Internet on/off control (ideas needed)

Hi all,

Lets brainstorm...

I am looking for a solution to do the following.

I have a LAN that has various workstation and servers (that users need to access) as well as internet access from all computers.

What I am looking for is a way to block or allow internet access to some computers anytime I want. This is necessary because sometimes the users need to access the internet, but other times they need to concentrate on other things and I need to force them not to use the internet.

All ideas welcome.

Thanks,
Beexo

Have you thought about some kind of Access Control List. If you set something like this up, it would just be a case of adding/removing a PC from the list to allow/disallow Internet Access.

Just a thought, but I'm sure someone will come up with a better idea

Don't know much about ACLs, or ho to implement them,but will look into it.

Note: The servers are not necessarily Windows based.

The solution should be as simple as possible, since the people that will be granting or denying access have little IT knowledge. But I will accept all sugestions.

Cheers,
Beexo

Can you provide a few more bits of information ?

1. Do you have a budget on this ?
2. What device is currently linked to the interent to provide your connectivity ?

Cheers

If you have a Cisco router, you can make use of the graphical interface (SDM) and insert/remove Access lists as suggested by Rockape. It's a easy and quite fast way to restrict Internet access.

Another way would be to pass everyone through a proxy and take control from there; or even use group policies within Active Directory to change the clients IE browser settings and restrict access;

Cheers,

1. Do you have a budget on this ?
Some.

2. What device is currently linked to the interent to provide your connectivity ?
Currently we use IPCOP as the NAT/Router/Firewall.

Cheers,
Beexo