Disabling internet in one room.

[Geoff]

Not asking Google the right question?

[altecsole]

Censornet (free Linux based proxy designed for educational use) allows you to do this. You have to add all your machine MAC addresses to it for it to work.

I used it at my last school and teachers could control individual or groups of computers very easily. You can schedule internet access too.

[ChrisH]

I use Censornet also. I dont let the teachers at the admin control panel though :twisted:

[altecsole]

I use Censornet also. I dont let the teachers at the admin control panel though

If you get them to login as Manager, rather than Admin, they have less permission to do things.

[ChrisH]

I know but some have trouble entering their name for proxy authentication never mind controling rooms

[mark]

Group Policy does the do - for no extra cost - put you machines into groups of rooms, then change the proxy setting on the group you want to have no access - or for indivuidual users create a seperate OU for no internet and move the student into it. This is a little involved for a 'non technical user'.

LanView looks just the job - just installing it now....

[Diello]

First off - I'll admit that I am affiliated with MST Software - however, I say this as a Network Manager...

LanView will quite simply make your life easier. The Internet banning of machines by room is excellent, it's also configurable, allowing you to specifiy which applications are block, f.x. we manually added Outlook to the list of banned apps, it's also on the fly - knocking them out straight away, we've seen some solutions that required a re-logon. It's easy for teachers to use, they simply get a red and green light on their desktops and can pick whichever one they need with ease.

The rest of LanView is a good send to - remote control via VNC-based connections (note that you also need to install WinVNC as a seperate app to get remote control, TightVNC is the best I've found so far), remote shutdown, logoff, reboot, startup etc. Easy messaging of users or groups of users, scheduled tasks, remote application execution, and the lovely "get attention" system - allowing you to force the kids to pay attention to you whilst teaching - or when you need to "lock down" active users for something.

Those are what we use here mostly anyway.

[eejit]

First off - I'll admit that I am affiliated with MST Software - however, I say this as a Network Manager...

The rest of LanView is a good send to - remote control via VNC-based connections (note that you also need to install WinVNC as a seperate app to get remote control, TightVNC is the best I've found so far), remote shutdown, logoff, reboot, startup etc

So, people with generic networks should use TightVNC? Your documentation seems to imply that that should be used with RM, I wasn't sure what to use for our network.

Also, can you change the server menu so it just shows "internet on" or "internet off" buttons for a teacher? If this could be done with a logon script that would be fine too.

I've just downloaded it, but first impressions are pretty good.

[russdev]

I think that is lot to do with how it it evolved with kev being from a rm background...

we are looking at documentation and anyideas help etc you have how can help you with that in a non rm way is always welcome email russ@mst-software.co.uk if anyideas...

Russ (waving his mst badge so every one can see...)

[tarquel]

Didnt seem to get anything out of LanView when I had a blast earlier but gonna give it a go again.

As I'm looking into a vpn/firewall solution, other than the complex (and costly) CISCO route, some of these hardware systems have enabling/disabling the internet in their web interface/setup. I hear some are easier to use than others.

FYI I've been currently looking up Zyxel products - in particular, the ZyWall 70. Any suggestions on this or alternatives would be good - tho the primary use for the system is VPN (endpoint) from a external IP thru the county network to our schools subnet....but i digress sorry [not interested in a linux sol but thanks]

regards
Nath.

[eejit]

Ok, I've installed and run LanView3 for the first time. In terms of "blocking the internet" it's not very good I must say. IT doesn't actually block the internet instead it stops Internet Explorer and Firefox from running (other browsers too, I presume)

Anyone who's spent any time in a school will know that the minute you block iexplore.exe from running, the kids will simply type www.google.com (or whatever) into an explorer window. You can browse the net quite happily from Explorer.

Maybe I've done something wrong, apologies if I have, but please show me where.

[Geoff]

Have you actually tried that? Because it doesn't work..

[ChrisH]

No eejit is right that happens here. I once experimented with a software restriction policy on IE which locked that down fine but they were go into explorer and get through that way. The only native thing I have seen to do some kind of locking down on addresses only applies to UNC paths which is already inplace.
I am ofc open to suggestions.

[Geoff]

No I mean it doesn't work with LanView. As soon as you hit enter after putting in the URL the explorer windows closes.

[Diello]

Indeed - we *did* have an issue with this previously, but Kevin (the Boss) solved it by going via the native windows API.