[WEB4LIB] Fortres, Folderguard, Foolproof ?

[sean dreilinger]

Hanan Cohen wrote:
> On the other hand, I want the computers to be used for teaching on how
> to use computers for work and leisure. The computers used for teaching
> must be protected but also resemble a "normal" computer so that the A:
> drive will show and also the "My Documents" folder.

you can always take the perfect-hard-drive approach -- each time a user
finishes learning on a lab computer, they log out and the lab computer
will synchronize its filesystem with a central server that has an image
of a perfectly-configured machine -- replacing missing files and erasing
suspicious files.

a macintosh lab at ucsd near here used an application called revrdist
(reverse rdist) to accomplish this. if you are running a pc lab you may
be able to configure rsync (http://rsync.samba.org/) to do the trick for
you.

with this concept, you create and protect a single role-model computer,
and all the other machines can be restored automatically after being
completely messed up by curious users. worst case you boot from floppy
and pull over a fresh hard drive image to clean up after any unusual
problem.

--
mailto:sean at savvysearch.com                sean dreilinger, mlis
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