Hello Joseph,
Saturday, January 22, 2000, 12:20:51 AM, you wrote:
JB> When I am gone to work they (2 boys) sit glued to the comps and
JB> get nothing done (chores, homework, whatever). Disassembling the
JB> comps works, but is cumbersome. Is there any software that will
JB> let me control access?
JB> Hopeless probably, but any ideas?
The only softwere I see that will be capable of stopping them would be
setting up an NT network with gross restrictions, passwords and other
accompanying stuff. The internet can also be denied quite quickly
then, and the server logs can provide login/logout time; a 30M quote
on hard disk space will effectively prevent them from installing
current game titles but is enough for any school homework...
However, the cost of installing NT and the corresponding mess and
troubleshooting and the learning curve of system administrator will be
prohibitive.
The software is, probably, not a solution. All of the "restriction"
programs must be loaded, and on Win98 they can be easily skipped -
with Startup Cop, for example; the programs that integrate into the OS
will cost a lot of money and they don't protect from FDisk and
reinstall.
The next few ideas are what I brain-stormed out in 5 minutes :
* Partially disassembling the PCs is a nice idea, but takes
too much time
* taking out floppy drives won't work since you're on the LAN.
* Maybe you can take the hub, lock it in the closet and power it
off when you're not home?
* Removable hard-drives? No harddisk - no windows - no games that are
made later than 1990.
* Case that can be locked and [optionally] informs in BIOS that it was
opened, like in some Dell systems (so that they can't get the
password in BIOS)?
* Switch off the power in their rooms?
* Hub (or switch) that can report the status over the internet so you
can peek at the network activity from the work?
Good luck -
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