browser i.p. access

[Chuck Bearden]

One way to restrict browsers to a particular site or set of sites is to 
point them to a proxy server and set up the proxy to allow only traffic 
to the desired sites.  You can prevent users from changing or deleting 
the proxy settings in the browser with IKIOSK.  Any addition or 
subtraction of allowed sites to the proxy will change the access for the 
browsers pointed to it, simplifying administration.  

If you want to get fancy, you can also set packet filtering rules on your
router to prevent outbound traffic from the IP addresses of the browsers
you want to restrict, but permit traffic from the proxy.  In this way,
even if a user managed to change the proxy settings in the browser, he
still couldn't go anywhere without going through the proxy.  This step is 
probably a little extreme for most cases, though.  

Chuck
-------------------------------------------------------------
Chuck Bearden			email: cbearden at hpl.lib.tx.us
Network Services Librarian
Automation Department		voice: 713/247-2264
Houston Public Library		fax:   713/247-1182
500 McKinney Ave.
Houston, TX  77002		
-------------------------------------------------------------
      -=>HPL's Homepage: http://sparc.hpl.lib.tx.us<=-

On Mon, 7 Jul 1997, Shaun Mason wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> My name is Shaun Mason and I'm a reference librarian at Randolph-Macon
> College in Ashland, VA.  This is my first post to the list and it is a
> question.  My situation is this.  We are using a web based OPAC for remote
> and local access to our holdings.  We want to be able to restrict access to
> our catalog only, through a few of our public p.c.'s.  We are currently
> running Windows 3.11 and Netscape 3.0 on these machines and Sirsi's Webcat.
>  As far as I know products like Fortress and IKIOSK can't limit what you
> browse by i.p. address (our Sirsi server).  Does anyone know of a way to
> prevent users from browsing all of the Internet from these stations?  BTW
> we plan on upgrading to Windows 95 shortly if this helps.  TIA.
> 
> --
> Shaun Mason                     |   voice: 804-752-3713
> Electronic Services Librarian   |   email: smason at rmc.edu
> Randolph-Macon College          |   fax:   804-752-7345
> Ashland, VA 23005               |
> 
>