Unique DNS Server

[Park_7677]

I'm looking for somewhat of a unique application, dealing with DNS. At our previous LAN, we didn't have internet. That gave me full control of DNS making everything resolve to the IP of our internal web server. Google.com went to our website, showing people how to get around. It was awesome.

However, for the next LAN were looking at the possibility of having internet. Now I can't forward Google.com and Whitehouse.gov to our server (well, I could :tongue2: ) because people might actually want to go there. I want to still offer the amazing plug-n-play we had last time (even someone with an IQ of 0 could have found out what game we played by just opening a browser, great!)

I need a solution and I do have an idea. A DNS server that will resolve everything to the internal website for the first time (or until a link is clicked saying they understand how to get back to the internal server and don't ask me every 5 minutes). It would just check to see if that IP is in the database of users who acknowledged the intranet/internet difference. If they already did the 1st time catch, they go straight to the internet. If not, back to the internal site.

I'm using Windows Server 2003, and the built-in DNS server doesn't do that. I need a Gatekeeper or a DNS server that will do what I need. Does anyone have any suggestions? Free/open source would be best. Or any other suggestions of how to do this task.

Thanks!

[Shorty]

Treewalk (used to be bind-pe) might do what you want :)

http://ntcanuck.com/

[Park_7677]

Treewalk (used to be bind-pe) might do what you want :)

http://ntcanuck.com/
I downloaded that and installed if (finally). It may be just that I'm new to it, but I can't find anything that will let me do what I want with it. I don't know, maybe I didn't express what I needed clearly. Maybe I need something different than what I think I do.

I want similar functionality as at hotels (or other hot spots) where when you first open the browser you get redirected to an Agreement/Login page. Once you do that once, you're out on the net. I want to replace the Agreement/Login page with our internal page, just for the first time.

I don't know what software I need for that. I thought DNS tricks would work but it's looking like it wont. :range:

[Shorty]

You actually need something like a web filter. Eg.. SurfControl or something similar :) This will proxy all the requests sent from clients and do the kind of behavour you are after :)

[Park_7677]

Thanks Shorty. I'm sure something like that would do what I want, but would require that our server also be the router. It's a LAN, so my main goal is good LAN gameplay. I'm more than sure the server could handle the extra routing load, however, we would lose one of the dual gigabit NICs to the routing process (or have to buy another NIC). I have another path I want to walk down first.

We use a Linksys WRT54G for DHCP already and it would also be our first choice for sharing the internet at the events. I can put a Linux distro (OpenWRT (http://www.openwrt.org)) on it and see if there are options for me. It's been 5 or so months since I've used OpenWRT but there is an amazing amount of software for it. And it's free :D

I wanted to try DNS simply because it would have been quick to implement. I had made progress with it but DNS caching on the local computers was causing a not-so-transparent effect. :hair:

I'll get something figured out sooner or later ;) Thanks :thumbup

[Park_7677]

I got something working that I like. It's called ChilliSpot, a wireless hotspot controller. With a little different configuration it will work on both wired and wireless connections. Re-dress the front-end and configure RADIUS corrently and you can change it from a Username/Password setup to an "Agree/Do not agree" setup.

This is all running on a Linksys WRT54G (v1.1) with OpenWRT Linux. Using ChilliSpot and FreeRADIUS software.

[ Gamers ] <------> [Network Switch] <-----> [WRT54G] <----> [Internet]

Unauthorized users are allowed up to (but not passed) the WRT54G (access to their subnet) and our website (Chilli let's you specify sites allowed to unauthorized users, cool :cool:). Authorized users are allowed past the WRT54G onto the internet.

Attached a screenshot of what people see when they try to go out on the internet for the first time.