Stop one user connecting to the Internet

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dancin' Fool
  • Start date Start date
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Dancin' Fool

I have XP Pro installed on a single computer with multiple users. Each user
can log on without a password.

Now for the hard bit: Is there a way within XP of blocking a user from
connecting to the Internet, and without assigning passwords to the users?

I don't just want to stop stuff like IE and OE, but all IP connections, so
as to lock down the profile against any invasive connections from outside.
 
Dancin' Fool said:
I have XP Pro installed on a single computer with multiple users. Each user
can log on without a password.

Now for the hard bit: Is there a way within XP of blocking a user from
connecting to the Internet, and without assigning passwords to the users?

I don't just want to stop stuff like IE and OE, but all IP connections, so
as to lock down the profile against any invasive connections from outside.
Click to expand...

Obvious answer. No

Without assigning password what would keep someone from using the
one of other accounts to access the Internet?

gls858
 
gls858 said:
Obvious answer. No

Without assigning password what would keep someone from using the
one of other accounts to access the Internet?

gls858
Click to expand...

Good point. However, the "users" are all the same person (whoever uses the
machine) and each user profile gives access to certain features of the
installed software. For example, one profile displays a certain
configuration for creating/editing documents (call it the documents
profile), another profile runs video editing software but no document
facilities, yet another has a music console. It might sound strange, but
it's my own concept of a multimedia-office multifunction computer. A kind of
DIY Windows-Media-Centre-plus-Office-machine.

The key point is, that when someone is using the "documents" profile, they
need to be assured that there will be no Internet traffic at all (the
machine is permanently on a LAN from a router) for security reasons.

One idea I had for this was loading a small proxy server at this profile's
logon, directing everything to 127.0.0.1, but I was just pondering whether
it could be done within XP. I already tried a batch file which invokes
ipconfig to release the local IP when this "documents" profile is selected,
but it need a long time to renew the connection when switching to another,
Internet-enabled profile.

Is there any way to do this by setting a group policy, perhaps?
 
Dancin' Fool said:
Good point. However, the "users" are all the same person (whoever uses the
snip<
Click to expand...

Well you didn't say that in the OP :-) I'm not sure about Group Policy but
I know there is loads of third party apps out there for controlling Internet
access. You might try a search on "control access to Internet" without the
quotes.

gls858
 
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