Proxy Server for Windows

[b4u]

Hi,

I have a small network with 3 computers and a server machine, which I would like to give a controlled access to the internet.

For that, I was thinking about a proxy server software, which would allow internet access to specific user/password.

I would like to give access to web only (block other ports), and blocking certain sites would be a bonus.

Any free software to the trick?

Network:
1 Router linksys
1 Windows 2003 Server
3 Windows XP Professional


Edit:

Thinking about it for a second a question popped into my mind: Can I even do this? Because the internet connection is shared by the router, so there would be no way of blocking from windows.

No I was thinking about one computer only with access to the router, so I could install software to control access on that single computer, right?


Thanks.

 

[Nothinman]

First you need to see if your router can block outgoing traffic. If so, then you can only allow traffic from the proxy machine which will force everyone to use the proxy.

 

[b4u]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
First you need to see if your router can block outgoing traffic. If so, then you can only allow traffic from the proxy machine which will force everyone to use the proxy.

I believe I can block all trafic but a specific IP, so I would be okay to setup a proxy software on a server machine. That would be great.

Is there any proxy server software around that would do the trick of maintaining a user database to allow/block access? Free would be desirable ...

Thanks

 

[Nothinman]

All I've ever used is Squid on Linux, no idea about Windows.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Squid runs on Windows (Server 2003 at least) and can be set to require authentication. I've only done this to test proxy support at work, so don't ask me how to do it for real world use

 

[vplmega]

the Windows Update client uses the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) to download these updates. Microsoft Windows HTTP Services and BITS run independently of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Both these services must be able to detect the proxy server or proxy servers that are available in your particular environment. This article describes the various proxy server detection methods that are available. Additionally, this article describes the situations where Windows Update uses a particular proxy server detection method.good article, i really like it. I am doing a bit on research about regression testing and i found also www.macrotesting.com to be very good source. Thanks for you article.....