Monitoring URL requests on foundation's LAN

Question

We are having a internet cafe with guests walking in and out. We would like to keep an eye on browsing traffic on LAN 192.168.2.0/24, because we don't want guests to visit wrong websites. In such situations, we can remove people from our internet cafe. This could happen rarely, but we want to prevent this on-time.

We have Windows clients generally. We need some kind of overview, containing URL's on client PC's with associated host name. Which can be accessed on the same subnet, from Linux or Windows. The disadvantage in this environment is: the cooperation don't want to make any changes in the router configuration. And this makes me curious if there is someway to accomplish this from another system, without making client-side changes and/or router changes.

What do we need for this?

Answer 1

We would like to keep an eye on browsing traffic on LAN 192.168.2.0/24, because we don't want guests to visit wrong websites.

Instead of "keeping an eye" on specific traffic you should simply block unwanted traffic.

1. Separate guest subnet from management subnet by firewall.
2. Allow guest subnet access to Internet but not to management network.
3. Allow management network access anywhere.

We need some kind of overview, containing URL's on client PC's with associated host name.

In order to monitor the URLs visited by clients you'll need to break SSL encryption - most web traffic is HTTPS nowadays. You need to deploy your own CA certificate on the clients and set up a firewall with deep SSL inspection support.

the cooperation don't want to make any changes in the router configuration.

Without setting up the network appropriately, this is close to undoable. However, you can add a firewall behind the router without it requiring changes.

In a rather simple scenario, you could alternatively set up a managed switch and use ACLs to filter out any unwanted traffic.

Answer 2

I think, this is a somewhat brooder question to answer. There are many option you can implement.

1. Firewall Implementation
2. Network Monitoring System Implementation
3. Proxy Server Implementation

We have no idea about size of your network, and but generally real time monitoring on each user is not a good idea and it will not be a possible if you have lot of customers.

Therefore You can use proxy server to limit browsing traffic. You can get proxy server as a hardware or software.Both free and proprietary versions are available in market.

If you have firewall, You can do same thing. You can limit unnecessary sites.

You do not need to keep your eye on each user and Device or application will be done your requirement. Even you need not remove from your location as well.

What monitoring system do is, they provide real time and historical logs for your knowledge. But you are not able to block or prohibit what they did.