[magusbuckley]

Hello:

At work, we have a new room with six computers running XP Pro. Each of these machines will be used for one of three purposes.

1.) Job applicants will apply for a job online.
2.) Current employees may apply for a new position.
3.) Current employees can check the status of, or change, their employee benifits.

All three of these functions require Internet Access. We've joined all six computers to the domain, created a generic user profile for those machines, and granted Internet Access to that profile. What we'd like to do is prevent people from leaving any of these three sites to Surf The Web.

Is there any way to do this without the use of third party software? Any and all information will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Magus

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It can be done via a Group Policy. See this article on how to:
http://isaserver.org...rnetaccess.html.

There may be other ways to accomplish it....

[piper]

It can be done via a Group Policy. See this article on how to:
http://isaserver.org...rnetaccess.html.

There may be other ways to accomplish it....

[magusbuckley]

LindaGail:

I'm printing that article now. I'll let you know what we come up with. This may just be the fix I'm looking for.

I'm open to other suggestions if anyone can think of any.

Will respond with results of Policy Testing.

Thanks,

Magus

[dsenette]

ISA isn't free...just to let you know (not that you can't purchase it...i'm not familiar with pricing...but it shouldn't be terribly bad) http://www.microsoft...er/default.mspx

you could try modifying the "hosts" file
%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\ is the default location,

i'm not 100% sure but you might be able to redirect 0.0.0.0 to 127.0.0.1
which basically tells the computer (any thing that isn't on my local subnet should go to 127.0.0.1 which is the loopback address) then you would add a different lline for each of the sites THEY CAN go to that would direct that site to the correct ip

70.84.249.84 www.geekstogo.com

would be the line for geekstogo so yours would be
127.0.0.1 0.0.0.0
<ip of allowed site1> <url of allowed site1>
<ip of allowed site2> <url of allowed site2>
<ip of allowed site3> <url of allowed site3>

like i said...i'm not 100% sure that this would work...but it might

Edited by dsenette, 07 December 2006 - 11:59 AM.

[magusbuckley]

Thank you all for your responses. I read over the information I printed yesterday but couldn't come up with anything that will help us out. Found a few more documents online with some possible fixes by editing the registry, tried them out, and had to do more research.

We have our corporate office checking to see if there is anything they can do on their end on the Proxy Server. We contacted them yesterday afternoon and are still awaiting a response.

If and when I figure this out, I'll be sure to post it here so you all will know for future reference.

I still welcome any other ideas. I'll try anything.

Thanks,

Magus

[magusbuckley]

On Monday, we'll be going LIVE with the three sites I mentioned in my initial post. I have to get this stuff running before five today. As a temporary, and very unsecure, fix; I have removed the address bars from IE. Hopefully that will prevent the average Joe Blow from surfing the net on these machines. I still haven't heard back from my corporate office so am not sure if they will be able to fix my problem via the proxy server. After researching this problem for two days straight, I'm beginning to believe the proxy will be our only fix. If not, we'll just have to purchase third party software that will lock these machines down for us.

Still open to other suggestions if any of you can think of something.

LindaGail: The Group Policy fix isn't an option. In Group Policy, we can block certain address and leave all others open; but we are trying to do the exact opposite. We need to block ALL sites and leave only three open.

dsenette: The "Hosts" file trick didn't work either. We tinkered with that suggestion for some time with no luck.

Thanks,

Magus

[dsenette]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/267930 found this for I.E. 5...but it would probably work with later versions as well

Edit: in fact..upon reading further it says it will work all the way to I.E. 6

Edited by dsenette, 08 December 2006 - 03:53 PM.

[piper]

One more suggestion - see attachment. It sets up a "fake" content rating system in IE. I just set it up and tested it on my computer and it didn't take long. You'll need to be very specific in adding approved sites to the list. I hope this helps you.

[dsenette]

hehe...same sollution different sources

[magusbuckley]

LindaGail:

That did the trick. You and dsenette were right on track with that link. I tested in two versions of IE today (6 and 7).

I just created a batch file that each user will run when they sit down to the computer. It will first delete all temporary internet files and cookies. Second, it opens IE to a web page I created and stored on each of the six PC's Hard Drives. That web page links to the three web pages we need everyone to have access too.

I really appreciate your help.



Thanks,

Magus

[piper]

Super good!

[dsenette]