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Mushfique Khan

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Home Network Monitoring

Pretty sure, quite some people must have asked this question, I was trying to search but couldn't locate, that's why asking.

How to monitor my home network ... you know kids, just to see, where are they going and how much time spending on sites.

Is there any tool available out there, if open source; that'll be great, willing to pay some bucks too, but obviously, not very expensive, as it's a home network; 3 desktops, 2 laptops, 1 tablet & 4 cell phones ... :)

Please assist/advise/share your expertise.

Thanks in advance.
Best regards
MK
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Uptime Legal Systems
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NetNanny is a very affordable and leading option for this sort of monitoring.  It should be able to do everything you're looking for.
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Mushfique Khan

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Thanks, but its not monitoring XP, where as 3 of my desktops are XP only, please advise.
You can do this for free.  Just get an account on opendns.com, and configure your router to point to their DNS servers.  

You can then log on to their site and get a complete list of all the domains visited from your network, broken down by day, or by week, or however you want it.   (You can also block particular domains, or particular types of content, using opendns...still for free.
oh wow really ... I already have an opendns account, becuase I've netgear router and they give this facility to block all the sites, so I've already configured that at 11 pm, everything, almost everything (fb, yt, twitter and ...) will be blocked.

Let me try ... thank you.
it's good, but not showing what we are looking for, using the free option, please advise.
@mkhandba

NetNanny still supports Windows XP.

Net Nanny 7.0 for Windows supports all versions of Microsoft Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 and Vista. For Windows XP users the Net Nanny 6.5 version is still available and supported.
 via NetNanny FAQ
It shows every domain you visit, which is what you said you wanted.  You didn't mention that you wanted to know what was being searched for.   Is that what you are looking for?
To be clear:

login to your opendns account. at http://www.opendns.com 
click on the Stats tab.
On the lefthand side of the screen, click on Domains
You will see a list of all the domains visited.
Of course, you can't see specifically which PAGES at the domain were visited.
But if you decide you want to block access, you're going to be doing it by domain, not by page, anyway.
thanks, but need to see each computer/device info; means where these computer/devices are going ... hope you understand, what I'm looking for, openDNS is showing, but it's just links and so many links, if I just want to see one device ... not possible.

Please advise, also if someone used SpiceWorks, please share, how to make it work for my specific requirement.
I'll mention again NetNanny which will do exactly what you want.  The cost is extremely low ($59.99 /year for 5 devices or $89.99 for 10).  Is there a reason this isn't viable?
This is what the NetNanny chat support guy just now said:

Unfortunately, we do not record visited websites for the Mac computer, nor the Androids. On the windows computers it can but the other not.
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Dan Craciun
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Or just try to trust your kids?
Always trust your kids. But you need to supervise them, too.
Correct Dan and this the plan here too, I've no intention to block anything, just would like to see, where exactly they are going and then will talk/discuss, if sees anything suspicious, w/out they knowing that we are watching ... just talk/discuss.
What you are "really" looking for is a Proxy Server, one that comes with extensive reporting capabilities. A proxy server acts as a network gateway at the edge of the network (so it sees traffic from every device, regardless of type), and it intercepts ALL traffic going to the public Internet.  It then has the capability of blocking/denying traffic to specific sites, logging that traffic, and more.  It also acts as a caching device to improve performance to sites hit frequently from within an organization by removing the traffic from the Internet link.

Now, the question shifts to which one to pick.  Many proxy servers have gone away in recent years as management and blocking has moved to the firewall as people really didn't need extensive reporting capabilities.  However, CyBlock may be appropriate for you, and you could also check out products from SolarWinds and others.  Of course, you're now in the realm of enterprise security -- so hold onto your wallet.
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thanks wyliecoyoteuk, much appreciated ... you shared a lot of options, but now how to proceed, what to do next, please assist/guide too.
Installing and configuring a firewall/proxy in Linux is a very good DIY project, but I would not recommend it unless you have some experience with Linux administration.

Most guides you'll find on the Internet are either mostly complete (meaning they lack some piece of information that a Linux admin will find obvious, the rest of the world not so much), or for older versions.
I don't think a firewall or proxy would accomplish exactly what you intend either.  It would only be effective on your network (so no filtering/monitoring if they are on data instead of wifi, and this includes usage at school, friend's house, bowling alley, etc.)
basically I installed yesterday Qustodio, but had to uninstall, because it was visible on the menu bar (mac) and couldn't able to hide, if this is the case for windows xp too ... then no use, because will keep for some days and then will remove too ... because no intention to monitor/track them for always ... just to see, what are they doing, where they are spending most of their times ... you know boys and times are kind of interesting ...
How to hide Qustodio on a PC/Mac:
https://www.qustodio.com/en/help/article/1846885/

You might need the full (payed) version, though.
You can enable mac parental controls. That will not stop your little devils from downloading firefox and chrome, but still quite ok.
You have to decide what exactly you want to do.
A firewall/proxy running on a computer between your router and the network can monitor and track everything, but you need to spend some time to learn it. Most of them are surprisingly easy to installmand configure.
Linux is not as difficult as windows admins pretend.
Most of the firewall distros  will install automatically, and then you use a web interface to configure, in fact if you have a router, it probably already runs Linux, the interface is just an extension of that.
But it will only monitor your home network traffic.
If you want to monitor their actions on mobile data, you have to install an app on each phone.
If you have an old pc that you can install an extra neteork card in, try Ipcop.
Or a raspberry pi wth kidsafe.
Gurus ... just keep in mind, that I've no plans or intention to block/stop anything, just would like to know, where boys are going ... that's it.

Please only advise on these lines.

Best regards.
Qustodio is the cheapest option. The non-free variant can be hidden and you have a web interface where you can do pretty much anything (including hiding the icon).

Or you could buy a used Catalyst or similar switch and check all the traffic using netflow/sflow.
More expensive and knowledge intensive option.