network logon via webpage

[saltedbacon]

I am trying to design a network for my friend's new house. He wants a hard line to every room (5 in total) and wireless-g to cover the whole place (no problem). However, he also wants all of his roomates to have to logon to the network via a webpage hosted on a central server machine; and if possible he wants to be able to monitor the bandwith usage and other such stats of the individual users.

I've been able to find help on how to setup all of the traffic to run through a dedicated server that I'll build for him, but can't find anything on the type of logon or monitoring that he wants. What should I do?

Oh, and just to make sure I'm thinking this through correctly, the network would be:
internet > cable modem > server box (with two NICs and routing software)> 8-port switch > the five wall drops and two wireless access points

I'm fairly new to any networking other than large temporary lan parties, so feel free to grill me if i'm way off base on any of this, thanks.

--saltedbacon

 

[DragonNOA1]

feel free to grill me
--saltedbacon

That was funny.

I don't know much but any kind of SmoothWall proxy or RRAS on server2k3 should have logging. As far as logging in. I know of wireless routers (reviewed at TomsHardware) that they use at cafe's that make the you enter some kind of userid paswd to get onto the network/internet. There is really all sorts of differ ways to implement that tho. I'll let the other ppl here explain that stuff. Good luck.

 

[big daddy fatsacks]

my first question is: why do people need to login for a home network? are they logging in just to get on the internet? if so, why?

i would say that smoothwall or clarkconnect or (insert linux fw distro here) would do what you want. i think he can force the users to login with squid, but he'd be just as well off referencing all their stats by IP address and ditching the login just cause it's a hassle for the users.

for really good bandwidth analysis- better than what is going to come with any of those firewall distros just throw ntop on there and you'll have more network usage stats than you'll know what to do with. the only problem with this is that it is going to require a lot more ram and processing power. you may want to put it on yet another seperate box to run people through.

 

[saltedbacon]

He wants to make them login to use the network because the bill for the cable connection will be split between some tenants and not others (who say they wouldn't use it) and hes overprotective. I could probably talk him out of that, but if I don't use some sort of login script, can I setup WEP or WPA to protect the wireless access points? I've done it on wireless routers, is it the same for access points?

thanks for the help guys,
--saltedbacon

 

[big daddy fatsacks]

if people in some rooms say they won't use the connection isn't easier to just unplug the other ends of those room drops from the central switch? or is he afraid they'll sneak in other's peoples rooms and use their systems?

 

[xXaNaXx]

i personally don't see the need for a login just to use the internet. for the people who say they won't be using the internet, just unplug the cables going to their rooms. then he can just charge a flat fee per month for the rest of them, make them use a specific static IP address (or just take down their MAC address and have it authenticate that way), and enable logging on the server so that he can prove that they used the internet in the case they say they didn't.

 

[Malk-a-mite]

However, he also wants all of his roomates to have to logon to the network via a webpage hosted on a central server machine; and if possible he wants to be able to monitor the bandwith usage and other such stats of the individual users.

Security FAQ - 3rd post down.
Capitive Portals.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=874256