Hi,
I am making a project for my college for Lab maintenance. In this I have to keep track of students using the computers in the internet lab.
For this I have made a php based web application (running on localhost in the lab). In this the students will be allotted a particular system when they enter their credentials. They have to go and sit on that particular system to access the internet. Before leaving the lab they also have to logout to disengage the computer to be available for use to another student.
This can be taken as a simple register kept at the door of the entrance where people have to fill their details and enter. I AM NOT USING WINDOWS SERVER AND THIS IS NOT A DESKTOP BASED APPLICATION.
The big flaw is that the student can still sit on the internet computer without entry. Or they can sit on another computer different from the one allotted.
The sample is available: http://prakhargoel.com/projects/lms Use "0710040" as username and "hello" as password. The admin panel is available at: http://prakhargoel.com/projects/lms/labadmin Use "hello" "hello"
What is desired now
Because of this big flaw It would be gr8 that whenever someone sits on any computer and tries to open any site, they should be redirected to the login page and forced to login. Without which the internet will not work. The system number can be tracked using the ip address we put like: 192.168.1.56 etc.
The internet will work only for the time the student is logged in. When they logout the internet should again stop working.
Please suggest what should I do to make this happen.
Force users to login before they use internet
Moderator: General Moderators
Re: Force users to login before they use internet
You normally would use a proxy server that rediects all websites to a login page if users aren't logged in. This is the standard way of doing this but I've never done it so couldn't advice how to do it but you'd need access to your server or gateway. You could also do it by having software on the computer similar to a software firewall that requires log in before opening any ports, this could log all users to a log file. VB or Python should be able to do this easily.
Re: Force users to login before they use internet
I am not sure if this would help but I use wifidog http://dev.wifidog.org/ as a free hotspot with a linksys router (wrt54gl) that I picked up for about 40 Euros.
The function is as your specs. A user connects to the wifi and is redirected to a login page, he has no access to the internet except sites you designate by their IP (say the campus website). Once they login they have full access to the net. It also keeps track of users activity.. and more.
It's also simple to set up, no programming required. You should be able to set this up in a few hours.
Stephen
PS: Just make sure you plug in your switch for all the computers into the LAN port of the router and your internet connection into the WAN because all the firewall/rouring/redirects are done betweek the LAN and WAN.
I also wanted to say it has a CMS system that you can leave messages events etc...
The function is as your specs. A user connects to the wifi and is redirected to a login page, he has no access to the internet except sites you designate by their IP (say the campus website). Once they login they have full access to the net. It also keeps track of users activity.. and more.
It's also simple to set up, no programming required. You should be able to set this up in a few hours.
Stephen
PS: Just make sure you plug in your switch for all the computers into the LAN port of the router and your internet connection into the WAN because all the firewall/rouring/redirects are done betweek the LAN and WAN.
I also wanted to say it has a CMS system that you can leave messages events etc...
- kaisellgren
- DevNet Resident
- Posts: 1675
- Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2006 5:52 am
- Location: Lahti, Finland.
Re: Force users to login before they use internet
Setup a proxy, and make the home page of these public student computers as the IP of this proxy like 192.168.1.1 and the computers have no access to the Internet. The may only access the Internet via your proxy, which before sending the request data checks if the user did log in.