AnyRouter Tech, Tup Software Ltd.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
User’s Manual
Last
revised: September of 2006
WWW.TUPSOFT.COM
Contents
1.4 Getting
Trail Copy Authorized
1.5 Entrance
to Background Services
1.6 Low
Level-Layer Start/Stop
1.7 General
Settings of Big Mother™
2.1 Starting
and Running Big Mother™ System
2.3.2 Blocking/Filtering URLs (Websites)
2.3.5 Blocking Game Activities
2.3.6 Blocking Customized Online Tools
2.3.7 Blocking Connection Ports
2.4 Managing
the Captured Data
2.4.4 Saving Records or Exporting Lists
2.5 Host
Information and Administration
2.6 Setting
Up the Network Adapter
2.8.3 Manually Assigning Gateway IP
1 Installation Procedure
Big Mother™ uses one computer on a local area network (LAN) not only to monitor and record other hosts’ web behaviors, but also to restrict online activities according to customized filtering Internet policies. Unlike other EIM (Employee Internet Management) products that are based on WinPcap (The Windows Packet Capture Library) (http://www.winpcap.org/), Big Mother™ has no hardware requirements and can be used on any LAN infrastructures such as a switched computer network.
To get the trial
version of Big Mother™ evaluated and registered later if you are
satisfied with the results, the engine must be installed on a PC host connected
to the Internet and is able to visit our website at http://www.tupsoft.com.
The following
procedure will provide instructions for installing a Big Mother™ system
and configuring in its first running.
1.1 Installation Preparation
1) Download the latest version of the Big Mother™ programs from www.tupsoft.com.
2)
Select a computer host with OS
Windows 2000 Pro / 2000 Server / XP / 2003 to install the Big Mother™
programs.
3) The minimum hardware requirements are CPU Pentium 4 at 1 GHz/Memory 256 MB/Free Hard Disk Space 1GB. We suggest the following configurations:
²
Server for 10 PC licenses: CPU 2.0
GHz/ Memory 512 MB/Storage 20 GB
²
Console: CPU Pentium III 800 MHz or
higher/Memory 512 MB/Storage 30 MB
1.2 Installation Package
The installation
package consists of four parts:
²
User’s
Manual
²
The main
installation program BigMother.exe. It will install the engine service,
console, and driver programs. The engine program is for capturing packets and
controlling web accesses. It will run automatically in the background when the
host PC starts. The console program is the interface for viewing captured data
and managing host information.
1.3 Installation Steps
1) Back up the data and settings, i.e., select Retain data files and
folders when uninstall the old version.
2) Install the newest version of Big Mother™. It consists of a server
(engine) and a console. By default they are installed on the same PC host. In
the installation process, the following warning pop-up window might appear
several times depending on the OS version of the host PC. Since Big
Mother™ is based on NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) as the
application programming interface (API) for network interface cards (NICs), a virtual NIC has been created
for its operation. Just click the “Continue Anyway” button
to finish the installation.
3) On a LAN, it is allowed to install several consoles that are connected
to the server at the same time.
1.4 Getting Trail Copy Authorized
After the installation, please look up whether you have got the trail authorization from http://www.tupsoft.com by selecting About from the main menu. The evaluation copy will expire in 15 days and is limited to monitoring up to 5 computers. If the trail copy is not authorized, select Register and click on Register again on the next screen. During the process, please configure the firewall in the following way (or simply temporarily shut it down):
1) Allow TCP port 80 and 11901, or allow five TCP ports from 11900-11905
only for security reasons.
2) Allow all the Big Mother™ executable files running, i.e., ArServer.exe
(TUP Engine) and ArConsole.exe (BigMother).
3)
If you want to monitor more than 5
computers in the trial period, please contact us at support@tupsoft.com.
1.5 Entrance to Background Services
After the installation and restart, by
default the server will run automatically without the need for a user to
intervene. You can manually start/shutdown the engine from Services in
the Administrative Tools from Windows Control Panel, as shown
below.
1.6 Low Level-Layer Start/Stop
Before shutting down the engine or
restarting the PC host, you can use the “Stop” button on the
console, as shown below, to halt the operation of Big Mother™. Otherwise,
it might cause the disruption of Internet connection for other computers for a
very short interval, usually unnoticeable.
1.7 General Settings of Big Mother™
By default, Big Mother™ automatically scans and configures in its first running. If for some reasons, the system cannot sets itself properly, you can use this option to assign manually the default gateway IP and then click the “Acquire MAC Address” button to finish the configuration.
To find out the
gateway IP address, you can follow the following procedure: Start à Run à CMD, type “ipconfig,” and then press ”Return.”
In the above
example, the IP address of the default gateway is 192.168.1.1.
1) Open “Options” from the main menu.
2) Input the default gateway IP address, 192.168.1.1,
in this example.
3) Click “Acquire MAC address.”
4) Open “Host” to select the computer hosts to be
monitored.
Big Mother™
can be installed on any PC over the whole LAN and no special LAN structures are
required. When working in the side-route mode, however, no more than one set of
Big Mother™ is allowed since they will interfere with each other and not
work properly.
2 Operation Guide
2.1 Starting and Running Big Mother™ System
The Big Mother™ engine is a system
service program. After every restart, the engine will run automatically in the
background. One can also manually select Start à Control Panel à Performance and Maintenance à Administrative Tools à Services
and then right-click TupCaptureService to
start.
To run the
console, click on Start, All programs, Tupsoft
BigMother, and select BigMother, or you can
click the “BigMother” icon on the
desktop to start.
The console is
connected to the engine via TCP protocol with the default data connection ports
80 and 11901. If conflicts with other programs, it will automatically try to
use the larger ports. For better performance, closing the IIS (Internet
Information Services) on the PC hosting Big Mother™ is recommended.
After starting
the Big Mother™ console, you need to connect it to the engine from the
following logon window. Be default, the server is Local, user name Admin, and
password blank (NULL).
If the engine and
console are installed on different host machines, in the Server field
locate/enter the IP address or hostname for the computer. The console can
display IP addresses in the drop-down menu by automatically scanning the whole
LAN.