Proxy - As a machine Based Policy?

[steele_uk]

Like most schools our Proxy is set as a user GPO. I am hoping to use a testing room for training purposes and have it overrule any user based proxy setting, defined by User GPO.

A typical student currently logs on to a PC and is currently pointed to 'SchoolProxy:8080 as defined in our student Group policy setting.

I can create an OU with a group of testbed PC's,(relating to the testing room) and i would like to apply a Machine based policy that specifies 'NEW-Schoolproxy:8080. Thus a student gets directed to a different proxy whilst they are logged into a pc in this location.

I don't think this can be done by GPO, but i would love to be proved wrong

Failing that, how would you achieve this, Would a registry hack get at login on these specific PC's get round it?


Cheers

[K.C.Leblanc]

You might be able to modify the hosts.txt on these machines so SchoolProxy is pointed to the IP of your new proxy.

You could also look into using WPAD, you'll have to put your test machines on static IPs so they can be differentiated from your normal machines.

[jack0w]

Have you looked at using loopback processing? You can find more info on this here - Loopback processing of Group Policy

[MatthewL]

There is an option in the group policy to apply proxy per machine rather than per user. Not sure where as I don't have access to it at work but on my test bed at home I have seen it.

[ccattell]

We used to have a problem with students pulling out network cables which stopped the user GPO from running, thus bypassing the proxy.

To fix this we set the proxy in the computer policy, like this:

Set the proxy details in the GPO that is applied to the testbed pc's (in User configuration -> windows settings -> internet explorer maintenance).

In the same policy, locate Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Group Policy and enable the Loopback Policy. Set the mode to 'merge'. If there are conflictions, the policies in Computer configuration will take precedent as they are applied last.

[TheLibrarian]

If they are bypassing the proxy by stopping group policy applying, that means you have a default gateway set that allows Internet access (I think).

I'd look at removing the default gateway access to the Internet.

Just my £0.02

[ssiruuk2]

And enforce the setting to log off if roaming/mandatory profile fails so they get dumped back to the log in screen if they try the rj45 yank.

As mentioned before you can use the GPO settings under computer configuration of loopback processing and use machine based proxy settings rather than per user to achieve what you want.

[ccattell]

We allow staff direct access out as the Bloxx filter can get slow at times, and we use local profiles with redirection as the performance is much better, especially on wireless!