Protect my own network with NethServer

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Hi, I am a dad wanting to protect my home network. I have (very) little networking knowledge but ready to learn. I have successfully installed the latest 64 bit Nethserver on my DELL GX620. Very easy to install and it recognised both add-on PCI network cards. I can access the admin GUI and installed almost everything I can find on the software center :slight_smile:

So, I am ready for the next step. I wonder if Nethserver can accommodate my setup? I don’t know the correct terminology or proper symbols but I hope you can understand my LAN. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Home Network1.JPG625Ă—645 40.2 KB

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Yes, it can definitely do this for you.

My setup is almost identical to yours, only difference is that the WAN port for the server is connecting to a Fibre Modem provided by my ISP and I am using OpenVPN for the VPN instead of L2TP.

NethServer has some additional feature for the web filtering which will add some extra/added layer of protection for you as well.

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HI James, you mean Nethserver can actually configure a group of IPs to use OpenDNS and other groups with Google DNS?

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mmm why some ip on google dns and other on opendns?

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That is because I want my kids to be protected under OpenDNS while I am not :slight_smile:

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i think Nethserver use squid/squidguard to archive this. (not sure, never done it on Nethserver :slight_smile: )
squidguard http://www.squidguard.org/

EDIT:
Install this (Software center):

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Just had an idea, since I have a spare Belkin will this network layout be better? Can PC1/2 access files in PC5/6?

Home Network2.JPG591Ă—597 40.2 KB

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i think that if dhcp is disabled (on router belkin and linksys) the dns isn’t served to the lan pc…

the dns used from pc is the one set with dhcp …

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@dreamerman - the 2nd diagram would help you achieve the desired effect if you want some protected by OpenDNS and others not.

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i don’t like opendns (why open in the name?? :smirk: ) i prefer have the control to block what i want. (don’t want to spend money :smiley: )

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[quote=“jackyes, post:10, topic:3160, full:true”]
i don’t like opendns (why open in the name?? :smirk: ) i prefer have the control to block what i want. (don’t want to spend money :smiley: )[/quote]
I use the free version thinking of going for paid one at some stage. Its quiet good actually because it blocks nasties from my family. I also have Qustodio on each desktop (bar mine).

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Would I be wrong to assume my first diagram cannot force some PCs to use Opendns while other PCs use Google DNS?

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If i undestand what you are tryng to archieve, i think this solution is a better solution:
http://docs.nethserver.org/en/latest/content_filter.html

:wink:

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As @jackyes states, the web content filter will go a long to helping with the solution. On the “protected lan”, you can set Nethserver to serve out the IP address for whichever DNS server you wish to use and then with the firewall rules, you can create a rule that limits the DNS ports to only those DNS servers which you wish to use.

1 Like
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Thanks James, starting to crack this nut this weekend.