NT, Password protection and Win95

[David Merchant]

I'm in complete agreement that we need to upgrade to NT, but we (the
Library) doesn't have the full or final say in the matter, our Computing
Center has a big vote on it and they do not want NT right now because they
would not be able to support it (no one there is trained/qualified/etc on NT).

Thanks for correcting my silly misconceptions about the logon, now that I
see that it is just for people to choose desktops, I understand it's lack
of security.  

>If you want even the vaguest hint of security on your machines forget
>doing a DOS/Win3.1 -> Win95/98 upgrade and go straight for a DOS/Win3.1 ->
>WinNT upgrade.  Win95/98 is really designed for home use and has little or
>no security.  I'd only give Win95/98 to trusted individuals (eg staff).
>Here we have staff on Win95 and students on public lab WinNT machines.

Our Public machines have IKIOSK and WinU 4.0 on them, that locks those
Win95 machines down fairly well, but it's not a great solution for staff
machines. We just have had some problems with student workers after the
staff have gone home getting onto the staff computers and playing around
and sometimes, as they try to cover their tracks (because they were looking
at porn or downloaded some game and had played it) they end up deleting
important files or even damaging the registry.  

Again, the Library would like to go to NT, and that is in our plans to do
so as soon as the Computing Center feels like they are willing to give us
support (workstation and server).  I could go ahead and get training, but
if I was able to give NT support when the C.C. couldn't yet that could
cause work/political problems.

Sigh.

But many thanks for y'all's quick responses.

TTFN,
David
Systems Librarian, Louisiana Tech University
   http://www.latech.edu/tech/library/
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