networking - How To Password Protect Internet Access from the LAN

07
2014-07
  • Timm

    I am looking for a solution that would require any computer user on a LAN to enter a password in order to access the Internet.

    We do not want to restrict it at each individual computer because people have in the past brought in their personal laptops, etc. and plugged them into the network defeating that technique.

    It is a small network. There is no server the users log in to, just about 8 legitimate workstations. The problem occurs mostly after hours or on 2nd and 3rd shifts.

    Thanks in advance.

    • Answers
  • Tony Williams

    The only real way to do this is to set up a proxy server that requires authentication.

    See: http://wiki.squid-cache.org/FrontPage

    On a small network like yours this is a lot of work for such a small result.

    It would be better to just restrict access to the network itself from "foreign" computers. Most routers allow you to do this by listing the MAC addresses (sometimes called Ethernet address) of allowed computers and then not permitting network traffic from any other device.

    Look for a section in the router configuration called "Ethernet Filtering" or "MAC Filtering". Most routers even have a quick entry system that will enter all the devices it can currently see into the table.

    Now you can go back to having users log in to the computers.


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  • Babar

    I have three computers at home. I used the computer connected to internet as a gateway by enabling Internet Connection Sharing (Windows XP). And all computers could access the internet fine. Now, the broadband service provider has changed the internet setup and I need to dial in a PPTP connection first and after that I can access the internet.

    The problem is that the PPTP connection doesn't have an option for Internet connection sharing. I tried using proxies, HTTP/FTP, but that only works for specific services and the applications which need to connect to custom ports for updates or other communication still don't work. Is there any software solution to allow complete internet access from other computers?


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  • dkwiebe

    Untangle for Windows is no longer actively developed but it should work fine for your requirements.