Firewall question

ericvic

Active Member
I have an older Netgear FVS318 firewall that has been working pretty well but I am now looking for something with a bit more control. I would like to find a firewall that will let me block certain computers from access the Internet during certain times and also block certain websites all the time. I have been trying to do some Google searches to see what is out there now days but I get too much information and don't have the time right now to sort through the garbage to find the treasures so I was hoping that some CoCooner would know of a few options that I could look at to narrow down my search.

Thanks,
Eric
 
I have an older Netgear FVS318 firewall that has been working pretty well but I am now looking for something with a bit more control. I would like to find a firewall that will let me block certain computers from access the Internet during certain times and also block certain websites all the time. I have been trying to do some Google searches to see what is out there now days but I get too much information and don't have the time right now to sort through the garbage to find the treasures so I was hoping that some CoCooner would know of a few options that I could look at to narrow down my search.

Thanks,
Eric

A router loaded with DDWRT should be able to do what you are asking for.
 
A router loaded with DDWRT should be able to do what you are asking for.
+1
I have a tutorial here showing how to SSH into your home network too. Mine is running SSH, DNS, VLANs, multiple SSIDs, and more. All while never needing a reboot on my Asus router.
 
I have OpenWRT (OpenWRT, DD-RWT & Tomato are of the same family) on my FW/router (I pulled the wireless card from it). It can be used with or without the Wireless network.
 
Load up pfSense on an old PC or an low-power atom board. I run it on a low-power Alix 2d3 board with a mini-pci hardware crypto accellerator card and it handles my dozen or so computers at home as well as a 5/60Meg Charter circuit and a site-to-site VPN to the office. pfSense rocks.

Terry
 
Since space for hardware is at a premium for me and power is really expensive here, I'm completely against running old PC's for these simple tasks... Dedicated appliance hardware generally runs more reliably and consumes a fraction of the space and power.

That said I'll throw another option in there... The MikroTik Routerboards are very powerful and very inexpensive.
 
In Florida I have DD-WRT running on an older Linksys WRT-54GL. Been running fine for years. I am bridging the FIOS box over to it. Here in the midwest I utilize Smoothwall. Years now; never breaks running fine. Very flexible box. You can put multiple NIC's on it; so I have one out to the ISP, another one for wired LAN and one for WLAN. Just recently swapped the old Buffalo WLAN AP for an Ubiquiti Nanostation LOCO M5. Works well. Initially had 3 AP's in the house; now its just the Ubiquiti.

The Smoothwall is running on an older Via Epia 1Ghz/2Gb in a very small mITx case with a riser for two PCI cards. Very green and very efficient.

The set up is very plug n play via an install ISO; less than 10 minutes. It is I guess like an appliance as its running off a flash drive.
 
Pete - you're running a NanoStation Loco M5 as your main access point? That's a directional (*not* omnidirectional) 5Ghz AP that's only compatible with 802.11A/N devices that happen to have 5Ghz support... and 5Ghz has a lower ability to penetrate walls and solid objects... I can't believe you're haven't had any issues with legacy devices that aren't compatible!
 
Check out the Cisco E4200. This device allows me to add Internet Access Policies for all the devices my kids use (xbox 360, iPods, laptops, etc) and supports schedules and blocking up to 4 web sites per policy. It also supports parental controls which allows you to block up to 8 sites per policy. I also use OpenDNS which helps the kids from accidentally stumbling on an inappropriate web site.

Regards,
Ultrajones
 
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