mavhc Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 Just reading about https://store.steampowered.com/app/929860/Game_Builder/ Has anyone configured Steam to work in a school environment securely? 1. Auto update 2. Admin rights 3. Force only school logins 4. Disable chat Or is the way to do just install and run Steam only as an admin task, to install the game, and provide shortcuts to the game itself for other users? How does that work with in game integration etc?
Boredguy Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 Steam isn't exactly designed for a secure environment, so there is not likely any way to prevent users from signing out and then in as themselves, assuming you have the firewall/filtering allowed.
bald_pig Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 Steam for education is here: Learn With Portals Otherwise you are making a steam account for each machine...
Boredguy Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 There is no longer an educational version of Steam available
DJ-1701 Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 Steam for education is here: Learn With Portals Otherwise you are making a steam account for each machine... I can't find Steam, just stuff to do with Portal. To be honest, I would just contact the creator direct, will save you a lot of headache as they should be able to provide you with a non-steam version.
bald_pig Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 I can't find Steam, just stuff to do with Portal. To be honest, I would just contact the creator direct, will save you a lot of headache as they should be able to provide you with a non-steam version. It's made by a Google team, I have no idea why they released it on Steam only! 1
sted Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 is it worth downloading it on 1 pc through steam and just copying the install files to another pc and seeing if it runs? (granted if its got drm this wont work but i dont believe things have to have drm to be on steam)
bald_pig Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 is it worth downloading it on 1 pc through steam and just copying the install files to another pc and seeing if it runs? (granted if its got drm this wont work but i dont believe things have to have drm to be on steam) Steam is the drm, so I don't think this will work.
Rob_D Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 is it worth downloading it on 1 pc through steam and just copying the install files to another pc and seeing if it runs? (granted if its got drm this wont work but i dont believe things have to have drm to be on steam) I just tried with a couple of steam games from our gaming club PCs and was surprised to find both of them were perfectly happy running without steam being installed. Of course this is wildly against the Steam EULA. But then so are shared accounts.
chazzy2501 Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 This is where I note that the epic store has support for a proxy
LeightonJames Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 (edited) This is where I note that the epic store has support for a proxy How would that help? The idea was to lock down Steam so it can't be logged out of. The connection isn't the issue One solution would be to install steam and install the games then block any steam related urls Edited June 14, 2019 by LeightonJames
Rob_D Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 How would that help? The idea was to lock down Steam so it can't be logged out of. The connection isn't the issue One solution would be to install steam and install the games then block any steam related urls It might work, but you'd probably have to allow it connect every now and then to authenticate the account - not sure how long you can keep using offline mode for. And you'd definitely run into problems as soon as it wanted to update. Unless... You could install steam to a DMZ (or at least all the steam sites whitelisted) server and leave it running to get updates and all that jazz. Then use a script to copy the whole steam directory to your clients computers (you'd need to do the first time install to get the registry stuff setup) so they keep up-to-date. Then you've just got the logging on account authentication stuff to mess with. It's worth remembering that steam requires email verification for each new pc the account logs into. This is a pain for managed accounts but might (if the students don't have access to their home emails) stop people logging on with their own accounts.
ZeroHour Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 Steam for Cafe may be what you want: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3303-QWRC-3436 although I have never used it to know how locked down you can get. 1
mavhc Posted June 14, 2019 Author Posted June 14, 2019 Interesting, signed up, as the game is free it's "already in my steam library". New problem "Public servers", no filtering. Will have to see how that connects
mavhc Posted June 17, 2019 Author Posted June 17, 2019 SteamCmd.exe knows about proxies, yay, but doesn't know about proxy auth, boo. Had to disable proxy so it used transparent. Doesn't look to be that useful though, still need Steam installed on each computer, still need multiple logins. It's mostly just a cache for downloading content, and a way to do commercial multiple licences.
LeightonJames Posted June 18, 2019 Posted June 18, 2019 Steam Cafe looks like the only option available to anyone wanting to run steam in schools. A standard steam account is subject to certain T's & C's: Regular Steam subscriptions are provided with a purely noncommercial, personal license (see our Subscriber Agreement). This will not cover any kind of public use or making content available to third parties. The Steam Site Licensing Program is designed to make it easy and affordable for you to allow your patrons access to all the great content and services that Steam has to offer. Steam Cafe doesn't actually require you to have multiple accounts either: Since you will be running a Site License Server to share your pool of commercial licenses, you do not need a Steam account for each PC. Instead you will need one commercial Steam account that you will use to sign up for the program and then one account for each Site License Server you will be running (generally one per physical location). We will require businesses to create a new Steam account specifically for commercial use. You will not be able to use your personal Steam account for these activities. Sounds like it could be a good thing
Rob_D Posted June 18, 2019 Posted June 18, 2019 Steam Cafe looks like the only option available to anyone wanting to run steam in schools. A standard steam account is subject to certain T's & C's: Regular Steam subscriptions are provided with a purely noncommercial, personal license (see our Subscriber Agreement). This will not cover any kind of public use or making content available to third parties. The Steam Site Licensing Program is designed to make it easy and affordable for you to allow your patrons access to all the great content and services that Steam has to offer. Steam Cafe doesn't actually require you to have multiple accounts either: Since you will be running a Site License Server to share your pool of commercial licenses, you do not need a Steam account for each PC. Instead you will need one commercial Steam account that you will use to sign up for the program and then one account for each Site License Server you will be running (generally one per physical location). We will require businesses to create a new Steam account specifically for commercial use. You will not be able to use your personal Steam account for these activities. Sounds like it could be a good thing But... When a customer visits your café they will go to the PC you assign them and login using their own personal Steam account. If they do not have a Steam account they will be able to create a Steam account while launching Steam. Once the customer is logged in they will see both the games they own and the games you are making available on their library screen. So you're still stuck with either getting the kids to use their personal steam accounts (not sure I like the idea of this - also steamguard is going to be a pain if it's set to their home email), or managing a whole bunch of "school accounts" (which is against the T&Cs)
free780 Posted June 18, 2019 Posted June 18, 2019 No federated accounts or account provisionibg which is the same as epic and Unity.
mavhc Posted June 19, 2019 Author Posted June 19, 2019 And it doesn't help with installing or updating either steam, or the games. And you can't licence free stuff afaics, so it won't make having the free educational games easily available.
Rob_D Posted June 19, 2019 Posted June 19, 2019 Not sure, but it looks like the "Steam Site Server" can also act as a cashing server. https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1152-RJKX-0332
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