Record the websites that are accessed

[SpuffMonkey]

Using 2003/XP - after an easy/cheap way to record where the little dearios are going on the web with a view to blocking off inappropriate sites. Any suggestions not involving building a linux server from bits in the back of the cupboard gratefully received.

[tarquel]

presumably, you have them access the i'net through a proxy server right?

 

Isn't there logs in this that can show you things such as the date/time, IP, website address, etc.?

 

If you use 2003 as a proxy - think theres a way of doing it (or do you have to use that server system that i cant remember the name of - ISA i think its called - bit tired now ) then I'm not so sure.

 

We go direct to the countys proxy so i'm not sure how that would work unfortunately lol

 

Cheers

Nath.

[Geoff]

What about using Squid?

 

http://www.acmeconsulting.it/pagine/opensource/squid/squidnt25.htm

 

Works better under Linux though.

[kingswood]

I don't know if you would class this as cheap, but under our volume license scheme we got ISA 2004 for less than £300. Obviously this may not work for you- in which case have a look at something called GFI Webmonitor (the free version). I'm not sure that you can use this outside of a solution such as ISA, Squid or Smoothwall but it's worth a look into...

 

Paul

[ChrisH]

I use Censornet which is a dedicated Linux distro. There are a few issues with it a lot of people dont like but out of the box it will catch allsorts and offers good reporting features.

The next version which will beta after christmas will be the one that will gain it a lot more of a userbase with the new stuff they are implementing.

[MkII]

We've found squid to be troublesome on Linux. It does work mostly tho'.

[Geoff]

We've found squid to be troublesome on Linux. It does work mostly tho'.

 

Huh?

[tarquel]

certain build of squid not allowing the new MS WU / MU system to work properly [ i think is one of the things mark is refering to ]

 

i know geoff - typical MS eh? [before you comment lol]

 

Nath

[Geoff]

Don't cache secure HTTP and make sure you allow all the HTTP methods.

[SpuffMonkey]

presumably, you have them access the i'net through a proxy server right?

 

umm, looks down pink cheeked and rubs toe of shoe in dust, no we don't use a proxy server - as its all proxied by the rbc, I haven't bothered - but looks like I need to. I'll have a play with Squid - thanks for the heads up on that one.

[Ric_]

@SpuffMonkey: Check out some of the distros designed for the job (e.g. Censornet mentioned above) since they will save you a bit of time.

[mac_shinobi]

When you surf the net using internet explorer , where exactly is the history stored on each machine or what ?

 

Is it stored inside of index.dat in the cookies folder or what ?

[Geoff]

It is stored in .DAT files located in the Temporary Internet Files folder.

[tarquel]

@spuff:

 

same here - we only go thru the county's proxy lol

 

But they do suggest we use our own - which we may do sometime

 

Regards,

Nath

[Sirbendy]

For gods sake, DON'T use Symatec Web Security if you want a proxy. We've had it foisted on us by the authority for 5 years, and it's frankly poo.

 

No bulk user import/creation/backup, variable performance, and so damned flaky...

 

We'll be moving as soon as we can, I fear.

[GrumbleDook]

SWS?

 

Bulk import is dead easy and so is backup.

 

The issues I have is that it is not regularily updated and you get quite poor assistance if it does go wrong.

 

When it was I-Gear from URLabs it was a nifty little product, but since nearly all of the original staff from URLabs have now left Symantec then it has gone downhill.

 

Unofficially it will be discontinued in its present form shortly ... there are no longer any major developments going on with it, and the URL lists are actually just based on those they use for Norton Internet Security ... they get more money from the home market than they do from schools / colleges / businesses.

 

We are looking at replacements too ... and thought about ISA and surfcontrol. Although we are moving onto the RBC shortly we will be pretty much unfiltered and will still need to run our own stuff.

[eduabncs]

Going a whole step further we are looking into audit and filtering systems for school level use here in Brimingham. The best of breed that we have found so far is from netintelligence. It allows you to track by login what your users are doing and where they are going right down to what applications they are using and when.

 

http://www.netintelligence.com/solutions_education.htm

[Sirbendy]

SWS?

 

Bulk import is dead easy and so is backup.

 

 

Really? We have SWS 3.0.x, and the NGFL create the LDAP users. We then have to put them into SWS, and it's a painful 1 by one process...we've looked, and the NGFL looked, and couldn't find it?

 

Mind you..thats not saying much.heh.

 

I agree with the support etc. We've also had issues where kids have had to be removed and re-entered for their filtering to become effective-SWS sometimes just seems to get a mental block.

[MkII]

Going a whole step further we are looking into audit and filtering systems for school level use here in Brimingham. The best of breed that we have found so far is from netintelligence. It allows you to track by login what your users are doing and where they are going right down to what applications they are using and when.

 

http://www.netintelligence.com/solutions_education.htm

 

So what's it like then? ...and how much does it cost!

[eduabncs]

Going a whole step further we are looking into audit and filtering systems for school level use here in Brimingham. The best of breed that we have found so far is from netintelligence. It allows you to track by login what your users are doing and where they are going right down to what applications they are using and when.

 

http://www.netintelligence.com/solutions_education.htm

 

So what's it like then? ...and how much does it cost!

 

Everbody we show it too loves it. What they have been wanting for years...!

 

We have got the company to about £25 per seat, but were pushing them for lower, were aiming for around £10 -15 per seat.

 

But the cost really comes down to being about volume in the end. If we get it cheap enough most schools will buy it, espeacially if they can understand and see the benifits and the cost is right.

[alan-d]

Going a whole step further we are looking into audit and filtering systems for school level use here in Brimingham. The best of breed that we have found so far is from netintelligence. It allows you to track by login what your users are doing and where they are going right down to what applications they are using and when.

 

Can't be worse than Policy Central Pity I couldn't help trial this one too - it looks a lot better

[MkII]

Thanks for that eduabncs - would be nice to show ppl here too - at the price point seems good.

[secman]

Gents,

 

We have a local firewall (BizGuardian) and use Kiwi Syslog Daemon (free) to capture and analyse the log files. We have tried to put together a spreadsheet to futher analyse the log files but it gets very large (40000 lines plus!). This works but you have to be prepared to do a lot of searching. KIWI also provide a free logfile viewer.

[Simcfc73]

I used ISA 2000 at my last job and found it far too bulky for what we needed so when I started at my present job I was happy that I had a blank canvas..... I wasn't happy that no logging or filtering seemed to be in placce except for the ISP's blocking.

 

I tried ISA 2004 as we have a schools agreement but it didn't like talking to our upstream proxy and the £££ of a 3rd party add on put me off. Surfcontrol may be good but I ain't a couple fo grand a year on just that.

 

I'd played with Smoothwall before but was put off it because of the penguin stuff which I had very little knowledge of. The school wasn't preapred to pay too much so I thought I would suck it and see. Six months later I have a modded Smoothwall with a great GUI for administration, it records all usernames using IDENT so I know what everyone is doing, the blocking is superb and the logs are really easy to use. I recently installed the full firewall control so I can port block easier and the IFTOP utility so I can see the traffic in real time.

 

The only drawback I have is that I still don't feel comfortable when stuff goes wrong but Smoothwall.org is really useful.

 

I think we will be going for the corporate version at Smoothwall.net next budget for the added support which we were quoted around about £1000 with 15% annual support thereafter.

 

Can't recommend it enough.

[NetworkGeezer]

Any one tried Impero? It's on the wiki but no reference to it on the forums.