boss just asked me to look into internet-usage monitoring

[Maximus96]

this one guy has been surfing the web alot lately and the bosses are getting a bit annoyed. they just asked me to find out if its possible to some how set off an alarm of some sort on their machines if this guy goes on the internet. i don't know of any ways to do that. any ideas?

their initial request was for me to change his homepage to some porn site and make some loud noise on the guys speakers...but i don't know of any such site that sets off somebody's speakers.

 

[hevnsnt]

describe (simply) your network

 

[Maximus96]

very plain, 7 or 8 computers connected to a router thats connects to SBC yahoo dsl.

 

[sygyzy]

What sort of router?

 

[dc]

Originally posted by: zaku
this one guy has been surfing the web alot lately and the bosses are getting a bit annoyed. they just asked me to find out if its possible to some how set off an alarm of some sort on their machines if this guy goes on the internet. i don't know of any ways to do that. any ideas?

their initial request was for me to change his homepage to some porn site and make some loud noise on the guys speakers...but i don't know of any such site that sets off somebody's speakers.

your bosses asked you to do that? bahahahahha.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: zaku
this one guy has been surfing the web alot lately and the bosses are getting a bit annoyed. they just asked me to find out if its possible to some how set off an alarm of some sort on their machines if this guy goes on the internet. i don't know of any ways to do that. any ideas?

their initial request was for me to change his homepage to some porn site and make some loud noise on the guys speakers...but i don't know of any such site that sets off somebody's speakers.

Go with the initial request - I'm sure you can code your own HTML to do that. However, note that he might get smart and turn off his speakers after the first time.

 

[hevnsnt]

Originally posted by: zaku
very plain, 7 or 8 computers connected to a router thats connects to SBC yahoo dsl.

Does this router have a spanning port? Or is it a SOHO router? (8 ports is hard to imagine on a SOHO)

 

[Rogue]

So they just want to know when the guy goes on the 'net? Or do they want detailed reporting of usage for each employee? Do you run a domain or a workgroup environment?

As a suggestion, you could hide a hub behind his workstation and setup a sniffer (Ethereal) to capture all port 80/443 traffic on another computer connected to the same hub. Just put 2 NICs in your computer and connect your second NIC to the hidden hub to capture all his traffic. That is unless you have a switch capable of spanning or mirroring traffic to ports, which seems unlikely.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: zaku
this one guy has been surfing the web alot lately and the bosses are getting a bit annoyed. they just asked me to find out if its possible to some how set off an alarm of some sort on their machines if this guy goes on the internet. i don't know of any ways to do that. any ideas?

their initial request was for me to change his homepage to some porn site and make some loud noise on the guys speakers...but i don't know of any such site that sets off somebody's speakers.

1 word: Goatsex.

EDIT

But that would probably scar that guy and your bosses for life.

 

[cerebusPu]

can you just ask him to not surf during work? make him understand that he'll lose his job if he keeps doing that.

 

[vi edit]

Enable content advisor in IE and block all sites but ones needed?
Purchase Norton Internet Security and password protect internet accesss?
Purchase a firewall and set up a rule to block all web traffic from his IP?

 

[Yax]

Here's a roundabout way to do it:

1. Setup a special DNS server just for his use.
2. Make sure it caches the sites he visits.
3. Configure his system to use that DNS server.
4. Check the cache and see where he's been.

Pretty simple if you don't have any management software that can do it in 1 step.

 

[jtusa]

Originally posted by: Rogue
So they just want to know when the guy goes on the 'net? Or do they want detailed reporting of usage for each employee? Do you run a domain or a workgroup environment?

As a suggestion, you could hide a hub behind his workstation and setup a sniffer (Ethereal) to capture all port 80/443 traffic on another computer connected to the same hub. Just put 2 NICs in your computer and connect your second NIC to the hidden hub to capture all his traffic. That is unless you have a switch capable of spanning or mirroring traffic to ports, which seems unlikely.

You wouldn't even have to hide it at his box. Just put a hub between the router and modem and filter the traffic for his IP. That way you won't have to worry about tipping him off and you're all setup to monitor anyone else if needs be.

 

[Mo0o]

You could just talk to the guy

 

[T2T III]

If you are running Internet Explorer, is there a Web history stored on the server side? I thought it did this for each day. I used to delete my history off the server on a weekly basis.

 

[Maximus96]

the router we have is just a plain and simple linksys 4 port router, BEFSR41, with a linksys 8 port switch hooked into it. we are a small time civil engineering firm and not the most high tech. i don't know why the boss don't just talk to the guy, but thats not my concern at the moment. i am also not savy enough with networking to setup a DNS server to cache his activities. i guess there is no quick and dirty way to do it huh?

 

[Maximus96]

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech
If you are running Internet Explorer, is there a Web history stored on the server side? I thought it did this for each day. I used to delete my history off the server on a weekly basis.

its not so much that they want to know where's hes been. they just want to know when hes surfing the web.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: zaku
the router we have is just a plain and simple linksys 4 port router, BEFSR41, with a linksys 8 port switch hooked into it. we are a small time civil engineering firm and not the most high tech. i don't know why the boss don't just talk to the guy, but thats not my concern at the moment. i am also not savy enough with networking to setup a DNS server to cache his activities. i guess there is no quick and dirty way to do it huh?

If he's not the most internet savvy you could just log into his computer and check his internet history

 

[bootymac]

Set his homepage to a "GET BACK TO WORK" pic

 

[Batti]

I think that router allows blocking of outbound connections. I tried to look up the manual for you, but the Linksys site is hosed...

 

[DivideBYZero]

Problem solved.

Then present the evidence to the boss and let him take it to the employee. If it's extreme then the case will be easy to prove.

 

[Banana]

Originally posted by: zaku
their initial request was for me to change his homepage to some porn site and make some loud noise on the guys speakers...

Ooooo, can you say SEXUAL HARASSMENT? You should collaborate with this employee, make the change, have him sue the boss, then split the proceeds.

 

[SagaLore]

Well as you can see from the replies, there are a lot of solutions. Some are free, and some will cost.

If the boss wants web monitoring for all employees, and nobody is tech saavy, then a proxy filter will be about $5000 minimum regardless of vendor.

It might be possible to create a "proxy" page stored on the server, which will redirect to the page he's trying to get to after logging the request and/or sending an email to the boss.

 

[Slacker]

You're all overthinking the problem, just print out a fake web log with a bunch of gay pedo necro sounding names, problem solved, NEXT............

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Enable content advisor in IE and block all sites but ones needed?

This would be easiest and cheapest. Otherwise you're looking for an SNMP utility that can monitor specific MAC addresses.