Passwording Internet on Windows XP Pro
 

This may be a stupid question.

But at work here we have one computer where they use to write cnc codes on. And I half to have it pluged into the network so it can use the network printer and Access networked files. So the simple solution of unpluging it from the network dont work. But some of the guys(not sure which yet) keep getting on bad sights and getting spyware and frankly im tried of fixing it.

So what I want to do is be able to stick a password on the internet so they can still be on the network and not have access to the net. For awhile i just stuck a proxy address in there of blank and they couldnt figure it out. But i guess they have now.

If i was the boss id just fire the guys but then id prolly half to hire more guys. But im not and the boss dont want to get on them about it. So i just need to find a way to keep them off the net.

I realy dont feel like buying any xtra software because it would half to come out of my pocket. so anyways what im looking for is a day to disable the internet and still have the computer to be able to access files that are stored on the network and a printer.

I got Ethernet Based network connected to DSL. The box im tring to block from the net is a windows 98 SE computer. All the other computers on the network are Windows XP Pro. Let me know what you guys think. Everthing i know about networks is pretty much self tought so who knows this might be a easy fix. Hopefuly it will be. :-)

Thanks,

(This is assuming you have a router, which with that equipment, I'd say you do.)

Do you have access to the router? If so, you could always set up an access restriction or ACL that blocks any sort of internet traffic. If you need help with this, we'll need to know what sort of router you have, though most are easy to configure. However, if you're only connected with a hub or a lower layer device, that kind of rends this post useless and I apologize for wasting your time. :thumbsup:

You could try creating a hosts file. Can you specify ranges in a hosts file? If so, just drop in something that directs every IP address except your network to localhost.

Or find a way to uninstall enough of IE that they can't use it anymore (from what I've heard, it's next to impossible to completely remove it). Without a browser, they can't surf the internet. If you can't swing that, install Firefox. It should cut down on the spyware, at any rate.

And if you have an extra router, you could try setting up a sub-network with just the CNC computer. On the sub-network, just forward ports 80 and 8080 to a nonexistant address.

Yes i have a router. And Yes i can get access to it. Its a linksys BEFSX41 4 Port Router. Which is then hooked to a Linksys 8 Port Workgroup Switch. Let me know what I need to do to configure it. Right now im in the spot to configure it so you dont half tell me how to access the router hehe. Unless its something special i gotta do.

Couldn't he just disable the gateway setting on the win98 box? If it has a fixed IP set, you could just leave the gateway blank, and it would work on the lan but not through the gateway to the internet...

couldn't you change the dns or subnet settings so that it is different than the rest of the network or something?

get the ip address that the router is assigning to the computer by going to start->run->winipcfg and selecting your network card from the drop down box

You will also need to know the gateway address that winipcfg gives you, this will be the ip of the router.

Open internet explorer and enter the ip address of the gateway(router). It should look something like 192.168.xxx.xxx

you will have to enter the username/password of the router into the authentication box (default for that box is admin/admin)

Click on the advanced tab, and then the first tab of the advanced page should eb filters.

enter the 4th digit group of the ip address that winipcfg gave you into the private ip range on both lines (eg. 192.168.1. 102 ~ 102)

scroll to bottom of page and hit apply.

this will only block internet access from the machine with the ip specified in the filter


WARNING: IP addresses are handed out by the router on a lease basis, so the IP address could change after a length of time. You could always set the win98 machine to a static address, but that my kiddies is for another post. PM me for more info on this router