Internet monitoring software

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Floop70

With 4 kids it's not easy to keep track of who's been on the computer and for how long. .

Always start with the youngest. They're afraid of the bigger kids and will get off in time, then will be more than willing to tell on the older ones if they go past their time. Easy!!

[wolf_bluejay]

I know this might sound complicated by it is really not, and there is a few easy ways to set it up.

I work as an IT admin for a school district. At all of our schools we have a "transparent proxy" set up. It is a cheap (pentium 3) computer that goes between the internet and the local network (in this case your home network). It does a number of things.
1. Provides a proxy server that speeds up web access for the whole school
2. Does content filtering with easy to setup rules, it scans for key words to "rate" a site and allow/deny it, and can also blanket allow or deny certain sites. User based controls are in place as well, IE: staff can look at anything and students get filtered content.
3. Allows us to turn on/off internet access, limit the amount of browsing (not time, but count of pages viewed), and set limits on what time it can be used per user rather than for everybody.

If you have an old computer sitting around there is pre-built "Vmware" images that you just install the whole package (Dansguardian and squid) at once and it just runs. Or you can put 2 network card in a computer and install a prepared image onto the computer.

I am in the process of setting this up myself for my home network as my daughter is getting to the age where she can use the internet. As it will alllow me to "whitelist" sites for her.Which means: block everything except those sites that I say are allowed.
It is just a nice tool to be able to set the rules and have something that will let me easily enforce it without have to be looking over her shoulder all the time.

And just to point out to all those parents out there: "Allowing your young child to have a computer in their room with un-controlled internet is just plain stupid, real stupid." Heck, even having a computer behind closed doors for them is not a good idea either.