Internet Monitoring help

[dave03]

I?ve got a small business I?m doing some work for and I?ve run into a bit of a snag. The person that was acting as their network administrator quit and I?m trying to piece a few remaining things together. They have a small network with a Windows NT 4.0 SP6a server and about 30 computers running Windows 98. The server is setup as a PDC. Some computers are setup with network addresses using DHCP and some are statically assigned. They have a cable modem for internet access and a Linksys BEFSR11 router to provide internet access to those who need it. The router provides the DHCP service, not the server. Therefore, the user does not have to login to the server to be online. The way it works is those computers configured using DHCP have the internet and the computers manually configured do not have internet access. The person who was acting as the network administrator had some type of a program he could bring up from his computer that would tell him which computers are actively using the internet by both the IP address and their full name as entered on the server (i.e. John Doe; 192.168.0.10), what website they are on by URL (i.e. http://www.google.com), how long they had been there (I think), and was in real time. As they changed sites, it would show the change at the same time. The program would also allow him to block a URL completely so what no one could access it. In addition, it would allow him to bump any individual off their internet connection without affecting everyone and at any time and without physically changing network addresses. From the sounds of it, all this could be done with just a few mouse clicks. A few of the other people that work there saw him use this program several times, however, no one know what it was called, or how he did any of it. It is something they would like to have back to regain some control over who is doing what online and when. I do know it couldn?t have been something complex or expensive as spending a lot of money would not have been done.

Does anyone have any ideas what program or application he could have used. I?m confused by the fact that it gives their full name as entered in User Manager for Domains and yet the server doesn?t appear to have any control over internet access.

 

[kylef]

What you are describing are tasks typically performed by a firewall or proxy, which is a "single point" of information flow between your computers and the Internet. From what you describe, the Linksys router is set up to perform this function (sharing the Internet connection to multiple computers), so it would be your firewall and NAT proxy.

However, I'm pretty sure that the built-in options for monitoring what internet access is occurring on the Linksys router are not nearly as sophisticated as what you describe. The Linksys router's internal configuration web page probably can display a list of computers connected to it, and also probably allows you to block certain web sites, etc. You might check it out and see if it has what you're talking about.

I personally know very little about the Linksys router configuration web page and its options, so you'll have to play around with it. Dlink offers the ability to block sites, set times of day that computers can access the internet, selectively block ports and addresses on a per-computer basis, etc. I'm sure that Linksys probably offers something similar.

To get to the linksys router's web page, you typically just have to type in the router's IP address into your web brower. For instance, I have my Dlink router set to 192.168.0.1 (on the LAN), so I just type in "http://192.168.0.1" into my web browser to bring up the router's configuration web page.

Check it out and see if that's what he might have been using.

 

[dave03]

I have worked with other Linksys routers and I have one at home. I would agree the monitoring capability on these routers is not sophisticated enough to do this. I have looked at the configuration page on that router. It was my first idea of what could have been used. However, it didn?t appear to me to be any where near what the other employees were talking about. Not only that, but the configuration tab where you are able to set access restrictions was blank and I know there are a few sites that are already blocked. I was hoping there was something about this setup I was missing or overlooking. It seems like there would have to be. The person temporarily taking over the job has also mentioned that they are open to implementing something new to accomplish this task as long as its not too expensive. Right now, its looking like the only practical option. I tried calling back today to confirm some things but the person I?m working with was unavailable.

I am going to take a closer look at that router and the Linksys support page.

 

[mboy]

I can assure you it was not done on the router. Their are LOTS of types of proggies that will do this. I think u can do it with ISA, surfcontrol,Internet COnection monitor, and a whole bunch of other software progiies. You need to check the PC he was doing it from to see what he was access to do it. Whatever he was using, it wasn't free or cheap (if it got it legit) as that stuff is $$$$$.