Restrict network access by time or IP address with Squid
There are a number of reasons why you would want to restrict network access. You run a cafe with web access or you have young or teenage children and you want them to only be able to use the network at certain times. Their are certainly tools out there to do this on a PC-by-PC basis, but why not employ a proxy server instead? One of the best (and most robust) proxy servers available for the Linux operating system is the Squid Proxy server. But don't let the name fool you, you do not have to install Squid on a server. You can just as easily install squid on a Linux desktop machine and control network access from your LAN.
Of course when you open up your /etc/squid/squid.conf file you might be a bit overwhelmed. So in this article I am going to show you two ways to limit access with Squid (instead of tossing the whole configuration file at you at once). I will also show you the quick and dirty method of installing Squid on a Fedora 13 machine. Once done with this article, you will at least be able to control network access by time or by IP address. In later articles we will discuss other ways to control network access with Squid
There are a number of reasons why you would want to restrict network access. You run a cafe with web access or you have young or teenage children and you want them to only be able to use the network at certain times. Their are certainly tools out there to do this on a PC-by-PC basis, but why not employ a proxy server instead? One of the best (and most robust) proxy servers available for the Linux operating system is the Squid Proxy server. But don't let the name fool you, you do not have to install Squid on a server. You can just as easily install squid on a Linux desktop machine and control network access from your LAN.
Of course when you open up your /etc/squid/squid.conf file you might be a bit overwhelmed. So in this article I am going to show you two ways to limit access with Squid (instead of tossing the whole configuration file at you at once). I will also show you the quick and dirty method of installing Squid on a Fedora 13 machine. Once done with this article, you will at least be able to control network access by time or by IP address. In later articles we will discuss other ways to control network access with Squid
