squid, Snort and is acting not only as a transparent proxy, but also a firewall, IDS/IPS, and providing DHCP for the clients on my LAN. I intend to replace it with Ubuntu because that is what I am familiar with and I can run other programs I want without the hassle of figuring out FreeBSD(what can I say- I am lazy)

[Soul-Sing]

Children and computers? put the computer in the living room, and limit access to it. Best way to monitor and take care of them. don't let them waste their time before a screen. period.

[dodo3773]

@Shmockey329

Build your own router / switch / firewall and setup an isolated local vpn or something similar just for the kid. Use ip blocklists to block the stuff you want and be sure to block proxies (maybe even whole countries if you want). You need a computer with 2 ethernet ports and wireless card probably if you need wifi. You would probably be better off with going with something like pfsense or similar for all this.