Turning Internet Access On/Off

  • Thread starter Thread starter Murph
  • Start date Start date
M

Murph

Hello Folks,
here is my dilema.

I'm a HS programming teacher. At times, I don't mind if my kids are on
the internet, but there are also times I want it restricted. I'm
looking for an easy way to control internet access for my classroom.
I'd like to be able to simply turn it on or off.

Things I've tried:
1) I've set up my machine as a proxy and could set IE on each machine
to look to my machine. I also disbled the ability for them to change
the proxy. But, with usb drives and portable firefox I found this
method to not be fool-proof. Since, the browers on the usb drive
didn't have me as a proxy they roamed free.
2) I've set up my machine as a DNS server. But, if the students know
the IP of a site they can still access it.

I look forward to hearing any advice.

Cheers,
Murph
 
Hi!
I have McAffee security manager thru comcast and I can simply sign in and
out of the internet services. It has been a very reliable program for me. I'm
sure you can get it from McAffee without buying comcast internet service.
 
The best way would be if you had access to the gateway network and could
unplug the cable or switch it off. Another way would be if you could access
the firewall to enable/disable access to the internet on the fly. Maybe you
can do that with your proxy computer by enabling/disabling firewall rules as
needed. Another possibility at the client is to use Software Restriction
Policies in XP Pro to disable the students from running executables on
drives other than the system drive or whitelist only allowed applications.
For instance you could have path rules for disallowed to all the other
drives or otherwise configure SRP to your advantage. The best solution
however is to control at the gateway.

Steve

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/rstrplcy.mspx
--- XP Software Restriction Policies
 
Back
Top