RE: NT Server - 98 WkStn Highschool Lab - Help!

From: Dan Gilbert (dan.gilbert@digeo.com)
Date: 10/17/01 

Message-ID: <EFE7F5C20626844CBAC464B9CC652AB1012B7D15@elwood.digeo.com>
From: Dan Gilbert <dan.gilbert@digeo.com>
To: "'Jason F.'" <mistertumnus@yahoo.com>, focus-ms@securityfocus.com
Subject: RE: NT Server - 98 WkStn Highschool Lab - Help!
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 10:42:20 -0700

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Jason -

You may also want to investigate the Microsoft ZAK (zero
administration kit). Though it was not well received at the time, it
actually is suited to locking down the environment appropriately for
your use (it's designed to create "kiosk" mode machines).

One caveat -- do not run the install scripts that come out of the zip
package. There have been many experiences documented far and wide
about how these in their untamed form can make machines unusable.
Best to unzip the package to a directory and examine the scripts
individually, using the ones that seem appropriate.

Another thought is using Terminal Services and TS clients on the 98
boxes to run all apps on another box. This approach restricts all the
app installation to one place, run by you, the admin, but requires
another box (or 2)-- it's not for everybody, but it would seem to fit
here. Take a look at www.thethin.net for info about TSE and the ZAK.
 

You can also use some of the hints Tobi Oeitker (the MRTG/RRDTool
guy) and his team came up with for rolling out Win2k workstations,
should you go the upgrade route.
http://isg.ee.ethz.ch/tools/realmen/index.en.html

Good luck!

Dan Gilbert
iTV Systems Engineer
digeo, inc.
dan.gilbert@digeo.com

- -----Original Message-----
From: Jason F. [mailto:mistertumnus@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2001 3:50 PM
To: focus-ms@securityfocus.com
Subject: NT Server - 98 WkStn Highschool Lab - Help!

I administer several labs in a rural school division.
I am often not in these labs for days at a time and
often chaos has ensued-i.e. - saved user profiles,
deleted icons and programs, file renaming, etc... I
did not set up this lab and am wondering the best way
to reconfigure it, using the existing technology. Any
suggestions? Here's the specs:

- -WINNT 4 Server - latest Service Packs

- - Windows 98 - First Edition - (yes, we were right on
the ball buying the latest MS OS back in '98!)

- - Security by Policy Editor and Group Policies - I
like being able to control some things with this but I
apparently must have user profiles enabled to use
Poledit and this allows users to save their profiles
which means when they screw something up and can't get
it to work the next time they log on a teacher will
tell me that the computer is broken

- - I'd also like to be able to keep track of where each
individual user goes on the Internet - when I check
cookie files - every user has the same cookies for
some reason

- - I'd like to give everybody the same desktop but some
computers have different programs on them than others

Well those are my main security issues, if anyone has
any hints or suggestions I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Jason Forester
Computer Technician

____________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk
or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.8 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com>

iQA/AwUBO83C/dyQhCmLRHqWEQKzAACglzLFu3FDrQ/B/d37IEOMAUGb84gAoNCM
ggYJJPlFOb99tAgHLhqos+hq
=UjGC
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Relevant Pages
Quantcast