blocking things

[Blah]

my little sister who is 10 appears to be getting the internet connected to her pc.
My parents dont know much about the sorts of things that can be found on the internet nor do they know about things like dodgy dialers etc.
Therefore i need to make her computer safe, so that she can only access certain assigned websites and so that she cannot install anything or change these settings.

Is this possible? And how?

[Mist]

What version of windows is she running?

[Blah]

xp i think

[Dr Pirate]

Norton Internet Security has parental filters in it, or you could use AOL... Despite it's reputation, its parental control filters are top notch.

[Blah]

umm ok what i meant is that we already have the internet all set up and we have tiscali.

Also dont want to buy any programmes like norton. Just wondered what settings can be adjusted to block all access other than specified websites, and to restrict downloads etc.

[Mist]

If you make the user a restricted user then she will hardly be able to do anything.

You can apply parental controls within IE to block off various sites.

You can lock down IE settings so that only certain actions can be done by web pages.

Look at the Content and the Security tabs within IE.

[Blah]

Originally posted by Mist
If you make the user a restricted user then she will hardly be able to do anything.

You can apply parental controls within IE to block off various sites.

You can lock down IE settings so that only certain actions can be done by web pages.

Look at the Content and the Security tabs within IE.

yeh been looking at them, but surely if i change them all to restrict her usage then if she was fiddling around she could adjust the settings thus being able to get on dodgy websites?

To make her a restricted user do i just create a non administator user account?

[MrG]

Originally posted by Blah_x2
yeh been looking at them, but surely if i change them all to restrict her usage then if she was fiddling around she could adjust the settings thus being able to get on dodgy websites?

To make her a restricted user do i just create a non administator user account?

http://www.ptloma.edu/images/Classroom/Computers/Cut_Cable.JPG

[Mist]

Originally posted by Blah_x2
yeh been looking at them, but surely if i change them all to restrict her usage then if she was fiddling around she could adjust the settings thus being able to get on dodgy websites?

To make her a restricted user do i just create a non administator user account?

Non admins or people without the content admin password shouldn't be able to adjust the IE settings, though I'm not sure if you have to turn on various other things to make it work like this.

[YouCrazyDiamond]

Originally posted by Blah_x2
my little sister who is 10 appears to be getting the internet connected to her pc.
My parents dont know much about the sorts of things that can be found on the internet nor do they know about things like dodgy dialers etc.
Therefore i need to make her computer safe, so that she can only access certain assigned websites and so that she cannot install anything or change these settings.

Is this possible? And how?

To help prevent dialers and other spyware being installed, download, install and update SpywareBlaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html) - It doesn't have to be running to work so once it's installed you can forget about it and just update the definition files every so often.
IE-SPYAD (https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/resource.htm) adds a lot of websites to Windows' hosts file, which means a lot of dodgy sites are blocked from Internet Explorer.

You should also install a firewall (http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm) and anti-virus (http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/) software. All of this stuff is free :)

If possible, download these from a friends computer, burn them to CD and install on your sister's computer BEFORE it connects to the net. Once it's all installed you can pretty much forget about it all and let it all work away in the background. Simple!

As for filtering out content, there is software available that can block certain words from web addresses and similar things, but I've never had to use it so can't help you there.

Last but not least, if she's getting an email address, then Yahoo! Mail (http://mail.yahoo.com/) seems to get a lot less of the "See this woman suck off a horse" type spam than Hotmail, so send her Yahoo! way.

Hope this helps :)

[DG]

http://www.freewareweb.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?ID=682