I have a friend that owns a retail gun store and he needs to access the Department of Justice website to process applications. However, he would like to limit the computer used for this purpose to the DOJ site only. I’ve looked at Net Nanny but it doesn’t seem to have this ability allow only one site. Is this possible or is off the shelf parental control software the best he can do and at least keep his employees out of porn sites. He doesn’t want to use snoop applications that more or less work after the fact.
Install a firewall and limit outgoing access to one IP address.
I’d would get a hardware firewall, not software. Assuming you have some type of broadband access, and router can do this for you.
I would assume that some software programs have a whitelist function, where you can allow some specified sites (or site in this case) and block all others. But I don’t know for sure.
What OS?
I would get a software firewall, not hardware! Software firewalls are generally much cheaper; some are even free. This job is far too simple to justify a hardware firewall.
You’re not trying to protect yourself from every hacker in the world, you’re only trying to block outgoing access to all but a single site or IP range. Do it with software.
I think I have an idea, but don’t know so I’d thought I’d throw it out and see if someone else does: seems that at one time Netscape had a “Kiosk Mode”, where one function of that mode was to restrict it to only visit a single domain. Am I misremembering that, and if not, does that function still exist somewhere?
A quick Google found this site, which gives instructions for setting up a kiosk mode for Mozilla. It also has links to setting up Netscape and IE in different ways, and it looks like part of a site for librarians looking for various ways to limit internet access. It may be helpful.
If you are using IE, you can restrict access using the Content Advisor.
In IE, go to Tools>Internet Options, then the Content tab. Click the Settings button, go to the Approved Sites tab, enter the website you want to allow access to, and hit Always. That will always allow access to that one site. Then, under the General tab, uncheck the “Users can view sites that have no rating” option. Then set your password and you should be ready to go.
Thanks to all. Content Advisor was the cheap and easy solution and he is well pleased, indeed. Thanks for making me look like the good guy!
Glad you found a solution!
Certainly you’ve heard of the phrase, “you get what you pay for”? A free software firewall would be easier to circumvent then a hardware firewall. Plus, hardware firewalls work. Of course, that is my personal opinion.
That solution might be okay in this instance – if the fellow is confident that everyone who has access to the computer is either uninterested in getting access to the internet-at-large or completely clueless. (ie; you don’t have to be a super hacker to get around that fix – it would take about three minutes if you thought about it.)
On a related subject, does anyone know an easy solution for how I can restrict the times that the internet can be accessed? Say before and after working hours and during lunch?
For that, you would need a firewall; Sygate Personal Firewall (free for non-business use) has a scheduling feature in the advanced rules wizard - you can set up as many advanced rules as you like and they can be quite complex, so you could block everything except a certain site during business hours, then block everything except a different group of sites at whatever other tine you choose.
Some of this could be quite easily circumvented if a reasonably savvy user has access to the machine on which the firewall is running (i.e. if it is a standalone installation, not a proxy/gateway somewhere else on a LAN).
Yes, theoretically a software solution could be easier to circumvent, but in many situations it’s much harder. I’ve usually found bypassing hardware firewalls a breeze: Remove RJ-45 cable from slot “A” and insert it into slot “B”. Tada!
This would almost certainly be the case in the circumstance described by the OP. It’s usually harder and always far more expensive to build and safeguard a secure physical location for a piece of hardware than to install a piece of software.
Furthermore, I did not claim that one had to choose a free software firewall.