This is kind of a strange request, but I'm looking for someone to setup some type of script that only allows users to access the internet through one website. The idea here is that I will have an add at the top of the website (browser). Other people will be able to login (for free) and use the internet, but will have to access it through the website page I have setup. This would almost be how some starbucks coffee shops are setup. You will have a login screen and then after that, you will go to the internet (with room for a small ad on the top of the screen). Please let me know how long this task will take and how much it will cost. Thanks.
But, how would I keep the user from just going to a different website in the top of their browser. I want them to only be able to access one website (from there they could surf using something like you just suggested.)
you can prevent the address bar from displaying if a new browser window is launched with javascript. And I believe you can prevent the address bar from showing through Windows registry/ user policies (if its IE).
@shallowink - Ah, that's a good point. I didn't think about that. Do you know if there is a way to setup a screen that the user would automatically be redirected to?
Not sure what you're asking. If you mean you want the default home page set, that's a browser option. If you want all web requests sent through a specific URL, that's possible using a variety of methods like mod_rewrite or more advanced through network setup. You could have it so any request sent through a computer always redirects back to the proxy page. so if they requested www.yahoo.com it would be directed back to the proxy as proxy.php?u=www.yahoo.com.
Where would a meta redirect, iFrame or mod_rewrite file go. The idea is that I would have the router in my apartment. Then neighbors that are close by could get on my network, but would be forced a page that they could search from...like a proxy page or even google search in a iFrame. But the key would be to keep them using that page. Even if they opened a new window, the ad (and/or header) would be there as well.
What you are looking for is more of a networking issue. You would have to forward all HTTP requests from your router to a specific ip address ( your computer/server) which would then process the requests for them.
You can't do this with a script, you need access to the router the computers are going to be using. If the computer gets to your script via the internet, you can't prevent them from going to any other address on the internet that they want to go to.