Limiting users to your Website

Firstly Webconverger needs to be ordered to be fixed to your homepage on startup.

The problem: A common feature request is for whitelisting, content filtering and/or censorship.

  • Limit surfers to a domain (whitelisting)
  • Block pornography. The TLD .xxx would be a godsend!

Recommended solution: To practically limit users to your Website, in your customisation order please specify iceweasel-webcnoaddressbar. This modifies the User Interface to remove the URL addressbar, so that users can't navigate away from your homepage.

Alternatively these requirements could be implemented separately on the gateway or proxy in your network. Many good routers have blacklisting/whitelisting capabilities.

You may also want to consider the kiosk reset feature in order to reset Webconverger to your site every say, 3 minutes. This can help avoid Webconverger being set on a non-mandated Website for too long in public spaces.

Webconverger with OpenDNS

OpenDNS provide a filtering service.

Pros

  • Easy to implement (no cost)
  • Does not add any weight to Webconverger

Cons

  • Not really open :-)
  • Not using your ISP's DNS, so quite possibly slow
  • Only works on the Internet (so not good for Internal networks ... )

Using your WRT54G-L router

As mentioned on http://webconverger.org/blog/entry/Better_Routing_wanted

3rd party firmware like dd-wrt provide options to limit WAN access under Access Restrictions to:

  • Website Blocking by URL Address
  • Website Blocking by Keyword

Webconverger and IPCop

IPCop is a lfs-based firewall which can easily be tweaked up to an url-filter.

Pros

  • Easy to implement (no cost)
  • Does not add any weight to Webconverger
  • Secures your whole network from the Internet
  • Very user-friendly and task-based GUI
  • Great community behind the project

Cons

  • An additional PC must be installed
  • Networkinterfaces must be separated physically
  • No multi-WAN connections
  • AddOns can only be installed by using a shell

Here are two links when you have questions about IPCop.