Re: [squid-users] Squid and controlling access to internet in a classroom

[Chris Wilcox]

This depends on loads of variables.  If you use DHCP and have dynamic IP 
addressing then you can't really control access via station IP address since 
a room of PC's could never be guaranteed to have the same group of IP's all 
the time (unless you use unlimited lease times).

You could possibly use MAC address limiting, as this should be static for 
each machine.  Using this or IP address based 'rooms' would work if IP's are 
static, but you'd need to manually go round each machine and catalogue IP 
address etc.

Depending on your type of network (eg NT domain, 2000 domain etc) you could 
look into either nt authentication helpers for username based control or 
possibly look into LDAP integration into the Active Directory which I 
believe may allow room/user based control providing you have used the AD to 
handle computer locations etc.

There are commercial products which may help out here though, along with one 
possible free one:

http://www.nryonline.co.uk/cx2
http://www.rm.com and look up SmartCache 2
http://www.censornet.com
All offer way more than simply caching and room/user/computer based access 
control, and at least the first two offerings are directly aimed at 
educational establishments.

hth

Regards,

Chris

> > From: Geir Fossum [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> > I'm running the computersystems at a school.
> > I wonder if there is a simple way to let the teachers toggle
> > internetaccess
> > on/off via a webpage and a ON/OFF button ?
> > Which in turn reconfigures Squid and restarts the service.
>
> Interesting problem. Are we to assume that there are several classrooms,
and
> a teacher in one should not be able to shut off or turn on Internet 
access
> in other classrooms?  A simple redirect_program that checks for an 
on/off
> variable (set by a webpage script) against the IP of a clasroom's
> computer(s) is the solution that jumps out at me.
>
> Could also have the teacher power down the hub/switch the classroom
> computers are connected to. =D
>

Hi,

Yes, there are several classrooms and the teacher should only be allowed to
toggle internetaccess on/off in the classroom he/she is using.
The IT-staff should always be allowed to toggle every classroom on/off.
Would it be hard to write such a redirector that check for a on/off
parameter in the URL ?
Regards,
Geir
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