Best firewall...

[syedhs]

Fellow Ogrerians ,

I am looking for a firewall solution which can
1) determine who (or which pc) download the most
2) block p2p software automatically (I think this s/w doesn't hard-code the port no, it will try to find the available port which could be port 80 - oh well)
3) list details activity..

The office is basically connected to internet provider which imposed Fair-Usage-Policy (FUP) which means that once the total download of the month reaches certain GB, the speed will be slowed down which is not good. So I want to make sure the people in the office use the internet for office purposes - yeah you can also use it for other fun stuff, no problem here but I want some control of it.

There are lots of firewall solutions out there, and I am sure some of you have experience using some of them, can comment on the pros and cons. It is preferable to have a free one, but paid firewall is welcome too provided it is efficient.

Edit: I am currently testing out ZoneAlarm free. Seems okay so far.

[jacmoe]

I think you want internet filtering software, like NetNanny, PureSight, CyberControl, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content-co ... d_services
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... plications

It's not easy to find a thorough review of the possible solutions, 95% of what I found was/is affiliate sites..

But I think you need your own firewall of China.

[syedhs]

Thank you jacmoe. Yes indeed it is more content filtering & monitoring software..

Last time (tens years ago) I used Wingate. I donwloaded the most recent version and tried it - the interface look very much like win95 one which is quite discouraging. It appears to me there is not much update since I last used it.

I have tried quite a lot of software, and probably the best so far is www,opendns.com. Everything is web-based and the only thing that need to be use OpenDNS DNS server - that's all. However, I need this to be as transparent as possible - meaning there is no need of any setup done on the client pc and .. no one realized . And since there is a DHCP server inside the router adsl modem, it seems okay but.. I can't change the DNS setting in the modem. If I can change it, the problem is solved - very simple.

So after a while, I realized the final solution could be..
1) first, turn of dhcp capability of the modem,
2) second, install a dhcp server on the server,
3) change dns setting points to opendns
4) done. And no one will notice any change.

[chaosavy]

it sounds like you may want to check out "Barracuda webfilter" I inherited one when I started my current position and its actually pretty decent (I was fairly skeptical at start to be honest). It blocks certain sites (based on categories, gaming nudity shopping etc) for you if you chose so or you can specify sites to block or let through. It has built in anti virus and antispyware (which ofcourse isn't 100% effective) and other neat features, its a paid hardware solution, gives you monitoring and logging tools, pretty pain free to install and mostly issue free, support is pretty good as well (no recorded menus, you call you get a customer service rep who kicks you over into tech support if you need).

its not a firewall (that's what your "regular" cisco or whatever firewall is for).

[trnrez]

We use http://www.untangle.com/ here. Not sure if it hits all your needs but it might be worth a look.

[jacmoe]

I looked into that myself..
Are you using the open source version, or the paid-for ?

[trnrez]

Open source of course .