Home network Update: Adult and Child friendly

gjacobse

It's come time that I address my home network. The only two items in it I plan to keep are the Cable Modem (kinda have to) and the UniFi AP...

Everything else is pretty fair game. We have children, but I am looking for any ideas which could limit the kids (wireless) but not really limit the adults - as well as have a guest connection.

Since I have WiFi covered, I need a router and firewall. and how to limit the network for the kids....

scottalanmiller

You definitely need a firewall!!!!!

coliver

@g.jacobse said:

It's come time that I address my home network. The only two items in it I plan to keep are the Cable Modem (kinda have to) and the UniFi AP...

Everything else is pretty fair game. We have children, but I am looking for any ideas which could limit the kids (wireless) but not really limit the adults - as well as have a guest connection.

Since I have WiFi covered, I need a router and firewall. and how to limit the network for the kids....

Look into the Ubiquiti Edge devices they seem to work and are really low cost.

coliver

I probably am over complicating this but do you have a home server?

scottalanmiller

That's what I use, the Ubiquit EdgeRoute Lite. About $95 on Amazon.

What kind of child limiting do you want to do?

The AP will do a guest network.

gjacobse

@scottalanmiller said:

You definitely need a firewall!!!!!

I agree - I"m most familiar with Untangle,.. but we have spoken in the past about it's 'ineffectiveness'. I have considered a PFsense system, but haven't set one up as of yet.

@coliver said:

I probably am over complicating this but do you have a home server?

No - not as of now. I have been looking at the ReadyNAS 314 to use with my brother and father for storage ..
Yes, the EdgeRouter is a nice unit.

And yes the AP will do a gues - it's already running.

You could do filtering with Nxfilter in a linux vm http://www.nxfilter.org/p2/ which can also log.

You could also use Pfsense and do everything on that box including the captive portal and filtering.

Also for local windows/mac filtering there is K9 http://www1.k9webprotection.com/

@g.jacobse said:

I agree - I"m most familiar with Untangle,..

It's a resource hog.

gjacobse

@thecreativeone91 said:

You could do filtering with Nxfilter in a linux vm http://www.nxfilter.org/p2/ which can also log.

You could also use Pfsense and do everything on that box including the captive portal and filtering.

I don't recall seeing the Captive Portal as an option... but that is ideal. UT has a captive portal and I've used it before.

scottalanmiller

@g.jacobse said:

@thecreativeone91 said:

You could do filtering with Nxfilter in a linux vm http://www.nxfilter.org/p2/ which can also log.

You could also use Pfsense and do everything on that box including the captive portal and filtering.

I don't recall seeing the Captive Portal as an option... but that is ideal. UT has a captive portal and I've used it before.

The AP has a captive portal option.

@g.jacobse said:

@thecreativeone91 said:

You could do filtering with Nxfilter in a linux vm http://www.nxfilter.org/p2/ which can also log.

You could also use Pfsense and do everything on that box including the captive portal and filtering.

I don't recall seeing the Captive Portal as an option... but that is ideal. UT has a captive portal and I've used it before.

Pfsense has a captive portal. and it's more advanced than the Unifi one.

gjacobse

@thecreativeone91 said:

@g.jacobse said:

I agree - I"m most familiar with Untangle,..

It's a resource hog.

That was one of the discussions that @scottalanmiller and I had. At the time of it's implementation (nine years ago), I wasn't getting into the shell and doing much. It ran, throughput seemed on par with what I had been seeing with the Cisco PIX, I needed a manageable solution - for another Non Profit (meaning they didn't have money to spend) Several libraries where using it,.. seem decent etc.

Now that I am in a more educated position, and have access to better technical resources (looks around at those here at ML) I understand more about it. And I have resources which I am able to tap now I didn't have previously.

I have two older desktops at home,.. I can drop PFsense on them and go that direction - and see how it handles. Only other things I would need is a switch,.. but maybe I have one - the only Linksys 16 port switch just isn't up to par anymore...

I would look at the Cisco SG200 line of switches if you need a managed switch. Unbquiti has the Unifi switch for access switches but I haven't gotten a chance to use any of them yet. (the have the edgeswtich for coreswitches as well)

coliver

I've been having really good luck with Netgear's switches. Their Smart Switches have been working fantastically. Although not sure I would get one for home use.

@coliver said:

I've been having really good luck with Netgear's switches. Their Smart Switches have been working fantastically. Although not sure I would get one for home use.

I've only had issues with Netgear stuff

scottalanmiller

@coliver said:

I've been having really good luck with Netgear's switches. Their Smart Switches have been working fantastically. Although not sure I would get one for home use.

I use those for home.

scottalanmiller

@thecreativeone91 said:

I've only had issues with Netgear stuff

With ProSafe?

coliver

@thecreativeone91 said:

@coliver said:

I've been having really good luck with Netgear's switches. Their Smart Switches have been working fantastically. Although not sure I would get one for home use.

I've only had issues with Netgear stuff

That's unfortunate to hear. Been working wonderfully here. I've also heard many good things about the HP switches although I haven't had the chance to use one.

@scottalanmiller said:

@thecreativeone91 said:

I've only had issues with Netgear stuff

With ProSafe?

Yep, I believe they all were NETGEAR PROSAFE GS748T