Disabling AIM

[detoxsmurf]

Hello all,
I am running a small network and want to disable AOL Instant Messenger on one of the computers on the network. I have done a google search and they told me to block the website http://login.oscar.aol.com at the router. I could do this but I don't want to block AIM for everyone on the network, just one workstation.

I tried going into the control panel, under Internet options and listed this website to be blocked. This worked great through port 80 but didn't block authentication through the AIM program itself. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks for any help.
Nate

[g00n]

you're the admin?
the site has a firewall?
can you source block the site by blocking that one systems IP address from accessing that site?

used this method to close a tard at works access to the net period, hasn't figured out it's the new firewall i installed that hosed his connection, but cna't figure out why he can still use the network resources, just not the net.. LOL

[phishphreek]

Quick and easy way...

edit the local hosts file (on nt/2k/xp c:\%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc)

add the entry

127.0.0.1 login.oscar.aol.com

when AIM tries to login to the login.oscar.aol.com it will be looking for it at the localhost and it will timeout. Make sure you change the permissions on it to read only access, so they can't change it back.

-OR-
You should be able to restrict access per computer in your firewall, but that depends on your firewall. A little more info on your equipment would be nice.
-OR-
If you are using Cisco routers, create an exteded ACL in the router to block it
-OR-
Uninstall it from their machine and make sure that they don't have privledges to install software.
If they are smart they will find ways around this... They could always install to their network home drive, or install something like trillian and do a custom install that doesnt' modify the registry or install to system folders...

[cheyenne1212]

I think that doing what phishphrekk said about uninstalling and editin the user rights on that computer so he will not be able to reinstall.

You could also find out what port the messenger uses to access the internet and deny access to that port.

[phishphreek]

You could also find out what port the messenger uses to access the internet and deny access to that port.

You can do that, but AIM will try to connect using other ports if it can't get through on its regular port. It will even go through port 80.

I still think blocking access to login.oscar.aol.com via local hosts file is the best solution to block one computer.

If they were to reinstall it they still can't use it as it will reference the localhost and the localshot has no way to authenticate AIM.