Patrick Murphy wrote:

>>>it's relatively inexpensive as you can just use any old computer
>>>as a gateway.. install a special firewall linux distribution like
> 
>> That was my thought as well. With a bit of web programming on it they could
>> even update the white and black lists themselves, and have a means of
>> sending updates around the other similar machines at the other communities,
>> possibly by email or some form of auto-update.
> 
> This sounds good - but I'd have some learning to do. I still don't
> have the big picture yet - how do I get the colonies to access that
> gateway - and no other? I'll do some more searching.

Patrick, it sounds to me as if you should explain the geographical
situation (how many computers, how far away) better. It seems that some
here think of a local network connected to an ISP, which doesn't sound as
if this was your case.

Basically, it is the network connection that determines who can access
what. If you have only a wire to the local gateway (typical in a LAN), then
that's your only way to connect to the internet. Or if you have only a
wireless point-to-point connection to the location where the gateway sits,
then that's again your only way to connect to the internet.

But if, as you mentioned, every location has their own connection to a
satellite provider, things get a bit more complex, and you can't easily
enforce people to access the internet through a gateway of yours: they are
already connected to the internet through the satellite. (Of course you may
also buy a corporate style point-to-point satellite link and again route
all this traffic through your one gateway, but they probably are more
expensive than straight internet access.)

Gerhard

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