How can i use a BT3 computer as a gateway?

[RageLtMan]

Greetings all, long time no see. Posting from iraq... .

I got a vsat setup for my unit out here which i set up with a WAP router. Thats all fine, however, the router doesn't have all the features i need (some, not all).

The problem at hand is that the VSAT has a bandwith cap for every month and the service aint cheap. I'd like to set up a BT box as a middleman between the router and VSAT modem in order to get usage statistics, block certain types of traffic (streaming movies, large files, hell, porn) and preferably have it be web accessible/managed. (i wont be the only one managing it and grunts arent too technically proficient the term linux is on par with quantum mechanics).

Currently i have my WAP running WPA2 with mac filtering based on DHCP reservations i have, i'd like to be able to filter data usage as well and see which clients are racking up more traffic than others (everyone pays the same, everyone gets their service cut off if we exceed the monthly cap).

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks

(sorry if this is somewhat incoherent, haven't slept in a while)

[Thorn]

BT3 is designed from the ground up as a Penetration Testing toolset, and as such is NOT made to be a gateway or nework monitor. Like any other Linux distro, you could probably add a lot of things to BT3 to get it to act as a gateway, but it would require a llot of time and effort to do that, and would be a waste of the installed tools, which aren't designed for a gateway or monitoring machine.

There are other distros designed from the ground up to perform these functions. First, however, you really need to determine which function is more important to you, the network monitoring or the gateway. The two are really separate functions.

Smoothwall is a great Linux distro that is a gateway, and has some limited monitoring built-in to it. This is what I use. The administration is completely web-based.

Cacti is a great Linux network monitor, but has no real gateway functions. A nice variant is EZCacti which is a complete ISO image, and it great for starting your first monitoring station. Streaker69 has used Cacti extensively, and loves it for his WAN and multiple LANs.

[streaker69]

Cacti is a great Linux network monitor, but has no real gateway functions. A nice variant is EZCacti which is a complete ISO image, and it great for starting your first monitoring station. Streaker69 has used Cacti extensively, and loves it for his WAN and multiple LANs.

CactiEZ is a good way to get started with Cacti as it just installed from the CD. I started off on it, and now build my Cacti boxen from scratch. You can use Cacti to monitor your usage, but your equipment will have to support at least SNMP v1.

[RageLtMan]

The reason i was looking at using BT3 is the limited bandwidth here, we're lucky to have net access @ all. I'll look into getting those distros and trying them out though - couldn't hurt. I've managed to pick up an old p4 beater laptop to leave attached to the router (it has a broken keyboard though so this ought to be fun, thank god for SSH and VNC). Thanks guys, i'll post back soon as i can check out these options.