Graphical Browsers: Kiosk Mode and File Security

Gail Shaw shawg at nslsilus.org
Fri Sep 22 11:12:23 EDT 1995


Our public library is about to provide access to the Web for patrons 
using a graphical browser.  Ideally, we would like to limit functions 
available to patrons by executing the browser in a kiosk-type mode, but 
those I've looked at (namely, Mosaic and Netscape) do not allow for any 
printing functionality.  (Indeed, running Netscape with the "-k" 
parameter provides users with no options at all!)

Does anyone know of a stable graphical browser for the Windows 
environment that can either be (1) executed in a kiosk mode that allows 
for printing or (2) customized to only permit for functions we would like 
to give our patrons at this time?

And one more thing -- 
We're accessing the Internet from a Novell NetWare 3.12 LAN from PCs with
hard drives.  Even in kiosk mode, if a patron decides to FTP a file, a
Save As... dialog box appears displaying the contents of the hard drives
and the network drives.  (Of course, in full-function mode this
information is readily available from any number of File... menu options.)
I'd really only like for the patrons to have the option of saving to the
3.5" A: drive, and not be able to peruse the rest.  Can anyone recommend 
a good, fairly inexpensive, solution?

Thanks so much!

                              Gail Shaw
                        Skokie Public Library
                           Skokie, Illinois
                     shawg at skk.jcpl.nslsilus.org





More information about the Web4lib mailing list