eejit Posted June 16, 2005 Posted June 16, 2005 I'm just wondering if any schools on here have given the pupils access to Firefox yet? I use it exclusively myself, but the fact that you can't control all the options through active directory means that I won't be giving it to the pupils yet. Is there some way to control the browser centrally?
Geoff Posted June 16, 2005 Posted June 16, 2005 I use the Firefox MSI's from frontmotion http://frontmotion.com/Firefox/ together with the firefox ADM scripts from Sourceforge. http://sourceforge.net/projects/firefoxadm
Dos_Box Posted June 16, 2005 Posted June 16, 2005 Geoff. Go to bed for the love of God! I'm not really awake. I'm just a bot!
MkII Posted June 16, 2005 Posted June 16, 2005 I've tried eejit - and have had the same problem as you. There are a couple of guides I found [goes off to root them out again...]: http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/trench/3626.html http://firefox.dbltree.com/ just need to spend some time on it. Personally I find I can't live without adblock [edit] ah cool Geoff! i'll go take a look at those
Geoff Posted June 16, 2005 Posted June 16, 2005 Been playing the Battlefield 2 Demo. Besides, I can sleep at work tomorrow. Its only website editing in the morning.
eejit Posted June 17, 2005 Author Posted June 17, 2005 Wow, thanks for the quick replies Geoff and Mark. I'll give those a go tomorrow, hopefully I'll be able to add some of the extensions to the basic installation but prevent kids from installing others. Some of the extensions are scary from a network admin point of view.
MkII Posted June 17, 2005 Posted June 17, 2005 Ignore mine eejit - Geoff's are the ones - superb stuff!
Geoff Posted June 17, 2005 Posted June 17, 2005 If you wish to add extenstions or themes then you will have to reroll the MSI file yourself with the extra extensions. IIRC there's instructions on the frontmotion site about that. Which extensions are 'scarey'?
eejit Posted June 17, 2005 Author Posted June 17, 2005 Which extensions are 'scarey'? There are a few. Try this one for starters: https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=448 Quick Description Browse any page with the Virtualbrowser, a free online proxy created to get past school blockers and internet filters.
Geoff Posted June 17, 2005 Posted June 17, 2005 Your filter is broken if it allows traffic out to proxy servers you do not control. The only proxy your users should be allowed to use is your own. Filter tcp port 80 or employ transparent caching.
eejit Posted June 17, 2005 Author Posted June 17, 2005 No, I haven't used the above extension, so I don't even know if it works. My point was that I wasn't going to deploy firefox until I could be sure that users could not install their own extensions. If you browse through the extensions you'll see that there are a lot of extensions that have nothing to do with web browsing. The above example was a proxy by-passer, but next week there could be a password cracking or key stroke logger, who knows.
Geoff Posted June 17, 2005 Posted June 17, 2005 Downloaded extensions are stored in the user profile. Mandatory read only user profiles would be an obvious way to fix this.
RobC Posted June 17, 2005 Posted June 17, 2005 Just taken a look at the FirefoxADM's and one of the group policy options is to disable the installation of XPI extentions & themes, which should be perfect for what eejit wants to do...
eejit Posted June 17, 2005 Author Posted June 17, 2005 RobC and Geoff, both of your answers should work. I'll definitely give it a try.
MkII Posted June 17, 2005 Posted June 17, 2005 Our users have used fake proxies in the past - our config guy is very good so I can't believe he'd miss this - those sites are blocked as they appear on our filter [run by the County Council]. Try http://ibypass.org/
tarquel Posted June 21, 2005 Posted June 21, 2005 Slighty off topic here but Apparently I heard a rumour that the pupils can get past the PCC (Powys County Council) filtering. Apparently theres a site they can go to in order to do this - maybe the above site or one similar. Will have to keep my ear un-blocked regarding this. Cheers, N.
RobC Posted June 22, 2005 Posted June 22, 2005 Try http://ibypass.org/ I've also been given http://www.ibypass.org, http://www.ibypass.com & http://www.ibypass.ibypass.org to block.
MkII Posted June 22, 2005 Posted June 22, 2005 Yeah - pain in the butt Rob. I had a right game trying to get county to block all those alternatives . If you look at that site in particular the software is available to post on your own site. So potentially it could be everywhere. Our kids have tried loads Nath. If you notice - the filter has a category 'anonomisers'.
Geoff Posted June 22, 2005 Posted June 22, 2005 Better add google to that list then. You can use the translate tool as a web proxy.
MkII Posted June 22, 2005 Posted June 22, 2005 no way! We restrict certain words in Google - as well as the cache... [plus all translation tools so I hope that one is included!]
Geoff Posted June 22, 2005 Posted June 22, 2005 I can give you step by step instructions if you wish to test it on your filter..
eejit Posted June 22, 2005 Author Posted June 22, 2005 Geoff, can you PM me those step by step instructions too. That'll be frightening if possible here.
MkII Posted June 22, 2005 Posted June 22, 2005 I can give you step by step instructions if you wish to test it on your filter..Yes please Geoff!
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