Internet Content Filtering over wireless network

Does anyone know of any products that can handle this job?

The network has a DSL router connected to one of the NIC's in the
server and the other NIC has the WRT54G wireless router connected to
it. There are about 6 nodes that connect up with PCMCIA wireless cards.
The internet connection is shared using ICS.
My client would like content filtering. I have tried Cybersitter but it
doesnt block sites for the wireless nodes.
I see that McAfee do a Wireless Internet Security Suite but looking
into this all it has is a block by URL function, which in less i can
find a list of all porn sites and so on it will be no good to me.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

"browser" wrote in message ...
> Does anyone know of any products that can handle this job?
>
> The network has a DSL router connected to one of the NIC's in the
> server and the other NIC has the WRT54G wireless router connected to
> it. There are about 6 nodes that connect up with PCMCIA wireless cards.
> The internet connection is shared using ICS.
> My client would like content filtering. I have tried Cybersitter but it
> doesnt block sites for the wireless nodes.
> I see that McAfee do a Wireless Internet Security Suite but looking
> into this all it has is a block by URL function, which in less i can
> find a list of all porn sites and so on it will be no good to me.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks in advance
>

You could use a captive portal. A captive portal would sit in front of the
WRT54G. Routing, and filtering, would be done with the CP and the WRT54G
would be used just as an access point. (The CP would be connected to one of
the WRT54G's LAN ports, not WAN.)

Besides filtering, there is a whole range of things that can be done with a
CP. CP's are how "pay sites" use web logins for wireless access.

Best part, there are quite a few free CP's at there. I use ZoneCD, with
DansGuardian, for filtering a completetly open SSID. Works great.

http://www.publicip.net/zonecd/how.php

There is another free one called "Chilispot", which seems to be very
popular, also. I haven't messed with it yet.

[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <(E-Mail Removed). com> on 28 Feb 2006
16:38:19 -0800, "browser" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Does anyone know of any products that can handle this job?
>
>The network has a DSL router connected to one of the NIC's in the
>server and the other NIC has the WRT54G wireless router connected to
>it. There are about 6 nodes that connect up with PCMCIA wireless cards.
>The internet connection is shared using ICS.
>My client would like content filtering. I have tried Cybersitter but it
>doesnt block sites for the wireless nodes.
>I see that McAfee do a Wireless Internet Security Suite but looking
>into this all it has is a block by URL function, which in less i can
>find a list of all porn sites and so on it will be no good to me.
>
>Any suggestions?

SonicWALL products have optional content filtering.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR ALT.INTERNET.WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FAQ_for_alt.internet.wireless>

In article <(E-Mail Removed). com>, "browser" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Does anyone know of any products that can handle this job?
>
>The network has a DSL router connected to one of the NIC's in the
>server and the other NIC has the WRT54G wireless router connected to
>it. There are about 6 nodes that connect up with PCMCIA wireless cards.
>The internet connection is shared using ICS.
>My client would like content filtering. I have tried Cybersitter but it
>doesnt block sites for the wireless nodes.

Depending on your specific needs DD-WRT (an alternate firmware for the
WRT54G) provides some filtering ability. If your WRT is pre-version 5
hardware, this might be worth taking a llok at.

>I see that McAfee do a Wireless Internet Security Suite but looking
>into this all it has is a block by URL function, which in less i can
>find a list of all porn sites and so on it will be no good to me.
>
>Any suggestions?
>
>Thanks in advance
>

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

Thanks for the advice.

Eric - I have downloaded and will see how it goes, just one question im
hoping you may be able to answer: Do clients have to log into the
system before accessing the internet? And you say you have a completly
open SSID. Does ZoneCD have better or equal security then WPA?

Rico - What sort of content filtering does it do? I suspect URL or IP
filtering....Is there any company that sells an updated list of tyipcal
"unwanted" sites that you know of?

In article <(E-Mail Removed) .com>, "browser" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Thanks for the advice.
>
>Eric - I have downloaded and will see how it goes, just one question im
>hoping you may be able to answer: Do clients have to log into the
>system before accessing the internet? And you say you have a completly
>open SSID. Does ZoneCD have better or equal security then WPA?
>
>Rico - What sort of content filtering does it do? I suspect URL or IP
>filtering....Is there any company that sells an updated list of tyipcal
>"unwanted" sites that you know of?

I have truthfully not pursued the issue enough to give you a good answer. I
just know I have seen the subject in the documentation for DD-WRT. I
suspect it is a sort of url filter that would fetch it's list from a
computer on the LAN. I'm not trying to say this is the perfect answer for
you, just suggesting it might be worth a few minutes of your time to
pursue. It looks like it could be a reasonable and cheap way to go given
your existing hardware. Might turn out to be completely not what you need.
Remember too that there is no way to completely block p0rn from your
network if users really want to waste the time. The p0rn crowd just adds
new urls and header meta tags etc with each new attempt to block them. Much
like spam as soon as one way to filter it is worked out, the spammers alter
the spam.

http://wrt-wiki.bsr-clan.de/index.ph...s_Restrictions

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

"browser" wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> Thanks for the advice.
>
> Eric - I have downloaded and will see how it goes, just one question im
> hoping you may be able to answer: Do clients have to log into the
> system before accessing the internet? And you say you have a completly
> open SSID. Does ZoneCD have better or equal security then WPA?

They don't have to do the web login. It is simple a feature that can be
enabled or disabled. My open SSID is completetly open by choice. My web
login is simply a "splash screen" disclaimer and a requirement for anyone
connecting to enter "OK" before being given access. In your case, you would
certaintly want to continue using WPA for security at the hardware level --
and encrypting everything in the air.

After writing a previous PocketPC reply, another idea came to mind. A
software proxy server (with content filtering) should also work, if you
don't want/need all the stuff in a captive portal. Same drill as the CP: it
would be in a computer with two NICs before hitting the WRT54G.

Doing the proxy route, you may even be able to get away from not having to
dedicate a PC completely to it -- like you would with a CP. It would,
however, be the "Master PC" -- so needs user or even physical restrictions.
If anyone gets into the "Master PC" proxy, the whole network will be back to
downloading porn again.