Mac-mini to monitor network

[Dave8976]

I provide an Internet access network to residence of a house. The network consist of an Apple extreme router that is connected to a DSL modem and acts as a wireless access and provides a few wired Ethernet connections. There has been a few months which the usage has exceeded the bandwidth. I have configure the DNS entry on the router to use specific Norton DNS addresses which restrict web access to legitimate sites, etc. but I am wondering it I add a Mac-mini to the network is ther some mean using software to report what web sites are being use and to limit the bandwidth utilization? I guess I am proposing to use the Mac-mini as a network firewall and network usage monitor.

Any ideas?
Thanks
Dave8976

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

I think money would be better spent on a more capable router. You aren't really going to get what you want with the airport being used for wireless access. Between it and the DSL modem all internal traffic will appear to come from the same IP.

There are some firewall appliances that can do what you want as far as throttling and logging where people go. I'd shop around there for the specific features you want.

If you just want to track overall web site access and block some of the nasties, you can sign up for opendns. One PC has to run an agent that reports your public IP and from that they can match up DNS requests from your network.

I can think of ways to complicate things with a proxy server, potentially a Mac mini, but it seems a bit much for a home network. To me, Internet connection sharing with a mini falls into the same boat.