[K12OSN] Best solution for Internet access, control, and caching?

[Joseph Bishay]

Hello,

Thanks to everyone who replied to my question -- I now understand the
various options.

My plan will be to install Squid + Squidguard for the filtering and
local caching.  I like the black/white listing feature that it has so
that should be a big boon for us.

To do this, I've been reading about the hardware requirements.  I
understand that in terms of decreasing priority, it is RAM > Hard
Drive > CPU speed.

The part I'm confused about is the network configuration.  Is this
machine suppose to have 2 network cards (one in, one out) for maximum
throughput?  Also, where is this machine suppose to exist on the
network?  My setup is as follows:

1) cablemodem -> switch
2) Switch has LTSP internet NIC plugged into it
3) same switch has the windows computers that need internet access
plugged directly into it.

so would the squid machine go between the cablemodem and the switch?

Thank you
Joseph


On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 8:17 AM, Rob Owens
<rob.owens at biochemfluidics.com> wrote:
> j.w. thomas wrote:
>> Joseph Bishay wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> How is everyone doing?
>>>
>>> We're revamping our Church network here and a new situation has
>>> arisen.  Our network has both an k12LTSP server handling around 20
>>> clients, and several standalone Window and Linux machines that need
>>> Internet access as well.  We have a DSL connection with 5 static IPs.
>>>
>>> I've read about Squid/Squidguard, IPCop, Dansguard, smoothwall, and
>>> lots of other stuff and it's all starting to blur.  I'd like to have
>>> the following:
>>>
>>> 1) Ability to log who (client or standalone) accessed what
>>> 2) Ability to block elementary students from accessing inappropriate
>>> sites
>>> 3) Ability to allow certain computers unfettered access to any site
>>> 4) A caching mechanism so common sites the whole class runs can be
>>> faster (is this needed? At some point is used to be all the rave)
>>> 5) Ability for someone remotely to connect to the LTSP server or one
>>> of the the other Linux machines for administration.
>>> 6) Do my laundry :)
>>>
>>> I know some products do some things but I don't understand what does
>>> what.  I understand this would have to reside on a standalone machine
>>> and I have plenty of older computers that I can slap a couple of
>>> network cards into so that side is no problem.
>>>
>>> I look forward to your always-useful feedback.
>>>
>>> Thank you
>>> Joseph
>>>
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>>>
>>
>> Squid is a web caching proxy, so that will handle requirement 4.
>> Squidguard in a squid plugin that will do filtering (Dans guardian is
>> another filter, but I haven't used it).
>
> The main difference between Squidguard and Dansguardian is that
> Squidguard uses whitelists/blacklists and Dansguardian has the ability
> to read each page a user requests and scan it for certain words,
> phrases, etc., assigns the page a score based on those findings, and
> allows/disallows based on that score.
>
> -Rob
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