FiOS Internet

[#1]

The firewall built into the Verizon modem is very limited. I have young children in the house, and I would like to be able to track all internet traffic that comes through my account. I know that I can install software on each individual computer, but that's a lousy solution because some traffic is not on PCs, it's on other devices, like iPods and game systems and whatnot. 

I need a firewall at the modem level that allows me to track what web sites have been accessed from which devices on my network. How do I do that? 

[#2]

In most cases, if you want to log the websites that are being visited, you can use a service called OpenDNS which has the ability to log your DNS traffic. You can see from there what sites are being accessed, and you can also configure particular sites to be blocked. You would need to make sure though, that your kids do not change any DNS settings away from OpenDNS. You could probably create a firewall rule that drops all Outbound DNS requests not going to OpenDNS as a solution to that problem.

As far as logging traffic down to the detail, you would need a more dedicated solution. Using an old PC running a Linux Distribution built to run as a Firewall and as your main router (or as a secondary router running all of your network traffic through it), that would be do-able.

[#3]

Thanks for the ideas. I would much prefer that the Verizon router have a better firewall / logging solution, but I don't think that's going to happen.

[#4]

Pretty much no routers have decent firewall or parental controls.  Your better off with one of the packages (free/purchase) that run on your computer.