Using NT for security

[Karen G. Schneider]

Yes, I know Windows 2000 is just around the corner, but we're on THIS side
of the corner for now, so let me ask...

We are considering using NT Workstation to secure our public computers,
which are currently Windows 95 machines secured with an amalgam of Fortres
and similar products.  We would need to purchase something anyway, as we
would need additional copies of Fortres as we expand our lab and reference
room early next year, upgrading dumb terminals to Pentium-class machines.

Half of our public workstations are really web workstations, used either for
public Internet access or for value-added Web databases.  The other half
provide a mix of services--word processing and spreadsheets, for example, in
addition to Internet access.  After researching the topic, and reading up on
NT registry settings, I am pretty confident that we would be able to secure
our Internet-only workstations to our satisfaction.  I am unclear about just
how complicated it would be to configure NT Workstation to provide access to
a variety of applications (though a set variety--primarily Microsoft Office
and a couple of genealogy packages).  It is one thing to read it in the
books--or even configure one machine in the back and tinker with it for a
while...it is another thing to actually support it.

We have Bob Sullivan's excellent guidelines for using NT for security--q.v.
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/faq.html  (heck... we practically have
Bob Sullivan... he's right down the road :-> ) but while we are in the
testing and assessing phase, we thought it worthwhile to ask around.

Karen G. Schneider
Shenendehowa Public Library, Clifton Park NY
http://www.shenpublib.org
kgs at bluehighways.com