Combination of Network Issues

Well I hope somewhere out there can help me out with some networking trouble that I am having. Currently, we are having some bandwidth issues at the office with spikes going up and down. Is there a way to block users from streaming audio and video and certain website? I'm sure there is I just dont know how to do it. Right now we are running two routers but, no firewall (hardwarebase) so if this is something that is needed please let me know. Also, was wondering if anyone knew of networking analyzing tools other than "Whats up Gold" and "Solar Winds" I dont have a net flow switch so i can use either of these. Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

These firewalls a very good for a small business. They can do what you suggest for a pretty small price. The ZyWall 2WG appears to be a good one if you require wireless as well.

 

You have a local DNS server? You could redirect those site. 404.
Push out a host file for the PCs that point those sites to localhome.
Setup a firewall like smoothwall.
I've forgotten my Cisco IOS, but there has to be a way to reroute that traffic too.
"Using ACLs is the hard way actually but you can use it if you want
for example open up your command prompt
type nslookup www.myspace.come >>>> a list with several ip addresses would come up you need to block traffic to and from them using an ACL
and to make things worse do nslookup myspace.com a different list would come up those also needs to be blocked, same applies to facebook for example"

 

Or what you can do is go to the host files of the computers/push out a host file to all the computers.

Which look something like this:

Code:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1       localhost
127.0.0.1       hotmail.com
127.0.0.1       facebook.com

Ect Ect... Whatever you want blocked. Therefore, it blocks those websites. 

Just an idea, hope ya get the issue resolved.

 

Hey jguy6,

The quickest method is to lay down the law with the employees.

Email them that these programs affect the office network and the policy is no programs like these can be used or installed.

Assign a tech to visit the stations and uninstall said proggies.

Anyone caught, will be warned, written up etc..

Repeated offenders will have to face Major Geek!

if you're running a windows domain, you could run IE registry restrictions in the employees login script which would disable the ability to download from the internet and also stop access to the IE option that allows downloads from the net.

techsent