I have a network set up with 2 client computers (at the moment) and one file server. Internet access is via the server which has a USB broadband modem connection. This is shared using the Windows server 2003 standard built in internet connection sharing and they are all linked in a Workgroup (not in a domain).

What I would like to know is what is a good web filtering / monitoring software that can run on the server and prevent users on the client computers accessing certain sites. I have looked at Surf control but it looks a bit confusing and I couldn't see how you set it up in this situation.

Many thanks

Hello,

Depends on what you want to do. If there are a handful of sites that you would like to prevent people from accessing, you may either exclude the site from DNS, or firewall them out. But if you want to target and block a variety of sites, such as "all porn" or things on the like, then you will need a managed subscription service to keep updating the "evil list"

Enjoy,

Christian

Do you know what sites? If you do then you should be able to just edit the hosts file (c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) on the server with the names of those domains and put the IP as 127.0.0.1. Then setup IIS on the server and make the home page say something like "You've attempted to access a restricted site". This isn't the best solution but I don't know of many content filters that are cheap/free and don't require a lot of configuration. You might want to post this in the Site Management section for better answers.

Thanks for the replies.

Basically I'm after something that will block general sites such as pornography if there is anything out there that will work on my set up.