I am currently stationed in Iraq, and I run (for personal use) a network with ~160 people squeezing through a dual WAN router via satellite (4Mb/1Mb). My router is to say the least over taxed. I never intended to have this many people, but 1 by 1 they came to me to be able to webcam with family.
Here are my specifics:
1) These machines are owned by the users and I do not want to take responsibility (or tech questions once we get home) for their computers, so client software is out.
2) I do not want to forbid people from using iTunes/Limewire type programs outright. However, there are certain times of day (given the 8+ hour time zone difference) that have heavy traffic when I DO want to restrict those applications.
3) If at all possible, I would like to have some sort of accounting log of traffic. One person had installed a program that was streaming back even when he wasn’t using it, so it was clogging our network.
4) I have been able to scrape together the parts for a separate server/gateway. Athlon XP 1400+, 1GB ram, 80GB HD, CD, floppy, extra NICs.
5) I can get a hold of a copy of server 2003, but I am not familiar enough to set it up to do what I need.
Ok, I have a couple hundred bucks set aside for software or a different hardware if needed. It was suggested to me, to try configuring a Linux based floppy firewall that would be capable of application layer filtering… I have looked and honestly it looks like more than I can get into to for the last couple months we are here. I tried blocking ports, but the nature of GNUtella makes that pointless. Many people use Skype, so if I block too many ports the cure becomes worse than the disease. I would appreciate ANY and ALL suggestions.