Restricting Web Access on A Network: Proxy Server?

[Waragainstsleep]

I would like to severly restrict web access on a portion of my network. Basically I want all web traffic to redirect to the same site. This restriction will be for a wireless network (run from either a single Airport express or a single Airport Extreme (N) basestation). Clients will connect to the airport and be allowed access to this one site with any other URL directing them to this same site.
What is the simplest way of doing this? Could I do it using DNS? I can setup a DNS server exclusively for airport clients and make the basestation supply that as the default DNS, but could that be easily bypassed by entering a DNS server manually?
I had a quick look at parental control software, but this seems expensive and wasteful. Could I do it with a proxy server? Can I force clients to use it? I have seen this done with public pay-per-use wifi hotspots.

Many thanks in advance,

War

[Camelot]

There are many ways of doing this, but if you’re looking for the type of solution used by many pay-for-use hotspots you might want to look at one of the commercial solutions – there are many issues around the setup and administration (not least of which is tracking which users are paid and which are not).

If this is just for your internal use, though, the easiest solution is a proxy server. [url=http://www.squid-cache.org/]Squid [/url] is probably one of the better-known, and more full-featured ones.

The issue with a proxy, though, is getting the clients to use it – most systems need configuring to use a proxy server. There are some semi-automated approaches such as PAC files and DHCP options that will push out a proxy server configuration, but their support is by no means universal.

[premiermac]

A BlueCoat SG series box does it nicely, though it’s not inexpensive.

[Waragainstsleep]

I’ll have a look into Squid, though if anyone could walk me through compiling it on OS X, I would be most grateful. Odd that they don’t have a binary download for X.

What I am trying to do is allow access only to the iTunes Music store (and one or two other sites), but I want to pipe all traffic for it via our affiliate account.

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