Monitor web site visits via the router

internetmonitoring

I have a SMC router that my ISP provides for my home cable modem.

Are there any software/hardware products that I can use to monitor what websites are being viewed by the household?

(with the ability to block urls).

We have 2 computers that wirelessly connect to the router. I want to monitor the other computer that my kids use.

Best Answer

I suggest OpenDNS.

You can block specific sites, block by category, and you can log what addresses are requested. It will do what you are asking in roughly 15 minutes of reading and setup time.

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I would look into pfsense. It's free...just need a computer with 2 but preferably 3 nic's so you can setup a DMZ for your public facing systems. You can also purchase one of these for about $210 with pfsense preloaded.

There are other options too if you're looking for something that's rackmounted. The Supermicro SC510 is a nice 1U case that is perfect for pfsense if you need more cpu power or want more features than a small embedded device offers.

Also to deal with multiple IP's what you need to do is to setup VIP's for each of the public IP addresses. Then you use 1:1 NAT or port forwarding to pass the traffic from each VIP to the appropriate IP on the DMZ. Network diagram would look something like this.

Internet--pfsense--DMZ Interface--DMZ Switch--(computers with public IPs)
              |
        LAN Interface
              |
          LAN Switch
              |
        LAN computers

How to Monitor Network in Medium-Sized Company

The first step is to monitor everything. I can suggest you to use Cacti or Zabbix to get SNMP information from your devices so you can find exactly who is using how much. After that you can even setup alerts (if you use Zabbix, or then install an extra tool like nagios) based on usage or problems.

After all that you can think in ways to segment your network, optimize, buy new stuff and etc.

"you can't control what you can't measure"

Best Answer

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How to Monitor Network in Medium-Sized Company

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