CentOS - Jan 2012 - A simplistic parental-control setup

I am looking at the simplest (implementation-wise) solution to the following 
problem (on CentOS 6.2):

I have a list of web addresses (like http://www.example.com, https://1.2.3.4/, 
etc.) that should be "forbidden" to access from a particular host. On
access
attempt, the browser should be redirected to a local web page (file on the hard 
disk) with the explanation that those addresses are forbidden. The possible 
ways of disallowed access include:

* typing www.example.com or http://1.2.3.4/ in the browser
* typing www.example.com/anyfolder/somefile.html in the browser
* clicking on www.example.com when listed as a link on some other web site 
(say, Google search results)
* nothing else.

The last point above assumes that the users will never try any other method of 
accessing the site. These user's knowledge about computers in general is
known
to be elementary, so I don't need protection against geniouses who can
figure
out some obscure way to circumvent the lockdown (and please don't tell me
that
this is an irrational assumption, I know it is...).

If possible, all this should be on a "per user" basis, but if
implementing it
system-wide would be much simpler, I could live with it. :-)

The point is that I need a simple, easy-to-implement, easy-to-configure and 
easy-to-maintain solution for this particular usecase. What I don't need is 
some over-engineered solution that covers my usecase along with a whole bunch 
of stuff I will never need, and takes two months to configure properly. It 
should also be F/OSS, preferably included in CentOS repos or elsewhere.

Or alternatively I could go along with manually setting up a bogus 
httpd/dns/iptables configuration which would do all this, but I have a feeling 
that it would not be the easiest thing to maintain...

I'd appreciate any suggestions. :-)

Best, :-)
Marko

On Wednesday 04 January 2012 18:04:43 Frank Cox wrote:
> On Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:58:17 +0000 Marko Vojinovic wrote:
> > The point is that I need a simple, easy-to-implement,
easy-to-configure
> > and easy-to-maintain solution for this particular usecase.
> 
> Put the disallowed addresses into your /etc/hosts file and associate those
> addresses with whatever you want them to resolve to.
Hmm... that sure looks simple enough. :-) I'll give it a try, thanks!

Best, :-)
Marko

On 01/05/2012 12:58 AM, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
>
> I am looking at the simplest (implementation-wise) solution to the
following
> problem (on CentOS 6.2):
>
> I have a list of web addresses (like http://www.example.com,
https://1.2.3.4/,
> etc.) that should be "forbidden" to access from a particular
host. On access
> attempt, the browser should be redirected to a local web page (file on the
hard
> disk) with the explanation that those addresses are forbidden. The possible
> ways of disallowed access include:
>
> * typing www.example.com or http://1.2.3.4/ in the browser
> * typing www.example.com/anyfolder/somefile.html in the browser
> * clicking on www.example.com when listed as a link on some other web site
> (say, Google search results)
> * nothing else.
>
> The last point above assumes that the users will never try any other method
of
> accessing the site. These user's knowledge about computers in general
is known
> to be elementary, so I don't need protection against geniouses who can
figure
> out some obscure way to circumvent the lockdown (and please don't tell
me that
> this is an irrational assumption, I know it is...).
>
> If possible, all this should be on a "per user" basis, but if
implementing it
> system-wide would be much simpler, I could live with it. :-)
>
> The point is that I need a simple, easy-to-implement, easy-to-configure and
> easy-to-maintain solution for this particular usecase. What I don't
need is
> some over-engineered solution that covers my usecase along with a whole
bunch
> of stuff I will never need, and takes two months to configure properly. It
> should also be F/OSS, preferably included in CentOS repos or elsewhere.
>
> Or alternatively I could go along with manually setting up a bogus
> httpd/dns/iptables configuration which would do all this, but I have a
feeling
> that it would not be the easiest thing to maintain...
>
> I'd appreciate any suggestions. :-)
There is squidguard in RepoForge repository. It's a plugin for squid. 
There is also dansguardian.

If you use separate firewall box, you can use ClearOS, it has 
dansguardian set up.

-- 

Ljubomir Ljubojevic
(Love is in the Air)
PL Computers
Serbia, Europe

Google is the Mother, Google is the Father, and traceroute is your
trusty Spiderman...
StarOS, Mikrotik and CentOS/RHEL/Linux consultant