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blurredvision

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Restrict Internet Access to a few sites in WIN98

I've trawled the Q&A here for a solution to this one, and whilst there are some solutions listed I am really looking for a (very)simple and straight-forward "how-to" restrict internet access on a WIN98 machine that is connected to a Broadband network. There are about 4-5 sites that access should be allowed to, with everything else being no-go.

Oh, and it would be great if it's a free solution -- it's for my folk's small business (ie. no budget!) and they need the Broadband for a couple of work related matters, but staff have been exploiting it to their own ends...
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Pete Long
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Filtering Internet access

*****Method one******
Pro's EASY TO DO.    CON's NOT GOOD FOR LOTS OF CLIENTS.

How you approach this depends on how many users you are talking about, if its just a few users, the simplest way is to modify the host file on each PC and put an entry in it for each domain you DONT want the users to access and point them to 127.0.0.1 (you can edit the hostile with notepad or this, http://members.shaw.ca/techcd/VB_Projects/HostsFileReader.exe
For example to block www.hotmail.com add this line to the end of the host file.

127.0.0.1     www.hotmail.com

NB in win 95/98/ME the host file is at C:\windows\hosts.sam (save it WITHOUT the. Sam extension and reboot)
In windows 2000 the host file is at C:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (you can edit directly and NO reboot is required)
In Windows XP the host file is at C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (you can edit directly and NO reboot is required)

*****Method Two*****
Pro's Easy to administer. CON's Expensive & NOT PRACTICAL FOR HOME USERS.

Give all your clients access to the Internet via a Proxy Server than can filter and block websites.
ISA Server http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/
WinProxy http://www.winproxy.com/index.asp

*****Method Three*****
Pro's Very scalable from home user to businesses.  CON's Can Be Expensive

Use some third party software to do it for you.

Home Users see
Net Nanny http://store.netnanny.com/dr/v2/ec_dynamic.main?sp=1&pn=12&sid=53
Cyber Sitter http://www.cybersitter.com/
Home users/Small business's See
CyberPatrol http://www.cyberpatrol.com/
Business's See
WebSense http://www.websense.com/
WebMarshal http://www.nwtechusa.com/webmarshal.php?iorb=4764&sc=106

*****Other options*****
How do I use IPSec IP filter lists?
http://www.jsifaq.com/subj/tip4500/rh4554.htm

How can I block a Windows 2000/XP/2003 computer from surfing on the Internet?
http://www.petri.co.il/block_web_browsing_with_ipsec.htm

Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK) 6 SP1 enables the most cost-effective and efficient way to deploy and manage Web-based solutions.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ieak/default.mspx
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Danny Kon
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NetworkArchitek

Hi blurredvision,
Well you could get a barebones or cheap PC and set it up as a caching server using Squid on a linux platform, from there you can configure it to only allow certain sites. You can do this on a windows platform (nt/2k/2k3 server) but the linux platform is free.

Cheers!
:-) pete same minute
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ASKER

Thanks All -- I'm in the process of evaluating some of these and will let you know which gets approval...

BV
Appreciate all the input from everyone, but the software that dannykon recommended was the best (and quickest) fix for me to implement, and it does everything I need it to! Thanks again!
Glad you are fixed :)