Help eliminate Instant Messenger in school.

[Mountain]

I need to make it impossible for high school kids to use im on the school's computers and i dont know how. they are running windows 95. anything i can do to only elimate the aim permanently but leave the computers otherwise for internet access and research? thanks.
i have regcleaned the machines a lot. possibly some sneaky registry things?

 

[cleverhandle]

You should probably look into a security program - there are several that restrict access rights to programs, devices, etc. These programs were made specifically for educational computers where you don't want the kids doin' their crazy stuff and screwing them up. The one my school uses is Foolproof. It's not exactly what its name implies (the kids still manage to break things now and then), but it's not bad. I haven't set it up myself yet, but I will be next week for some boxes in our library. I could give you a report then if you want.

 

[n0cmonkey]

There is a good answer to your other thread in either software or networking.

 

[ojai00]

<< You should probably look into a security program - there are several that restrict access rights to programs, devices, etc. These programs were made specifically for educational computers where you don't want the kids doin' their crazy stuff and screwing them up. The one my school uses is Foolproof. It's not exactly what its name implies (the kids still manage to break things now and then), but it's not bad. I haven't set it up myself yet, but I will be next week for some boxes in our library. I could give you a report then if you want. >>



HAHA, oh man. Thanks for that...you just brought back some high school memories. Foolproof is good only when the kids don't know how to hack it. You can get around it by constantly pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL and closing programs and stuff. I don't remember the exact procedure. If you can prevent downloads, then that might be your best solution. Better yet, don't even let them browse the internet, because there's nothing on there that pertains to their education. If they're in the computer lab, they should be learning how to use software, etc. Hope this helps.

 

[AkumaBao]

Set it up on Linux.

 

[Damascus]

Block every port or use a proxy.

 

[Derango]

Just install trillian...problem solved

(for those that don't know, trillian is being blocked by AOL again)

 

[Commish]

If you use a software distribution program such as SMS or Wininstall from Veritas, just send out a proggy that dumps the messenger files.

 

[acidvoodoo]

i hate u school technicians u make the computers so boring at school lol

 

[Becks2k]

/me remembers installing doom2 with floppies on all the schools library computers.. we put the install files in some funky directory and then would go around and install it over the network and we were playing a lan game on the computers that were supposed to be for looking up where books are and teh librarian came over and was like "what are you guys doing?" eeks it was like that when we got there!

thats how you learn tho, never learned a thing in any of the schools computer classes
"click table - insert table" WOW!

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< i hate u school technicians u make the computers so boring at school lol >>



I hate you L users, you always make me stay late at work fixing your childish screw ups.

 

[WhoDeeny]

I hate you L users, you always make me stay late at work fixing your childish screw ups.[/i] >>




AHAHAHA!!!

 

[bubba]

<< I hate you L users, you always make me stay late at work fixing your childish screw ups. >>



I concur. I spend all my time cleaning up messes, securing machines, and preventing stuff like this that I have relatively little time to actually make the machines more *user friendly*!

 

[erikiksaz]

My school uses a program called Fortress. I've never had enough time to mess around, but no program can ever fully protect against nerds like us

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< My school uses a program called Fortress. I've never had enough time to mess around, but no program can ever fully protect against nerds like us >>



If I remember correctly fortress had a number of ways to get around it.

So far most of the suggestions involve money, blocking the login ips however does not

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

i'm not sure you can get security like that on win95, at least not without the possibility of it still being hacked. if you really want security, why not try another OS, at least winnt?

 

[jfunk]

<<

<< i hate u school technicians u make the computers so boring at school lol >>



I hate you L users, you always make me stay late at work fixing your childish screw ups. >>




Hey, remember, if it weren't for people like that, people like us wouldn't have jobs.

I just wasted a 1/2 hour suiting up for the cleanroom and comming back out because the operator couldn't identify the "power button" on the "computer".


j

 

[TrueBlueLS]

<< I hate you L users, you always make me stay late at work fixing your childish screw ups. >>



Get a life. Computers can be screwed up one way or another. Wait... I'll say you should do that stuff and then laugh at you when they lay you off since they don't have any problems with the computers.

 

[CTho9305]

block port 5190. problem solved. oh, and disable java on the computers.

 

[dexter333]

Fortres is a piece of junk. Our school uses it. There is a backdoor password that can be used if you forget the password but there is a keygen for it. In both an asm and a ti-89 version. That was really useful until i found code to decrypt the password. The files that store the password are unprotected from read. The password is instantly decryptable. They have changed the password but a friend and i already got the new password the day it was changed. Don't use fortres.

To block instant messengers, just blocking the ports won't help because the servers that serve aim listen on many ports. You could block access to login.oscar.aol.com if you don't have any technically savvy students at your school. If they really want IM capabilities they will either hack the router with 'password' as the password and 'secret' as the enable password. Or they will set up a tunnel at home. Just blocking the client downloads won't help either because you can bring it on a cdr or download it from somewhere else.

The best way to block them would be to set up some kind of packet filter that kills any packet that is destined for any system on port 5190 or any port on login.oscar.aol.com or any packet that fits the oscar protocol. Just listen for that login packet and drop it off the network. I don't know if this is possible, maybe n0cmonkey can help.

 

[dexter333]

One of my friends and I wrote a security document that outlined all the flaws in their security. If i can find the file i'll upload the fortres section for you. It details the procedures and methods of hacking fortres.

 

[BlitzRommel]

Anyway, security programs is the way to go; if the student don't need to use anything besides the Web, just disable all ports besides 80. That'll keep all but the most determined out.

 

[cirrus1]

I can think of one quick hack to disable access to AIM....it would still be possible for the students to get around it, if they have a bit of knowledge

You could edit the host file to include the following entry:

#Tell the OS that it should access 0.0.0.0/127.0.0.1 when it tries to access login.oscar.aol.com
0.0.0.0 login.oscar.aol.com

The best solution would still be to block all ports except for port 80, and that way force the determined students to use tunneling software...

 

[freebsddude]

Does '95 support any access control/user groups setup. Meaning, can you disable the ability to install
software on PCs ?

 

[cirrus1]

<< Does '95 support any access control/user groups setup. Meaning, can you disable the ability to install
software on PCs ? >>



Nope....you have to use NT for that