RE: [PCTECH] ANNOUNCE: IPCop 1.4.0 Final Release!

["Dan Bale" <dbale@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The biggest thing I am trying to accomplish is to monitor & police all of
the internet traffic that comes through my house:

 1) I want to know all the web sites being accessed
 2) I want to be able to restrict access to certain
     named web sites
 3) I want to be able to restrict access to other web
     sites based on content (but with the ability to
     override, as necessary, by my or my wife's
     permission)

With the Gigafast router, I am extremely limited on the first two, and have
no capability on the last one.  I am guessing that IPCop handles the first
two, and that a plug-in (Dan's Guardian???) handles the third.

The only problem with using ZoneAlarm is that it noticeably sucks up
resources on my vastly underpowered PC.  Also, it caused my Win95 setup to
freeze when I tried it a few years ago; since then, I upgraded to Win98SE
and increased RAM to 128MB (from 64MB) on a 233MHz box.  So, maybe I'll give
it another go.

With all the problems associated with wireless, and the expert attention
required to secure it and make it workable, I'll try the powerline network
before I bother with wireless.  We don't have laptops and, if that day
comes, we have plenty of outlets in our house.

Thanks again for your responses, Bob!

db

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pctech-bounces.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx / Bob Crothers
> Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 9:31 AM
>
> Dan,
>
> 1) Yes.  Firewall software and your "firmware" are the same thing in this
> case.  If your only need is NAT (Network Address Translation or
> what you are
> calling IP address translation) then perhaps you don't need IP Cop.
>
> I use IP Cop at home because I like it.  And I use it at work
> because it is
> very effective.  So my home environment was "free".  A
> router/firewall would have cost me money.
>
> IP Cop is also only concerned with inbound traffic.  If this is a
> concern of
> yours, then use something like Zone Alarm on the PC's and keep them behind
> your firewall of choice (Eg: IPCop or your router/firewall).
>
> 2) Just upgraded to Win98?  I'd still bet there is a wireless network in
> your future...but probably a more distant future than many! <g>
>
> 3) re the "router part of the hardware".  Actually, IP Cop performs that
> also.  But as I said above, perhaps IP Cop is an added layer of complexity
> you don't really need.
>
> Bob