Windows·65,546 discussions

XP Pro User Priviledges

Locked

I have ten computers in my Computer Club Lab. They have XP Pro (media center edition) installed. I have Students set up as limited Users. I have checked everything I know to limit their ability to download programs and cannot find a way to do that.
500 points.

Topic

Reply To: XP Pro User Priviledges

In reply to XP Pro User Priviledges

Limited priveledges only keeps them from installing programs that write to the registry. Nothing about it keeps them from downloading. You’ll have to do that at the router.

Reply To: XP Pro User Priviledges

In reply to XP Pro User Priviledges

You will need to use web content filtering to do this. look at websense and surfcontrol.

Reply To: XP Pro User Priviledges

In reply to XP Pro User Priviledges

Well firstly Media Centre is not the Pro version of XP it’s the Home version optimised for Playing Media so that limits your ability to have a Domain controller in place. If you already have a router you can set this to deny URLs or it may be a better option to feed a Nix box directly from the Net connection and then feed from that.

With the Nix Box you will have to set it up as a workstation but you can limit the ability to browse certain sites or even prevent downloading and you should be able to do this in a relatively inexpensive computer to limit your expense.

What you can not do is set it up as a Server as the Media Centre machines [b]Will Not[/b] be able to join the domain so you are seriously limited in your ability to control any downloads.

It really all depends here on how you already have things setup as to how you proceed. If the Internet is feed straight into a Router nd then distributed to every computer your only real alternative is to use the router to block content. If you don’t even have a router but a switch you will have to go to each computer and block the required web sites, which may prove ineffective depending on the type of User Accounts you have configured. It really depends on just how Limited these Limited User Accounts are.

The cheapest way would be to install a router and setup to block certain sites and prevent downloads though depending on what your actual needs are you may be better off using a Linux Box to do this but since you can not create a Domain this seriously limits your ability to block this type of thing.

Col

Reply To: XP Pro User Priviledges

In reply to XP Pro User Priviledges

Yup, you either need a router with restrictions or you need to install a packet sniffing filtering and tracking application like surfcontrol, which is very expensive…

or, manage your users better. At the very least, you should have virus and spyware protection.

Get yourself a sonic wall TZ150 or 170…

Reply To: XP Pro User Priviledges

In reply to XP Pro User Priviledges

You can go under internet options and click on the Security tab. Click on the Custom Level button and browse down to Downloads. Find File Downloads and click disable. This will stop your uneducated user. If necessary you can log on as administrator, run gpedit.msc and disable access the the Internet Options menu to prevent it from being changed back. Nothing is ever 100% but this puts up barriers and it is free. The downside is you will need to do it for each user profile.

Good Luck

[Author]

Replies