“shut them down! Shut them all down!” c3po

[Zebo]

I'm trying to nip this and this in the butt before I get sued.

Basically I have 3 boys living at home and want to block all this piracy stuff. I mean shut it down, period, all forms. Seems like dozens of methods I have to worry about according to the thread above. I have told them not to (yeah that'll work about like telling them no sex before marriage) in addition to that my house looks like a Romper Room most of the time with strange kids everywhere and they are always on the internet and I have even less faith to control their actions.

Right now I just have it where you have to put in MAC address of machine into router so outsiders can't leach some weirdo stuff and it comes back to me but it's obvious I need to be a lot more pro active. Where to start?

 

[rasczak]

option 1. unplug ethernet cable
option 2. setup a user account with restricted privileges (unable to install anything) on your machine and only let your boys use that account. I'd also change the password to the administrative accounts to something only you know. If they need software installed then you have control over it.
option 3. using hosts file, block all file-sharing sites (this can get tedious)

 

[Aarondeep]

Think about playing with a stateful firewall that is OpenSource. Might be a fun project to try with linux. Look into ClearOS or something similar http://www.clearfoundation.com/Software/overview.html

Your going to need a nice firewall setup.

 

[apac]

Use a firewall. A router running dd-wrt can be configured to block p2p traffic.

Seriously though, how about teaching your kids that when they're in your house to abide by your rules? And if they disregard that, no internet?

 

[wlee]

Get a used P4 class machine with as much ram as you can shoe-horn in there. Build a ProxyWall with one of the these distros.

http://www.endian.com/en/community/

www.untangle.com

www.astaro.com


ASTARO is the only one that natively has SSL hijacking, but you'll need a pretty powerful box if you enable it.

If you got spare boxes, and/or $$$ to burn, use either Endian or Astaro as your gateway router and use an UNTANGLE box in transparent mode between your computers and the gateway.

With the right add-ins and rule sets you can come close to murdering the soul of humanity. Well, short of Borg Nano-Probes or spending BIG $$$$

 

[xSauronx]

Use a firewall. A router running dd-wrt can be configured to block p2p traffic.

Seriously though, how about teaching your kids that when they're in your house to abide by your rules? And if they disregard that, no internet?

spoken by someone without kids? they say yes, he turns the other way til he gets a letter from his ISP

set up a firewall, as suggested.

 

[Zebo]

rasczak & Aarondeep, Thanks! Software firewalls will not work since there ate like 10 wifi devices in the house if you start including stuff like Kindles and printers but there are about 6 computers. I would think all would have to be routed through mine which I don't know how to do and would have to leave it on... I'm going to look into suggestion below, if I'm mistaken LMK. Thanks again.

 

[Zebo]

Use a firewall. A router running dd-wrt can be configured to block p2p traffic.

Seriously though, how about teaching your kids that when they're in your house to abide by your rules? And if they disregard that, no internet?

This dd-wrt thing sounds like it has potential.

As far as kids doing exactly what they are told - hehe. They would say "Oh yeah Dad no problem" then may err. I prefer to be proactive just in case, not to mention their friends who I really have no control over.

 

[Zebo]

Get a used P4 class machine with as much ram as you can shoe-horn in there. Build a ProxyWall with one of the these distros.

http://www.endian.com/en/community/

www.untangle.com

www.astaro.com


ASTARO is the only one that natively has SSL hijacking, but you'll need a pretty powerful box if you enable it.

If you got spare boxes, and/or $$$ to burn, use either Endian or Astaro as your gateway router and use an UNTANGLE box in transparent mode between your computers and the gateway.

With the right add-ins and rule sets you can come close to murdering the soul of humanity. Well, short of Borg Nano-Probes or spending BIG $$$$

Thank you. I have closets of HW so no problem there. How does your PC routing technique better than the dd-wrt suggestion before... I mean will dd-wrt meet my threshold by itself? Your post is going to take some time to "untangle" as well due to my unfamiliarity with these terms and solutions. If you don't mind I may send you a PM in next couple days after studying your links thoroughly. Thanks again bro.

 

[Zebo]

spoken by someone without kids? they say yes, he turns the other way til he gets a letter from his ISP

set up a firewall, as suggested.

Nah they do exactly as told 100% of the time. Usually I just have to ask only once, in a whisper, no repeats, no yelling, and it's a done deal. And word travels fast around my house - I only tell one something and word travels through grapevine and they all abide. None of this "you didn't tell *me* I couldn't do that" Doesn't everyone have kids like mine?

 

[zetsway]

Thank you. I have closets of HW so no problem there. How does your PC routing technique better than the dd-wrt suggestion before... I mean will dd-wrt meet my threshold by itself? Your post is going to take some time to "untangle" as well due to my unfamiliarity with these terms and solutions. If you don't mind I may send you a PM in next couple days after studying your links thoroughly. Thanks again bro.

DDWRT won't work. It's great but if you want to block all sorts of stuff you need a real solution. The distros stated above will work you also have smoothwall and a ton of others. You will need a machine with two NICs in them. tied directly into your modem. The other goes to the router. Than all internet wireless or other will have to go through your box.

 

[ichy]

Teach them to use AirCrack and have them pirate software over a neighbor's wireless connection

 

[zerogear]

OpenDNS.
http://www.opendns.com/

 

[Modelworks]

The best way is a restricted user account and blocking installs of software. If torrent apps are not installed they can't use them.
I had something of an issue with a niece that was installing every game cd she got out of cereal boxes, mail, etc and screwing up the pc. A restricted user account stops all that stuff because only what you want them to use is all they can use.

If you have windows 7 there is parental controls that will let you control what the pc does and even times it can be used.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Set-up-Parental-Controls

 

[zetsway]

OpenDNS.
http://www.opendns.com/

Good but the problem is it will slow down your browsing experience. Also they think everything is porn..

 

[stlcardinals]

The best way is a restricted user account and blocking installs of software. If torrent apps are not installed they can't use them.
I had something of an issue with a niece that was installing every game cd she got out of cereal boxes, mail, etc and screwing up the pc. A restricted user account stops all that stuff because only what you want them to use is all they can use.

If you have windows 7 there is parental controls that will let you control what the pc does and even times it can be used.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Set-up-Parental-Controls

You can also supplement this with Windows Live Family Safety for even tighter control. http://download.live.com/familysafety

 

[mcveigh]

The best way is a restricted user account and blocking installs of software. If torrent apps are not installed they can't use them.
I had something of an issue with a niece that was installing every game cd she got out of cereal boxes, mail, etc and screwing up the pc. A restricted user account stops all that stuff because only what you want them to use is all they can use.

If you have windows 7 there is parental controls that will let you control what the pc does and even times it can be used.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Set-up-Parental-Controls

can't utorrent run without an install??

 

[n0cmonkey]

Good but the problem is it will slow down your browsing experience. Also they think everything is porn..

I haven't run into either issue with opendns.

 

[Modelworks]

can't utorrent run without an install??

If you use parental controls the only programs that can run are the ones you add to the list.
Every time someome starts a program it checks the list for the exe file. If it is not there then the program cannot be started. Doesn't matter if it is installed or not.
It also saves a crc value of the exe when you add it to the list so that things like changing utorrent.exe to solitaire.exe will not work if you have creative kids.

 

[Boztech]

I see no reason to go thru the setup complexity and added point of failure of a PC-based firewall when DD-WRT access restrictions should do the trick.

K.I.S.S.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Access_Restrictions

...assuming you have a compatible router. If not, the ASUS WL-520gU is only $32 AR on Newegg and is simple to get Tomato or DD-WRT running on.

 

[mxnerd]

I use Bluecoat K9 web filtering for my nephew kid.

http://www1.k9webprotection.com/

Don't know if it works with P2P.

 

[Fayd]

afaict, the tracking abilities for this group only works for p2p things, like bittorrent and emule/whateverotherflavorofthemonthsoftware. teach your kids to pirate properly, from usenet, or irc.

and maybe direct download. does that get tracked? can it?

The ethical implications of teaching your kids how to steal aside, if you give them an alternative, they'll use that. it's probably more effective than just saying "dont do that".

 

[killster1]

get them into usenet so its not p2p? I dont know how well anyones ideas wiill work against a determined kid. They can just Install their own windows and unplug the router and plug it into the modem when you are not there right? i guess locking your case setting OS restrictions to not be able to install anything and locking the modem in a box will solve it? or just take the modem with you when you leave the house?

 

[zetsway]

I see no reason to go thru the setup complexity and added point of failure of a PC-based firewall when DD-WRT access restrictions should do the trick.

K.I.S.S.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Access_Restrictions

...assuming you have a compatible router. If not, the ASUS WL-520gU is only $32 AR on Newegg and is simple to get Tomato or DD-WRT running on.

Thanks for the tip I didn't know this was on sale. I'm going to pick me up on

 

[Rubycon]

Mikrotik

http://www.mikrotik.com/