Controlling Internet Access

[Johnny_Summers]

Hi guys,
In my position at work, I have 'inhereted' an Internet Gateway which is based on Debian. It has some great tools on it such as WonderShaper and Shorewall. As part of the latter, there is the option to blacklist MAC addresses (which I have used from time to time!). There is also the ability to reverse this into a MACLIST (whereby MAC addresses must be added to this file before they are given Internet access).

As a total newcommer to the Penguin, I was wondering if there is a package that will use the MACLIST file, but present me, the user, with a more helpful interface whereby I can enter the MAC address, computer name, username, etc...(I guess sort of like Windows' User Manager).

Thanks in advance for any help. Be gentle though coz I am a total lamer with Linux!

Johnny

[Johnny_Summers]

Nobody have any ideas on this?

Am I going to have to edit the file manually then?

Johnny.

[Johnny_Summers]

Well, I must say that I am very disappointed with the (lack of) response. Maybe it can't be done? I was told you can do anything in Linux?
Ahh well. What about Squid then? Can I acheive what I need to (block access until the user is registered) using Squid?

Johnny.

[zyd]

you are right. everything can be done in linux, this doesn't mean that everything is already done. It is quite easy to program a little aplication to do the job. Do this, share it with the rest and you are cooperating with the community.

[Trio3b]

Sorry can't help on this one - I use Dansguardian and squid to control 'net access. You may have to weather the storm and put in some sweat equity so people down the road have some alternatives to MS which had - and still has plenty of problems. Keep googling.
good luck

[SanFranGuy78]

Squid+Dansguardian is the way to go. (Squid can talk to Active Directory if your a Microsoft shop by the way.) You need to authenticate based on usernames, not MACs.

You don't want to deal with authentication based on MACs. They're cumbersome to deal with, change often, and are easy to spoof. Plus if you have more than one subnet, MACs are useless since they'll all be mapped to the next router hop.