Restict internet Access.

[Jonny]

Hi all,

I'm looking for a free program that can restrict internet access. It's to stop a 15 year old, who wouldn't really have too much computer know-how.
Can be one that blocks access altogether with a password, or one that time-controls it.
What would you recommend?
It needs to stop MSN, too!

Thanks.

Jonny

[Moby-Dick]

what OS ?

is it for a single machine or a gruop of machines ?

[Jonny]

what OS ?

is it for a single machine or a gruop of machines ?

Single stand alone machine, on XP Home.

There's a second machine networked to it (to use the internet access), and I'd preferably like this to retain it's internet access.

[Craig]

If they dont have too much computer know-how then you could always set up a fake proxy in MSN and IE. You could also try what my friend does for his brother, install some free firewall software and block msnmsgr.exe and iexplore.exe from accessing the internet.

Craig

[Jonny]

If they dont have too much computer know-how then you could always set up a fake proxy in MSN and IE. You could also try what my friend does for his brother, install some free firewall software and block msnmsgr.exe and iexplore.exe from accessing the internet.

Craig

Yeah, but that blocks all users. I just want restricted access, not removed access.
Thanks anyway!

[Moby-Dick]

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0....ilter&tag=srch

fill yer boots

[Jonny]

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0....ilter&tag=srch

fill yer boots

Danke!

I tried some free download sites, but somehow oversaw the legendary download.com....

Thanks very much. Will let you know how I get on, and if I find anything good, will add it to the free software download sticky!

EDIT: Damn. Can't find any free ones on there...

[Craig]

Yeah, but that blocks all users. I just want restricted access, not removed access.
Thanks anyway!

Ah damn, I should really learn to read the whole post shouldnt I You have what you needed already but I can recommend the MadeSafe range, they are pretty good!

[herulach]

DD-WRT on a linksys router will let you restrict access to certain services on certain machines at different times of day, will also allow filtering of sites, either by white or black listing, or by keyword, again on a per machine basis.

[directhex]

filtering software is no substitute for parenting

[Jonny]

DD-WRT on a linksys router will let you restrict access to certain services on certain machines at different times of day, will also allow filtering of sites, either by white or black listing, or by keyword, again on a per machine basis.

Sounds good, I will look in to it.

directhex, thank you for your input. I am not a parent, and am not looking to replace someone else's parenting skills with a filter. I appreciate I haven't explained what I am doing, but nice of you to call my "parenting" into question...

Craig, the MadeSafe range looks good, thanks.

The biggest problem that I am having here is that all the software available seems to be aimed at filtering indecent material, whereas I am just looking to limit internet access. It seems hard to do this on a zero budget, by the look of it!

[G4Z]

What you want to do is difficult, the simplest way I would think would be to cripple the user profile, make the account limited and remove all software on that account like MSN etc. Then you just need to take care of the browser, that you could do with fake proxy settings however I think you could make it easier by blocking iexplore.exe on your software f/w and using Opera or Firefox for your own profile.

[G4Z]

Had another thought, not sure how your network is setup and what exactly you want to achieve here but you could simply change the default gateway setting to some thing that is not your route/gateway. When you want to use the Pc, simply change it to the correct IP.

[Splash]

It's a shame you don't have a small box to run Linux on - DansGuardian is pretty cool, and free to boot.