tool to limit network usage

[mlybarger]

i'm looking for a tool to limit network usage. here's the "business requirements". allow a particular login to have X amount of time with internet access enabled (over the lan). it'd be nice if certain sites could have an override and always have access.

the kids are getting older and need to have limits put on their internet time. some sites are fine such as school sites for doing homework and that, others (digimon, pokemon, whatever) need to be limited.

thanks!

[jballou]

For web, you could try Squid and/or DansGuardian, with acls based on time (you could do it so that they are unrestricted in, say, 8PM to 10PM weekdays and all day weekends, etc). DansGuardian is also a good bet if you have kids just to keep bad stuff out, it's pretty extensible and works well as an additional layer of control. You could whitelist certain sites to always be accessible, and then have the rest blocked except when you explicitly allow it. If you need a hand setting up either of these let me know, I run a setup of the two at three remote locations to handle objectionable content on the network, and have had great results. HTH.
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