RM Tutor 4 not blocking internet

[beyond_bedlam]

Does anybody else have problems blocking internet access using RM Tutor 4?

I use the "Block All" from the task bar and I have also added iexplore.exe to the blocked apps. Even with both of these options selected the little darlings are still able to get on the internet.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Tutor and it makes no difference.

[mwbutler]

Marc on the RM Community Forum said this is the cause:

 

"I have just seen some students using a technique to get around RM Tutor. Basically, when a teacher clicks block Internet, it does just that and works fine. Students have now found that if they open Excel (Office 2003, SP2), click Data > Import External Data > New Web Query, they can get around this and use the Internet just fine. "

 

And this is the fix:

 

"Managed to get this issue sorted using GPOs if anyone is interested. We downloaded the Office 2003 Service Pack 3 Administrative Template (ADM) installed on the server and then added to the Group Policy Editor. Then used the disable menu item using ID 30101 (this disables the Import External Data toolbar).

 

Works a treat now!"

 

That's for RM Tutor 3 but maybe worth a try.

 

(Note I haven't tried this so if it doesn't work I cannot offer any further help.)

 

Good luck!

[Cue]

The above solution may not be an optimal solution bear in mind, especially if students need to use that for ICT or something.

 

Really, Netsupport/RM Tutor needs a bit of tweaking anyway, blocking internet access doesn't actually work in Netsupport 10 if it's not IE, I believe, and since RM Tutor is Netsupport rebranded and a bit behind I assume it's the same with that.

[rdhawkins]

beyond_bedlam: Do you know what the "little darlings" are doing to get round the blocking?

 

Cue: You are right NSS 10 doesn't support block all browsers but the latest 10.5 does, this is/will be available in RM Tutor 5.

[tom_newton]

This is why this sort of thing is well and truly network layer stuff. Get round it on my gateway you little "darlings"

[beyond_bedlam]

They arent doing anything !!

It just doesnt work, I have reported it to RM and they are rolling out Tutor 5 soon.

So, I am just going to wait and see if that works any better.

Thanks for the responses.

[rdhawkins]

Tom, you're right this is better handled at the network layer, NSS is designed to complement software like SmoothWall so that a teacher can control access to the internet just for their class. The tools in NSS help a teacher keep a class on focus rather than block access to every site they shouldn't go to, that is better handled further up the line.

 

Rob

[tom_newton]

Rob, Dunno if you're a smoothwall user (most schools in pboro are IIRC) but you can delegate "turn room internet off" to teachers...

[rdhawkins]

Tom - I'll PM you regarding this as there may be some way we can integrate with SmooothWall