Monitoring And Control Software For Home Network

UnderPressure

Morning All

Looking for some help, I am after some software that will allow me to monitor who is connected to my home wi-fi, how much of a drain on resources they are being, I would like to be able to block users from using the network, kid playing xbox's at night or using tablets etc etc.

It would also be great if the software would somehow spy on what the users (kids BTW) are upto, what kind of sites they are visiting, what kind of activities they are taking part in, not to spy as such just to make sure they are safe more than anything and not being dummies!

Other useful things that I have not thought of as well, who is the market leader in this type of thing? Who is the best?

Thanks in advance

paddyrg

This can't be done by software alone, the better monitoring you need will require a decent router. You can certainly get a fair amount of control on most domestic routers costing under £100. Your current router may even have some of that functionality - what is the model number off the sticker on the back?

paddyrg

Oh and look at opendns too - they have free packages but you can also pay for better granularity and some reporting too.

UnderPressure

Hello

Thanks for the reply, the router is a Plusnet stand issue Technicolor TG582n, I have logged into the online interface for it but it seems to be more about settings than actual monitoring and control.

paddyrg

Hmm I don't think that router supports a lot, so it depends on how seriously you want to do the monitoring.

Something like http://www.opendns.com/home-solutions/parental-controls/ it might be enough that you can just set the DNS in the router so ALL family traffic goes through it. It's invisible...until it isn't. It won't do timed access though and won't give detailed reports. However, knowing it's there may scare your kids enough into behaving. Or getting smart enough to get around it.

The TG582n might *might* have some useful stats about useage and restricting access between certain hours - the TP-Link boxes we use allow great control of available and unavailable hours, different allowed MAC addresses, etc. Depends how involved you want to get and how much you'll spend to do it.

de_minimis

OpenDNS is good (we use it at home to block the kiddies from getting to obviously bad places) but not foolproof, and you need to restrict outbound DNS on the router too otherwise they can just change local DNS settings to 8.8.8.8 to get around it.

UnderPressure

Thanks for the replies

Would it be easier if I was to purchase a different router? I am ion the market for one that has a better wi-fi range so open minded to which one to get, what I know about this side of things I could write on the back of a stamp so any advice really appreciated

bluesnake

Best you keep the PC in a place that everybody constantly occupies.

A friend used this to monitor her now ex-boyfriends actions on her PC while she was not around http://www.spytech-web.com/ but with a bit of knowledge can easily be found.

to monitor the actions without installing s/w then this is ok, https://calomel.org/squid.html , but you may have also then make a hotspot for it not to be as obvious. However all this too can be easily beaten.

Many bought devices that do what you want are used in industry, some even have contracts to update web lists, and cost thousands, rather than a few hundred.

closed

Technicolor TG582n spec

Website URL and Content-based filtering (optional)

http://www1.k9webprotection.com/

de_minimis

There seems to be a gap in the market for something that does this easily (or maybe I just don't know it).

For ours (15 and 13) we use:

- OpenDNS for DNS-level blocking

- Kaspersky (ok, not superb, but haven't found better) for antivirus, parental time controls and some app blocking

- Kids have non-admin accounts on their laptops to stop installing/changing too much

- A lecture from mum saying that I check the OpenDNS and Kaspersky logs and if I find blocked attempts for anything I don't like they'll lose internet access for an appropriate length of time. DH has the same threat

Works, but is a bit of a hassle.

bluesnake

closed wrote: »

Technicolor TG582n spec

Website URL and Content-based filtering (optional)

For £4.79 on Amazon - sounds like a bargain. The only problem it is so easy to bypass web filtering and blocking. UK government use this method to block PirateBay and I have not heard of anyone who had trouble getting around the restriction - just takes a google query.