New to FreeRADIUS and looking for answers...
Hi Guys, I'd like to begin by saying I'm new, 100% in fact to both Linux and FreeRADIUS. Having said that, I am in a position where by I feel I need to use both to overcome certain problems I am having at work. Allow me to offer a very brief overview as I don't want to waste anyones time: We have a building with 10+ WAP. They are connected to an ADSL2 service which is being abused by staff. I now have a HP DL340 1U Server, ready to be set up as a FreeRADIUS box but, have no clue as to how. In short, I need to better monitor what users are doing and restrict the level of access they have such as what websites they can visit and so on. In part, I feel FreeRADIUS can help. Having said all this, I'm at a loss like so many people it would seem with the FreeRADIUS concept. It appears powerfull on the surface however I seem to be unable to find any good material on the subject. Most of it, is old and dated. Yes, the documentation is good, but I see nothing that really guides you, step by step, in learning this complex program.... While I'd love someone to spend the time to help, I don't expect it! What I would like, is someone to help me by pointing me in the right direction! I have been looking at the book RADIUS, which is currently very hard to get here in Australia. So hard, I'd have to get it from the US and wait around eight weeks as the publisher is yet to reprint a book first written back in 2002... I hope you can understand where I am coming from and I look forward to any help people can offer. Regards, Scott
"Scott Holland" <hollstar2047@hotmail.com> wrote:
In short, I need to better monitor what users are doing and restrict the level of access they have such as what websites they can visit and so on. In part, I feel FreeRADIUS can help.
Unfortunately, probably not. RADIUS is about obtaining network access, not about controlling users once they have network access. You might be able to send filter rules to the access points, which do IP layer filtering. e.g. blocking outbound port 80, or forcing it to go through a proxy. Even with that, you'll have to consult the NAS documentation to see if it's possible, and how to do it. As for blocking web sites, you'll have to install a web proxy, and do the blocking there. RADIUS just isn't the solution to that problem, but it can help. Maybe. You may be better off just adding hard-coded rules with AP's that force outbound port 80 to go through a web proxy. You may not even need RADIUS at all.
While I'd love someone to spend the time to help, I don't expect it! What I would like, is someone to help me by pointing me in the right direction! I have been looking at the book RADIUS, which is currently very hard to get here in Australia. So hard, I'd have to get it from the US and wait around eight weeks as the publisher is yet to reprint a book first written back in 2002...
It didn't sell well. But I'm in the process of writing a book, which should be available before Christmas. Alan DeKok. -- http://deployingradius.com - The web site of the book http://deployingradius.com/blog/ - The blog
Hi Alan, Many thanks for your comments. I understand RADIUS is only part of the solution to my problem and I would need to also put in place a proxy to control the level of access people get but thus far, its been a long and hard road. Is it even worth my while to get this RADIUS book or is it just too far out of date? And is your book going to be free, or will it be a paid E-Book? Regards, Scott
From: "Alan DeKok" <aland@deployingradius.com> Reply-To: FreeRadius users mailing list <freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org> To: FreeRadius users mailing list <freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org> Subject: Re: New to FreeRADIUS and looking for answers... Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 12:15:35 -0400
"Scott Holland" <hollstar2047@hotmail.com> wrote:
In short, I need to better monitor what users are doing and restrict the level of access they have such as what websites they can visit and so on. In part, I feel FreeRADIUS can help.
Unfortunately, probably not. RADIUS is about obtaining network access, not about controlling users once they have network access.
You might be able to send filter rules to the access points, which do IP layer filtering. e.g. blocking outbound port 80, or forcing it to go through a proxy. Even with that, you'll have to consult the NAS documentation to see if it's possible, and how to do it.
As for blocking web sites, you'll have to install a web proxy, and do the blocking there. RADIUS just isn't the solution to that problem, but it can help. Maybe. You may be better off just adding hard-coded rules with AP's that force outbound port 80 to go through a web proxy. You may not even need RADIUS at all.
While I'd love someone to spend the time to help, I don't expect it! What I would like, is someone to help me by pointing me in the right direction! I have been looking at the book RADIUS, which is currently very hard to get here in Australia. So hard, I'd have to get it from the US and wait around eight weeks as the publisher is yet to reprint a book first written back in 2002...
It didn't sell well. But I'm in the process of writing a book, which should be available before Christmas.
Alan DeKok. -- http://deployingradius.com - The web site of the book http://deployingradius.com/blog/ - The blog - List info/subscribe/unsubscribe? See http://www.freeradius.org/list/users.html
"Scott Holland" <hollstar2047@hotmail.com> wrote:
Is it even worth my while to get this RADIUS book or is it just too far out of date?
For a complete beginner, it's a decent start. But it's somewhat complicated, and yet content-free.
And is your book going to be free, or will it be a paid E-Book?
Not free. Paid e-book, and probably a print edition, too. Alan DeKok. -- http://deployingradius.com - The web site of the book http://deployingradius.com/blog/ - The blog
Fantastic! I look forward to it! :)
From: "Alan DeKok" <aland@deployingradius.com> Reply-To: FreeRadius users mailing list <freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org> To: FreeRadius users mailing list <freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org> Subject: Re: New to FreeRADIUS and looking for answers... Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 20:27:08 -0400
"Scott Holland" <hollstar2047@hotmail.com> wrote:
Is it even worth my while to get this RADIUS book or is it just too far out of date?
For a complete beginner, it's a decent start. But it's somewhat complicated, and yet content-free.
And is your book going to be free, or will it be a paid E-Book?
Not free. Paid e-book, and probably a print edition, too.
Alan DeKok. -- http://deployingradius.com - The web site of the book http://deployingradius.com/blog/ - The blog - List info/subscribe/unsubscribe? See http://www.freeradius.org/list/users.html
hi Scott i have the same problem u talked about i need someone to help me in configuring free radius on linux server step by step so please if any one can do this favour i'll be so thankfull afraa On 8/26/06, Scott Holland <hollstar2047@hotmail.com> wrote:
Hi Guys,
I'd like to begin by saying I'm new, 100% in fact to both Linux and FreeRADIUS. Having said that, I am in a position where by I feel I need to use both to overcome certain problems I am having at work. Allow me to offer a very brief overview as I don't want to waste anyones time:
We have a building with 10+ WAP. They are connected to an ADSL2 service which is being abused by staff. I now have a HP DL340 1U Server, ready to be set up as a FreeRADIUS box but, have no clue as to how.
In short, I need to better monitor what users are doing and restrict the level of access they have such as what websites they can visit and so on. In part, I feel FreeRADIUS can help.
Having said all this, I'm at a loss like so many people it would seem with the FreeRADIUS concept. It appears powerfull on the surface however I seem to be unable to find any good material on the subject. Most of it, is old and dated.
Yes, the documentation is good, but I see nothing that really guides you, step by step, in learning this complex program....
While I'd love someone to spend the time to help, I don't expect it! What I would like, is someone to help me by pointing me in the right direction! I have been looking at the book RADIUS, which is currently very hard to get here in Australia. So hard, I'd have to get it from the US and wait around eight weeks as the publisher is yet to reprint a book first written back in 2002...
I hope you can understand where I am coming from and I look forward to any help people can offer.
Regards,
Scott
- List info/subscribe/unsubscribe? See http://www.freeradius.org/list/users.html
I'm not going to get into what the project lacks as this is old news. At least Alan is working on documentation to support people like us. :) Having said that, I find it amazing as to the lack of overal support for the project on the Internet. Working examples seem to be hard to come by? All of the work I do is Microsoft Server based (no suprise)! I am new to Linux in almost every sense of the word yet I'm well aware of how powerfull it can be... The downfall of Linux on the whole, and I'm not talking about any one project and or distro, is the total lack of real support. When I say real support, I mean good, solid documentation to help new users from the ground up. If you think back to the days of DOS. You could find countless books on the subject. In Australia, you will find this very hard... The solution appears to be, the Internet which I can only assume is because of the "public" nature of Linux... Finding that sweet source of help on Linux however, on the magic Internet is harder than you would think - This is proven in FreeRADIUS a project which has been around for some time... We all know its fantastic, and we all know Linux is sensational even if we newbies can't use it... What upsets me is those users who clearly have their head around it who don't help guys like us! I'm not having a go at anyone on this project, I'm talking in general so please understand... :) I am very keen to move away from Microsoft based solutions and this was going to be my first project... The perfect box to handle the AAA requirements of my wireless network, and to act as proxy to filter the web............ How bloody hard this is... Regards, Scott
From: "affora deeb" <engineerafraa@gmail.com> Reply-To: FreeRadius users mailing list <freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org> To: "FreeRadius users mailing list" <freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org> Subject: Re: New to FreeRADIUS and looking for answers... Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 08:40:37 +0200
hi Scott i have the same problem u talked about i need someone to help me in configuring free radius on linux server step by step so please if any one can do this favour i'll be so thankfull afraa
On 8/26/06, Scott Holland <hollstar2047@hotmail.com> wrote:
Hi Guys,
I'd like to begin by saying I'm new, 100% in fact to both Linux and FreeRADIUS. Having said that, I am in a position where by I feel I need to use both to overcome certain problems I am having at work. Allow me to offer a very brief overview as I don't want to waste anyones time:
We have a building with 10+ WAP. They are connected to an ADSL2 service which is being abused by staff. I now have a HP DL340 1U Server, ready to be set up as a FreeRADIUS box but, have no clue as to how.
In short, I need to better monitor what users are doing and restrict the level of access they have such as what websites they can visit and so on. In part, I feel FreeRADIUS can help.
Having said all this, I'm at a loss like so many people it would seem with the FreeRADIUS concept. It appears powerfull on the surface however I seem to be unable to find any good material on the subject. Most of it, is old and dated.
Yes, the documentation is good, but I see nothing that really guides you, step by step, in learning this complex program....
While I'd love someone to spend the time to help, I don't expect it! What I would like, is someone to help me by pointing me in the right direction! I have been looking at the book RADIUS, which is currently very hard to get here in Australia. So hard, I'd have to get it from the US and wait around eight weeks as the publisher is yet to reprint a book first written back in 2002...
I hope you can understand where I am coming from and I look forward to any help people can offer.
Regards,
Scott
- List info/subscribe/unsubscribe? See http://www.freeradius.org/list/users.html
- List info/subscribe/unsubscribe? See http://www.freeradius.org/list/users.html
"Scott Holland" <hollstar2047@hotmail.com> wrote:
I'm not going to get into what the project lacks as this is old news. At least Alan is working on documentation to support people like us. :) Having said that, I find it amazing as to the lack of overal support for the project on the Internet. Working examples seem to be hard to come by?
The people who work on the project do so in their free time, at their own expense. They have full-time jobs, families, hobbies, and other interests. Despite that, they devote a significant amount of time to pushing the project ahead.
All of the work I do is Microsoft Server based (no suprise)! I am new to Linux in almost every sense of the word yet I'm well aware of how powerfull it can be... The downfall of Linux on the whole, and I'm not talking about any one project and or distro, is the total lack of real support. When I say real support, I mean good, solid documentation to help new users from the ground up.
Support is available, if you're willing to pay for it. Free documentation is less readily available. Microsoft can afford to have free documentation online because you paid money for their product. Your surprise that free software doesn't have commercial quantities of documentation is based on a lack of education as to the economics of the situation. Other open source projects have people getting paid full-time to work on the those projects. FreeRADIUS doesn't. Some are smaller than FreeRADIUS in terms of the number of deployments, too. Other projects have more people involved, which spreads the load. That's why some projects have more and better documentation. And yet... if we ask for people to contribute documentation, 99.9% of the people who use the server (or any open source project) don't. When we ask people to pay for support or development, they don't. When we point out that it's not nice for people who don't contribute to complain about the work done by the people who do contribute, rude words are sent our way... It makes me wonder why I'm even bothering. So let's try the "put up or shut up" method. If I get 100 people contributing $1k U.S. each, I'll devote a year, full-time, to FreeRADIUS documentation, development, and bug fixes. Given that my time is now only about 5-10 hours a week, you should see a *major* improvement in the product. Heck, I'll even put a meter on my web site, listing how close we are to the goal, and mention the people who contributed (if they want.) Send me private email with a promise, and if we get close, I'll respond, and ask for the checks. If not, you'll have to continue with the same level of documentation you have now. Is that good enough? Alan DeKok. -- http://deployingradius.com - The web site of the book http://deployingradius.com/blog/ - The blog
"affora deeb" <engineerafraa@gmail.com> wrote:
i need someone to help me in configuring free radius on linux server step by step
To do... what? Alan DeKok. -- http://deployingradius.com - The web site of the book http://deployingradius.com/blog/ - The blog
Well Scott. You've seemed to make everyone chime in on the lack of documentation on the Internet for Linux as a whole (That's a summary of the 5 proceeding messages) But nobody answered your question. :-) Scott, your looking at the wrong software product for what you do. Well, FreeRADIUS will tie into what you want to do, but it's not nesscary. FreeRADIUS is a AAA Server as it core functionality. Authentication, Authorization, Accounting. I think your looking for a Web Proxy, or Web-Filtering product, or IPS product. Squid proxy server will be your best bet (http://www.squid-cache.org/). It will cache websites that are commonely viewed, it will only allow websites you define access to, or conversely, allow access to all sites but one's you think should be restricted. You can set squid up with a content filter (it's not there by default) This allows you to control where you want people to go, and to reduce the bandwidth that people are using. -----Original Message----- From: freeradius-users-bounces+mking=bridgew.edu@lists.freeradius.org [mailto:freeradius-users-bounces+mking=bridgew.edu@lists.freeradius.org] On Behalf Of Scott Holland Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2006 2:42 AM To: freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org Subject: New to FreeRADIUS and looking for answers... Hi Guys, I'd like to begin by saying I'm new, 100% in fact to both Linux and FreeRADIUS. Having said that, I am in a position where by I feel I need to use both to overcome certain problems I am having at work. Allow me to offer a very brief overview as I don't want to waste anyones time: We have a building with 10+ WAP. They are connected to an ADSL2 service which is being abused by staff. I now have a HP DL340 1U Server, ready to be set up as a FreeRADIUS box but, have no clue as to how. In short, I need to better monitor what users are doing and restrict the level of access they have such as what websites they can visit and so on. In part, I feel FreeRADIUS can help. Having said all this, I'm at a loss like so many people it would seem with the FreeRADIUS concept. It appears powerfull on the surface however I seem to be unable to find any good material on the subject. Most of it, is old and dated. Yes, the documentation is good, but I see nothing that really guides you, step by step, in learning this complex program.... While I'd love someone to spend the time to help, I don't expect it! What I would like, is someone to help me by pointing me in the right direction! I have been looking at the book RADIUS, which is currently very hard to get here in Australia. So hard, I'd have to get it from the US and wait around eight weeks as the publisher is yet to reprint a book first written back in 2002... I hope you can understand where I am coming from and I look forward to any help people can offer. Regards, Scott - List info/subscribe/unsubscribe? See http://www.freeradius.org/list/users.html
participants (4)
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affora deeb -
Alan DeKok -
King, Michael -
Scott Holland