Completely taking away web browsers access?

Valaena

My little brother likes to play flash games on the internet. He also likes to play WoW. Unfortunately, he gets viruses. Or something. Because the boy is constantly being hacked. I think he has been 3 hour suspended and password changed 2 or 3 times this month.

I'm already getting him an authenticator. But I'd also like to take away his firefox or IE access completely, and head this off at the pass. While allowing me to still use it if need be. Preferably without having to mess with new user accounts or permissions. I've never had to do this before and my google fu has failed me again, so I turn to you guys.

Please and thank you!

TychoCelchuuu

Without user accounts or permissions you've basically removed the classic ways to limit program use. You could do this through the policy editor with much grief and gnashing of teeth, but that is far, far more work than just setting up a new user account.

Valaena

Ahh, damn. I guess I can do it through that, I just didn't want to have to deal with making a new account. Do you know how to set it up so its just blocking Internet Explorer and Firefox? And completely unrestricted otherwise?

Jasconius

You can maybe MAYBE try something like set the ISP DNS server to a loopback in your hosts file.

But that might fuck with the authenticator or WoW itself, hard to say.

The DNS server procures IP addresses to match web URL's... so if Blizzards crap all runs on IP address, then I think its possible that it would still work, but web sites effectively would not.


These are guesses. I am not a security professional.

TychoCelchuuu

I suppose instead of saying "you could do this" I should have said "you could probably do this but I don't know how off the top of my head and even to figure out how to do it, let alone explain it to you, would be more effort than making a new, locked-down user account" so...

Hahnsoo1

They'll eventually figure out how to run Chrome or Opera or Safari or something else on your computer instead. Little brothers are smart like that. Then you'll be back to square one. Hell, STEAM has its own web browser. Set up a separate restricted account. It's far far easier than trying to restrict a specific program, especially a web browser (nearly everything has an integrated web browser nowadays).

It might be much easier to have a talk about internet security with your little brother than to mess with any of this. Not clicking on any links, running NoScript, things like that.

chuck steak

It might be much easier to have a talk about internet security with your little brother than to mess with any of this. Not clicking on any links, running NoScript, things like that.

This.

I would sit down with him, go through all of the sites he visits, and set up a bunch of bookmarks that are safe for him to go to. If the problem persists after this then take away his browsing privileges. If you haven't tried talking to him and teaching him how to properly use the internet first, then not allowing him to browse the internet at all is a pretty drastic step IMO. When I played WoW going to forums and downloading addons and whatnot was a significant part of the experience.

How old is he by the way?

Finnian

The way my sister did it, at her husband's request so he wouldn't look at porn being a good christian and all, was to setup a second user, go to the iexplore.exe and whatever other browsers, and make it so that user didn't have execute access to those files.

Granted, if smart he could do stuff like the Steam browser, could install chrome in his own hidden directory, etc.

You could also:
Make him only use Firefox.
Get NoScript and AdBlock.
Get DropMyRights. This really prevents malicious programs from doing nearly anything as it runs FireFox as a normal user who can't install anything or write to Windows directions.

Got my sister and mother on those after they both separately got viruses two years ago and been clean ever since.

Valaena

He's 8. And I've already tried talking to him about it, definitely. I think the biggest thing is all the rules go out the window when his friends come over. They just visit what ever sites they feel like and click blah blah.

I guess ill just have to set up a new account for it. I've never had to make an account restricted like that, do you huts know any tutorials for it?

spool32

The point of a user account is to do exactly what you are saying.

Can I ask why your parents aren't handling this issue of him trashing the computer with viruses when his friends come over? Unrestricted, unmonitored internet access at age 8 is a thing that causes my eyebrows to raise in surprise.

Tejs

spool32 wrote:

Unrestricted, unmonitored internet access at age 8 is a thing that causes my eyebrows to raise in surprise.

I think this is the bigger problem here.

Anyways, some options for you:

Make a second user account that has limited privileges.
Make a VM with the WoW installation on it and your brother plays through that. When he destroys the VM, simply delete it and snap a new VM up with the image you have saved.
Using your router, disable all ports save the ones needed for WoW. Warcraft I believe does not use port 80 or 443 - simply block that traffic at the router to his specific computer's address and bam; no more internet access.

Valaena

My step dad likes to pretend he knows more about computers than he really does. So he is under the impression he has it under control. Because as soon as he doesn't, its on me to fix it anyway. So why should he care. And my mom doesn't really get why help with the kids in general other than when I have time to help babysit, so I'm trying to get it sorted out for her.

I've thought about doing the VM before. ive actually got one set up on all the computers but his. But no one listens and just fucks everything up anyway. Because they dont have to deal with it.

WildEEP

What about setting up Windows firewall to block every port except WoW?
Open 1119, 3724, 6112, 6113, 6114, 4000 and 6881-6999. Close everything else - and boom. No interwebs.