What exactly do you have against "software-based" limits?

Also, why would someone feel compelled to utilize your crippled computers,
when they could go nextdoor to an internet cafe or kiosk, and use the full
capabilities?

Basically, I'm curious why you think you need to go the hardware route, and
secondly, why bother with restricting the use, when it's your function in
the hospitality industry to provide service, rather than behave like
overprotective parents. If you do go the restricted route, explain the
limits to your clientelle, and not in fine print. Many people do their
computing on the move, and not all of them have only some emails to send.
You'll be risking the loss of business to a more computer-savvy competitor.

"Nic O`Neill" <sorry@no.mail> wrote in message
news:c12dim$gkf$1@ctb-nnrp2.saix.net...
Caught you, didn't I? ;-)

That's more reasonable. I don't know of any such hardware, personally, but
I do believe such exists. A security expert might be able to point you to
the right equipment.

Well, hardware might be better for what you propose, as there's nothing
stopping some idiot from erasing your rebootable software. Good luck.

On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 15:24:32 -0800, Nic O`Neill spoketh

With a properly installed and configure windows computer, the user
doesn't have the rights to install, uninstall or delete files the user
should not be deleting...

Lars M. Hansen
www.hansenonline.net
Remove "bad" from my e-mail address to contact me.
"If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?"

Just another asshole with an attitude ....

Chris wrote:

"Nic O`Neill" <sorry@no.mail> wrote in message
news:c12dim$gkf$1@ctb-nnrp2.saix.net...
Have a look at these :
http://www.radix.co.il/
http://www.moonscape.com/

They might give you some ideas.

---
/JD

"Lars M. Hansen" <badnews@hansenonline.net> wrote in message
news:nbg930p5343u1k014lulri4vgtdkak9ttf@4ax.com...
Yep, I thought a restricted user account achieved just that...

On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 19:40:44 -0800, Nic O`Neill spoketh

Everyone can have free will without (local) administrator privileges on
their company laptop (or on a hotel courtesy computer).

Granting such access as a means of "convenience" is a bad plan.

Did you look at diskless thin-clients at all?

Lars M. Hansen
www.hansenonline.net
Remove "bad" from my e-mail address to contact me.
"If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?"

On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 20:32:12 -0800, Nic O`Neill spoketh

Because you all allowing persons who are ultimately not knowledgable
enough about the operating system to have access which allows them to
basically destroy it. Since regular users cannot install software,
you've taken away a significant source of malware, unauthorized
installations and accidental removal of software or components that will
render the computer either inoperable or simply not working right. Not
having "clueless joe" futz around with network settings and display
settings will essentially reduce the number of support calls, because
they don't have the opportunity to make it fubar.

In addition, the security aspect. If it's a shared laptop, if everyone
logs in either with one (local) account, or with administrator
privileges, they'll have access to all the documents on the laptop,
regardless of their owner. Imagine the CFO's layoff-plan being on there,
and the next person to borrow the laptop spotted it?

I'm not saying that the hardware "mirroring" is a bad plan. It does
protect the underlying system ... I'm just saying you'll get pretty much
the same effect by not allowing "joe putz" to mess around with things he
shouldn't be allowed to do.


Lars M. Hansen
www.hansenonline.net
Remove "bad" from my e-mail address to contact me.
"If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?"

"Nic O`Neill" <sorry@no.mail> wrote in message
news:c12vje$p68$1@ctb-nnrp2.saix.net...
Once again I have to agree with Lars. As long as you don't grant
administrative privileges to a user there is very little chance of him/her
doing any damage. And you are not reducing the usability of the system at
all. I work at my local Community College and that is exactly what we do in
the classrooms and computer labs. Additionally all the machines have GoBack
on them, and get restored to a predetermined point on regular bases.

If you are running an NT type operating system, such as NT4, 2000, or
XP-Pro, it is possible to configure the machine to be very restricted in a
guest client mode. You can go very deep in to the set-ups, and make
whatever restrictions you want. NT operating systems have a great recovery
capability. There are also a software called go-back that allows you to do
some type of recovery. You should also have dual hard drives, and do an
image of the main one. This way, with the proper software you can have a
very fast full disaster recovery that is internal to the machine.

Your choice would be to not allow the uninstallation of software, change the
clock, change any parameters, or to install new software. You would only
want to allow them to use the software given, and to only allow them to
create basic user type files for themselves.

Many corporate computers are set-up in a very restricted manner. This
prevents the employees from deleting valuable files, and uninstalling, or
installing software's from all over the place.

You will probably need the services of a professional IT support person who
is versed in this type of set-up.

--

Greetings,

Jerry Greenberg GLG Technologies GLG
=========================================
WebPage http://www.zoom-one.com
Electronics http://www.zoom-one.com/electron.htm
=========================================


"Nic O`Neill" <sorry@no.mail> wrote in message
news:c12aoa$esl$1@ctb-nnrp2.saix.net...
Hi guys

Im looking for a pc card that basically takes over the host computer and
prevents users from doing anything except browse and send/receive email.

Background: Hotel lobby or Business Centre computers, available to the
public, needs limited windows functionality.

Apparently PcOnTheGo (www.pconthego.com) manufactures such a card. It's
called PC Angel, but their site seems down and so does their business. Cant
find nothing on them except references to their dead website.

I know there are software solutions available that does this, but we would
prefer to go the hardware route.

Please give me your thoughts, ta!
Nic

Hi guys

Im looking for a pc card that basically takes over the host computer and
prevents users from doing anything except browse and send/receive email.

Background: Hotel lobby or Business Centre computers, available to the
public, needs limited windows functionality.

Apparently PcOnTheGo (www.pconthego.com) manufactures such a card. It's
called PC Angel, but their site seems down and so does their business. Cant
find nothing on them except references to their dead website.

I know there are software solutions available that does this, but we would
prefer to go the hardware route.

Please give me your thoughts, ta!
Nic

okay, i just spoke to our tech human and apparently i had it wrong, sorry.

what this card does is load windows into a virtual mem (physical) card. So
the user may go wild and delete whatever he/she wants, uninstall programs,
install new programs, make configuration changes etc., BUT,

when the machine reboots, it loads the original default configuration from
the card.

So basically the users may do whatever they want and we dont care 'cause
once rebooted, the machine is back to normal. --saves us having to take
calls from the hotel e.g. because some user decided to uninstall a critical
component.

We have tried a few software based solutions, but after some testing we
found that it results in a horrible end-user experience.

If indeed you know of a good software based solution I'd like to know the
name. However we've already kinda settled for a hardware based solution...
yet to be found.

Thanks in advance
Nic

"Chris" <rrufiange@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message
news:rv2Zb.46133$Po1.29258@twister.tampabay.rr.com ...

In article <nbg930p5343u1k014lulri4vgtdkak9ttf@4ax.com>,
Lars M. Hansen <badnews@hansenonline.net> wrote:

Is this really true? I recently tried deleting a few fonts on a
display PC at a major computer store (CompUSA? Circuit City?),
and while the font files didn't disappear their sizes went to zero
and they could no longer be used. The account was not an administrator
account, and I would certainly hope they had made some effort to
protect their PCs from jerks like me. In addition I installed
WinNT on a PC a while back and was dismayed to discover that an
ordinary user could first take ownership and then delete files
created by the Administrator account. I'm no expert, and maybe I
did something wrong when setting things up, but as it stands I
don't have a real good feeling about the ability of Windows to
protect itself from the depredations of a determined non-privileged
user. Is there a web site somewhere with a concise summary of how
to correctly configure Windows so that the non-privileged user
can do no harm to anyone but himself?
--
John Brock
jbrock@panix.com

Your'e a good man, Jon.. you hear me? a GOOD MAN.

"Jon Doe" <jondoe@enter.vg.invalid> wrote in message
news:c12i4k$21c$1@services.kq.no...

The idea is to give the user free will, no limits, full rights. When the
machine reboots, any of such alterations will be lost and the box is reset
to a defined state.
check jon's links

Nic

yes, but it results in maintanance and additional support when one user
after the other works on the same machine. The card idea simply gives you
more control, having the ability to reset the machine back to a working,
defined state? Saves you at least 4 support calls a day.

how so? There's really no difference.

Nic

"Nic O`Neill" <sorry@no.mail> wrote in message
news:c12aoa$esl$1@ctb-nnrp2.saix.net...

HTH

Regards

hermit50


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