broadband network

[tweeky]

I currently have adsl broadband on one computer and am wondering what I will need to put it on two more.

Here's a little more detail. I have two PC's running win XP home and a laptop also running win XP home. I would like one PC to be able to monitor what sites are being accessed by the other two PC's. The pc that will be monitioring is approximately 5 metres away from the phone socket, the others are approximately 6 metres and 3 metres away from the main computer. All have at least one free usb port.

[pave_spectre]

The simplest way to share a broadband connection is to get a multi-port router and network cards for each computer, and just hook them up with cat5 cable (or you can go wireless).

Alternatively you can get a switch and some network cards and setup ICS on the computer with the connection.

I would like one PC to be able to monitor what sites are being accessed by the other two PC's

Monitor how?

Do you just want A)to be able to block sites outright so that no one can access them or do you want B)to have a set of logs that you can go through at your leisure to check if something has been accessed that should not have been, and which computer did the accessing.

There is probably software that can do A or maybe even a good quality router can handle it.

The only way I personally know how to do B is with a machine with something like IPCop or other Linux gateway/proxy installed and configured with logging. Perhaps a good quality router can also achieve the same effect though I've not come across any.

[tweeky]

Posted by pave spectre
to have a set of logs that you can go through at your leisure to check if something has been accessed that should not have been, and which computer did the accessing

That is what I meant.

Would this (http://www.dabs.com/uk/productView.htm?quicklinx=33NC) router be ok or would this (http://www.dabs.com/uk/productView.htm?quicklinx=17P8) be ok.

[pave_spectre]

The site didnt provide any useful info about the capabilities of either router but I suspect that they wouldnt be capable of such logging as you are looking for.

Personally I prefer the prevention method but I only know how to do it through the use of firewall rules in a linux based firewall/router which can also be used to log attempts to access those things that are blocked.
Also going through such logs can be tedious.

From the router perspective, Linksys devices tend to come quite highly reccomended and I believe thier routers generally allow quite a resoanable level of control over access rules.

Someone else may have more experience with that kind of functionality in those devices however.