How can I better manage devices that are connected to my wireless/wired home network?

[christiandelgado]

How can I better manage devices that are connected to my wireless and wired home network. I have 4 PCs, 1 Macbookbok and a bit over 10 mobile devices such as Iphones, android phones, and tablets that are connected to my wifi. My wireless router is a really basic one that does basic stuff such as port forwarding, mac filtering, and the ability to view what devices are connected to the network. I would like to have more control over these wired and wireless devices. Examples would include.

-Blocking internet access to wired and mobile devices whenever I decide. This includes IPhones, Itouches, PCs, Mac.

-Log how much bandwidth each device is consuming.

-Give restricted website access to only certain devices.

What is the best solution for this ? Will I need to sign up for a service, buy a new router or other solution. Please recommend. Thank you very much for your help!!!

 

[OhSnapWord]

You could build a cheap firewall box and run Untangle on it.

 

[christiandelgado]

It sounds lovely but its a bit pricey, I'm just reading about smoothwall....seems to be opensource...any free services ? or less pricey alternatives.

 

[setishock]

List of open source captive portal software and network access control (NAC) | Mohamed Thalib's Blog

The only thing you need with most of these is an old clunker pc, 2 network cards, a switch, and a wireless access point.
The internet comes in to the computer running the software on one network card, goes out the other network card to the switch. The wireless access point serves the wireless devices while the switch serves the hard wired devices.
Clunkers you can pick up at Goodwill or Salvation Army for next to nothing. Older generation network cars can be had for cheap at most repair shops. The switch doesn't have to be managed so you can use a 16 port like TP-Link has for under 30 bucks. If you go wireless G access points are under 40 dollars. Wireless N is not too much more.
The hard part is sitting down and setting up the software. Takes some planning out first.

 

[_michaelm]

As Seti says, an old traditional pc used as a hardware firewall would be the way to go - you could check out the astaro home security gateway for the software side, its free for personal use and is a vm appliance with all the tools installed, just needs configuration.

 

[Emily.Thomas]

I have a similar issue but I'm not certain I could handle some of those solutions myself. We have Uverse, a basic router, 4 computers, 2 iPads, and 3 iPhones connected. When my husband is on his computer gaming and downloading whatever he spends hours downloading, he hogs all the bandwidth. I can't even play Words with Friends over the wifi on my phone. I have to disconnect from wifi just to do that. Is there a way I can easily prioritize a few other devices above his?

 

[setishock]

Talk to him about letting others have some time on the connection. If you don't get through to him and he doesn't change his ways, a couple of nights of him sleeping on the couch should do it.
The firewall is going to be the easiest hardware/software solution.
We don't normally discuss downloading. However if a downloader is not set up or set up properly, it will chew up bandwidth like it's going out of style. As will multiplayer high end games. Have him do his downloading at night when every one is sleeping and being a bandwidth hog doesn't matter. As for his gaming, getting him to play on certain days and letting you and the rest of the household have some time online would be a good working compromise.
Good luck with that.

By the way, I have Uverse also for my personal use. 18 down and 2 up. On mine there is a 250 gig cap per month. Go over that and it get expensive. The cost per 10 gig extension would cost more than just paying attention to how much I am using. Point is check the bill and see if he's running over the cap.