Help with Internet access limits in XP Home

[audiyoda]

Okay, here's the deal. My Mother-In-Law is running WinXP Home and allows her brother to access his web-based e-mail (company webmail, not a server like Yahoo or Hotmail). Well her brother also has a pention for pronography. Actually, the last time we visited I found almost 100Meg of pictures he downloaded and saved deep within some subfolders on her system. He also uses her e-mail addy when he browses these pages and signs up for free previews. So she gets loads of SPAM.

After I found all those pictures and looked at the history folder for IE and discovered what he had been doing, we deleted the pictures and setup Mailwasher to deal with the SPAM. We also changed her Admin password so he can only use the guest account. At that point, the only thing I could think of to do in terms of what content he could access was set up Windows Content Advisor. Unfortunatly that is problematic because it also limits what my Mother-In-Law can browse because very few sites actually rate themselves for that service. It's also a problem because he seems to have found a crack for the password protection in Content Advisor.

Is there anything I can do to limit his browsing strickly to his company's web page and their web-based e-mail? She doesn't want to 'hurt his feelings' by restricting his access to her computer but she doesn't approve of the porn. I ran down all the arguements AGAINST allowing him access -- she will not budge on the matter. I thought about modifying the HOSTS file but that's intended to restrict IP's. I need to allow three IP's for the guest account -- the company home page, their web mail server and their mirror. So....being that I am not that well versed in setting up these types of permissions, how do I do it?

-Craig

[lil Jimmie]

I would deal with the hurt feelings and lock him out period, I mean it is not his PC and he should consider the affects it is having on her. With it being the Home version there is no way to set a GPO on him.

[Statica]

Hi Audiyoda:
This does sound like a case for getting yourself a 3rd party software to monitor, log and restrict. However, I may have a solution for you that might just work - it worked for me so far.
Go to IE > TOOLS > INTERNET OPTIONS > CONTENT > In the section for CONTENT ADVISOR click ENABLE and you should be taken to the SETTINGS screen
Click on the APPROVED SITES tab
type out the site that he uses for his company in the following format.. lets say http://*.nike.com/* .. then click the ALWAYS button
Add the sites you require in the format. Also make note to add https://*.company.com/* should u require it. and click ALWAYS after entering each site.
Now at the end of it .. add the site *://* and then click the NEVER button.

Click the General and verify that under User options > the box for Users can see sites that have no ratings is UNCHECKED.
Try it out to see if it goes well.

[audiyoda]

lil Jimmie -- Not going to happen. I made that argument for two hours.

Statica -- Isn't that going to affect my Mother-In-Law's account as well? And like I said, it looks to me that he may have either found a way to get her password for Contect Advisor or he's found a hack for it. She doesn't like entering her password everytime Content Advisor comes up. Although for my money, if she want's to allow him access to her system, then that's the price she's got to pay.

Anyway, next time I'm down there, I'll give it a try. Thanks.

-Craig

[Statica]

Originally posted by audiyoda Statica -- Isn't that going to affect my Mother-In-Law's account as well? And like I said, it looks to me that he may have either found a way to get her password for Contect Advisor or he's found a hack for it. She doesn't like entering her password everytime Content Advisor comes up. Although for my money, if she want's to allow him access to her system, then that's the price she's got to pay.

Couldnt she just reset the pwd to something different? and then removing the hint? Have her call you if she needs the hint
As for a hack to it .. I dont quite know of workarounds .. is he a system administrator? Also what you could do for added lockdowns is to start gpedit.msc and go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Internet Explorer > Internet Control Panel > and enable the "Disable the content page" feature.

[lil Jimmie]

I do know of one very easy work around to by pass the content advisor if he has admin rights. Statica the Home edition doesn’t have a group policy editor.

[Statica]

Heheh no need for any workarounds if the guy is an admin .. then not even a group policy editor or perhaps even a security software is going to help

[audiyoda]

The guy's a EMT -- he doesn't know diddly about computers. Now his kid on the otherhand, for as drug wasted as he is, he knows computers and thats where my Mother-In-Law's brother most likely got the Content Advisor work-a-round.

I've got a copy of XP Pro sitting here that I won from M$ -- maybe I'll throw that on her system -- would that be of any help?

-Craig

[Statica]

It will help you more than Home will .. seeing how you cant use the policy editor on Home (thanx for the info Jimmie); simply slap on user status on the guy (not administrator), then use the policy editor to do the aforementioned, perhaps .. you can also do more time consuming lockdowns as
1) create a webpage with links to the company site etc. loads it up as the startup page / homepage for IE. Then use the policy editor to make IE from being able to type anything .. from being able to save anything

You know preventing users from getting this kinda stuff is a rather irritating battle that I know all too well .. unfortunately there are more ways than one to get this stuff .. if u prevent access to the web, he might try IRC .. usenet etc etc

As I said there are other apps like Cproxy or offerings from proxy-pro.com

good luck