chiark

A mate runs a small company that's growing. At the moment, everything connects to a router that in turn connects to the ISP.

His network traffic is alarming, and he wants to get a better idea of what's happening...

I've recommended using a proxy server as the first port of call - anyone have any better ideas?

Cheers,

nick.

Jeff Wiltshire

Does he want to just monitor the traffic or do something about it ?

You could you something like a small SonicWALL with the optional content filter which would block the majority of the 'dodgy' sites..



Jeff

ozzy

It's also worth install Ethereal on a PC. It's a packet sniffer and can show you what type of traffic is on the network (HTTP, FTP, Kazaa, Bearshare, etc.)

Edited to add the following links

Ethereal for Win32
WinPcap driver for Win32

Stefan

[Edited by ozzy - 9/4/2002 2:50:47 PM]

SJ_Skyline

http://www.siteconfidence.co.uk/

chiark

So far, he wants to monitor to see what's going on, and possibly block access.

If there's any way to limit bandwidth by client, that might be appealing.

Any ideas on the email side of things?

Foot_Tapper

Chiark, this may help your m8, to start with.Useful anyway.

http://www.3com.com/prod/en_UK_EMEA/detail.jsp?tab=features&sku=3C15100C

ozzy

You could restrict HTTP/FTP access to only come through a certain IP address (i.e. a Proxy server). At least then you can log which sites are being accessed and by whom. You can force the IE settings using policies or just create filters on a router/firewall to stop people bypassing it.

Depends on his budget really.

If you want low cost, then you can do everything with Linux, but unless you're experienced can be difficult to setup.

If you want something more intelligent and easy to configure then look at the SurfControl products. They have filters for e-mail and web browsing.

Only bandwidth control stuff I've used is Packeteers PacketShaper, but thats relatively expense for a small business.

Stefan

chiark

Cheers all, most appreciated. Cost was why I was tending towards a proxy server... I'll start researching and see what I find.