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hey guys i work for a high skool ... we now introduced laptops to students .. but the problem is that students (after reseting the local admin password with bootcds) installed counterstrike and play that all day long ... i want a way to stop this .. i dont want a network cafe in the class the switch that i use a L2 d-link switch .. can i do something, anythign ?
best regards
ramzi chekkath
If this is a cyber cafe, do they even need access to the CD drive? If not, disable it from user access.
If your switch is only operating at layer 2, you're going to have to add a layer 3 device. This can be as expensive or inexpensive as you choose. Depending on your resources.
You'll have to stop them from connecting to the servers using a firewall or at the router.
You could put a firewall/router between them and the border router and block them yourself (if you have the authority). You can do this with another router or look into something like smoothwall. Or, just a linux box with iptables. Only allow access to what they need and deny everything else.
Disable their ability from booting to floppy, usb or CD and put a password on the BIOS so they can't reset the pwd.
Don't they have to follow an AUP? Enforce the rules.
Can't they be supended or detention (without the laptops) for tampering with the PCs and resetting the admin pwd?
If you make an example out of a few of them, or contact parents... I'm sure the activity would stop.
We'll make a network nazi out of you before long. :D
The kids will dislike you just like most employees dislike their network admins / security admins.
Disable booting from CDs from BIOS and add a BIOS password. Done. =)
If you had read the thread... you'd have seen that I already said that.Quote:
Also, not done. There are ways to reset the BIOS password too.
IMO- You have to implement security in layers. One thing might work for a little bit... but before long you're going to be back at square one. As soon as one person figures it out... its everyone is going to be resetting the BIOS pwd.
What grades are we talking here?
I still think that the AUP and some old fashoned dicipline is going to be the best deterrant.
All security features have a way around them in the end... but disabling the boot from CD feature and then putting a BIOS password on is the best he can do other than actually removing the drives from the computers.
Your idea for having a 3rd layer security device isn't that logical. Stopping the users from connecting to outside servers will only encourage them to bring other games that don't require internet access to play thus only furthering the problem.
What I do agree with is striking down upon those who break the rules. Talk to deans or principals and have them take away offenders' computer privileges and/or start handing out referrals or what not, let them know that if they screw with the computers, that they'll pay for it.
;TT: I understand your thinking and I agree with you. There are ways around practically any security that you put in place.
Thats why I suggested layering. If he implements more than one layer then they 1. can't get admin priv. on a machine via resetting admin pwd. and 2. can't use unauthorized services.
The only services I can see a student needing is http/https, ftp (maybe), pop3 and smtp (if not using http/https based email) and access to shared drives if there are any. Any other services should be allowed on a group basis if there is a legitimate reason for them. EG. AIM and other IM services has no place in school -- IMO. I realize that there are many different ways to get around traffic and port restrictions... but the idea again is layers. Proxy servers, snort, and firewalls can go a long way. There is no reason that I can think of to NOT limit outgoing traffic from a student subnet.
OK here is wat i missed !
they are playing CS in class among each other .. that means one person runds the server while the others connect to him. now all wat i want to do is .. detect these ppl such activity in class and report them to the principle... this is wat i finaly decided to do .. i think ill use ethereal to capture the packets. but the problem is .. would ethereal capture packets on a layer 2 switch ? or it requires a hub ?
i know the topic is deviating from one to the other forgive me for that
regards
ramzi chekkath
Hmmmm,
Being the thoroughly evil person that I am I would "arrange" a couple of random powercuts per lesson, because I know that really, really, annoys network gamers :D
Seriously,
http://www.protect-me.com/usb/?refer...s&referer2=cdr
Software like that could be a help?...........lock the PCs
Have a quiet word with your principal. AFAIK Counterstrike is not freeware? so he should make it very clear that anyone who installs any unlicenced and unauthorised software will be expelled/suspended/castrated...........the school is at risk of being sued/fined?.........make sure that he is aware that HE is responsible (they always shoot the boss:))
I would also load one of those internet browser control softwares and block them from downloading, certainly compressed and executable files. I presume that you can set up a folder on a server where they could get any legitimate software that you chose to let them have? That would give you control over suitability, make your laptop population more stable and give you a chance to ensure that it was all malware free.
As phish~ has said the idea is layers. Maybe locking the registry on their machines would be an option?
By the way you did not mention the OS they are using.........XP home or XP pro?
You are now engaged in a running battle that you will never win, because you will get a new batch of smarta$$es each academic year.
Best of luck mate!
ramzi: You can sniff the traffic through a switch. Look into ettercap or dsniff.
You can arp flood the switch and "confuse" the switch turning it into a hub.
This will allow you to see which machines are playing CS by examining the connections on the machines and report them.
What kind of network is this? Is this a domain in which the workstations are a member of?
If so, what type of privledges do you have on the domain and/or laptops?
You can use pstools from systernals to see what processes are running on remote machines.
Then you can use pstools to kill the processes you don't want running. (counterstrike)
This type of thing could be scripted using a batch file.
You can even reboot or shutdown the offending machines.
pstools is a nice little suite. I have fun at work now and again with coworkers... ;)
You can then report the offenders to the principal...
...or you could just tell the kids to play on 69.56.207.42:27016, the official Anti Online -=[AO]=- clan CS server!
And no nihil, last time i checked, counterstrike was not freeware. In fact, the game still costs 30 bucks at stores and you need a original cd key to play online.
However, lets be serious and talk sense. I think the best idea is to talk with the principle and set up some rule that anyone caught playing counter strike will be in trouble. It shouldnt be hard to catch people, i mean they have sound right? Its no fun to play cs without sound, so just listen for the word "HEADSHOT" or whatever and then bust them :)
Amen. Exactly my point. You wont be able to win this one, kids are to smart and crazy, they will do anything and everything to break the system. Seriously, my school had a problem like this and they made a teacher just sit near the computers during the lunch break and listen and watch for sounds of video games. Best of luck to you, and to angelicknight, counterstrike doesnt require a CD to play...all you need is the cd to install it and the cd key and you are go.Quote:
You are now engaged in a running battle that you will never win, because you will get a new batch of smarta$$es each academic year.
Or you can just install some Linux distro with the basic word proccessing programs they need and really piss them off. =)
ok I'm not sure if this has been suggested yet, I didn't get a chance to read the entire post, but why not just block ports 27015 and such from use. that way they can't create a "listen server" on there laptop. If you really want to get technical couldn't you start examining the logs and see what computer is doing what and therefore enforce the Computer Usage Policy.
My opinion is start finding the common used ports and shut them off. Or enable a GPO to not allow HL.exe or cstrike.exe to run. The computers can be locked down. Just because there a local admin doesn't mean there a domain admin and you should have certain rights to the machines once they log into the network. They can't do much not on the network anyways. Start controling your network, and enforcing your policies.
jbclarkman: good ideas, however they are playing over the LAN. if they don't log into the domain (if there is a domain) then it won't matter much. do student REALLY need laptops in the classroom? sheesh... what happened to good ole pen and paper? type up your assignments at home or allow computer lab time. I never had more than a palm pilot in school. (no it wasn't that long ago). I still use pen and paper in college....
Here's a possible trick. IIRC, The Offline NT Password Recovery disc only resets the Administrator password (afaik). First create an account and give it the rights to edit ACLs. Deny this account access to the group policies folder (C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy) but allow it to take access whenever it wants/needs. Now create a very strict group policy using the Admin account and allow everyone (including Administrator) access to the group policy. That way, the only account not locked down completely is the new account that you created. If the admin needs access temporarily, you can always use the other account to deny access to the admin so that he can do his stuff.
Another thing you can do (not recommended) is to just assign the admin account to another group, thereby not giving anyone cracking the password any access at all :).
Cheers,
cgkanchi
cgkanchi: you can use ntoffline to reset any account password. IIRC
its just most commonly used to reset the admin.
cgk: i thought about somethign like that ... but as phish said ... you can reset any password with iirc ... How come MS is too stupid :'( ... ne way .. i ll c wat i can do tomorow mornign to these nasty kids
Or you can wait for a heavy game to get going (when the teacher or you are out of the room for "a while"), then wait (as you spy upon them with the hidden webcam), and when they crank it up, wait for the one-shot and start jiggling cat-5 cables! Random pulls, woot!
What kind of people are we talking about?
There's just students I thought to understand.
Not everybody knows how to reset a BIOSpassword. Even if they do, just tell them that their parents will be informed if they are being catched.And they will be, there are just students.
I think you'r trying to solve a little problem with "major" securitymeasures. Simple is the best in every case of computerproblems you know
Eskimo: Just so you know, you don't need a CD at all, not even to install it. Being the Counter-Strike player that I am, all you have to do is download the Steam 1.6 client, and then you can download the whole HL series of games, including Day of Defeat and whatnot, for free. Yes, they still need a CD key, but getting that is easy. Walk into your good ole Wally World and.....well, nevermind. >: )
Unofficial ;)...AO is not paying for anything...its all coming out of our own pockets. I think Chey sent an email to them and they said they couldn't sponsor for it.Quote:
...or you could just tell the kids to play on 69.56.207.42:27016, the official Anti Online -=[AO]=- clan CS server!
And no nihil, last time i checked, counterstrike was not freeware. In fact, the game still costs 30 bucks at stores and you need a original cd key to play online.
However, lets be serious and talk sense. I think the best idea is to talk with the principle and set up some rule that anyone caught playing counter strike will be in trouble. It shouldnt be hard to catch people, i mean they have sound right? Its no fun to play cs without sound, so just listen for the word "HEADSHOT" or whatever and then bust them
quote:
You are now engaged in a running battle that you will never win, because you will get a new batch of smarta$$es each academic year.
Amen. Exactly my point. You wont be able to win this one, kids are to smart and crazy, they will do anything and everything to break the system. Seriously, my school had a problem like this and they made a teacher just sit near the computers during the lunch break and listen and watch for sounds of video games. Best of luck to you, and to angelicknight, counterstrike doesnt require a CD to play...all you need is the cd to install it and the cd key and you are go.
I completely agree with the second part though. While I was @ my other college, there was a lot of us playing CS in the computer lab...besides, we're paying $15k a year...so using the computer lab for CS wasn't really any big concern for them. Some students would bitch because their favorite seat would be taken by someone playing a game...anyways, the school decided to let us use a separate computer lab whenever we wanted to play games. They also allowed 2 private servers to run on the network...given that we do not allow people outside the network to join our servers. In the end it worked out fine for both parties....we even started holding yearly tournaments for CS, HALO, StarCraft and some other games.
My 2 cent: See if you can come up with a compromise where both parties will be happy...being a bitch and blocking everything will only bring more trouble IMO. Students will try to go the extra mile to break whatever security you implement, which could cause more harm than they might think.
Hello,something a simple solution might fix-Have the entire class face forward and sit behind them so you can see the screen's?
Take a walk through the isle's every once in a while and see who closes their laptop's.
I can't add any tech stuff as i am still learning and the people who have already posted are way smarter than i.
Are these kids the sole users of the laptops or are they in a lab? Our kids are assigned a laptop for the year, so we just tell them to buy a hub to game on and don't connect to our network for gaming or no access for a week.
quick question as well. Are these kids on a wireless connection or directly plugged into the network. What type of security do you have in place now? Giving some basic information such as(domain, or no domain, wireless, or not wirelss) could possible help some of us out. i know if would me, and i wouldn't have posted usless crap earlier.
Let me know, and I'll see what I can dig up to block it.
You could make a batch file to run over and over:
"taskkill /F /T /IM counterstrike.exe" (or whatever the process image name is)
Then put it on their laptops and add it to startup through msconfig.
The kids would finally get smart enough to find the batch file and delete it. It is easy to look through the startup folder and figure it out.
Not if you use pstools and do it remotely. ;)
But then there is a question of user authority. How much access or privledges do you have over these laptops? Domain, and etc. We need a lot more detail as to the actual network. Not just the connections.
Write it in c++, and name it svchost.exe. Also, don't put it in the startup folder. Type msconfig at the run prompt, and add it there.Quote:
Originally posted here by Cpt. Commander
The kids would finally get smart enough to find the batch file and delete it. It is easy to look through the startup folder and figure it out.
Why did Dave get negged for this? Just wondering... I could understand like a 25% hit for repeating information or something but damn...Quote:
Its bad enough that people bitch about their own ap assignments... but now you're bitching about someone elses? I thought everyone was going to stop bitching about APs? Why do you care? Why not just pos him back up than post about it? Thats what the system IS there for. If you or him really want to know... use PMs.Quote:
Originally posted here by The Grunt
Why did Dave get negged for this? Just wondering... I could understand like a 25% hit for repeating information or something but damn...
Cuz I've pos'ed him up already for another post that he didn't deserve negs for... And anyway isn't it better to be asking why (for informational purposes) why someone got negged than whining about your own? Personally I'd rather see a bunch of people on here saying "Why'd you neg this guy for this?" "AHHH YOU NEGGED ME WHY WHY WHY!!!"
Different point of views between you and I I suppose...
And I care because I am too damned curious for my own good... I think most geeks can relate to that one ;)
I suppose we do have different point of views. But thats what makes the world go round. :)
But would it not be more efficient to PM Dave and ask him who negged him, open a conference room and talk about it between the people who negged him than to ask everyone? Use a chat room if you need to. For all you know the people who negged him will never see your post asking why and you will never get your answer. People negged him for a reason. They probably typed it int he comment box when they assigned him. That might be a good place to start for your quest to know "why".
Now lets stop screwing up someone elses thread by taking it offtopic talking about negs.
My appologies to the thread starter............this is off topic/
I think that Mr T's arrogance, and his multiple AO lives have made him a bit of a target?Quote:
Why did Dave get negged for this? Just wondering... I could understand like a 25% hit for repeating information or something but damn...
Not to me personally, of course (I have never negged him in my life, well to my knowledge that is).............I am old, wise and rich enough to ignore little boys :cool:
But, had I the misfortune to live in Illinois, I certainly would NOT send my children to Lake Park High School...............they do not teach manners and intellectual humility there?
I hope that answers your question?
;)
Ahem ... lets get back to the topic
\
wat i did was enabled packet and port filtering on the switch and asked the switch to drop any packet acting on a certain port to be droped simple huh ?
but the kids are way smarter ...
they use intels new centrino technolgy
they connect through wireless ... (peer-to-peer) and go on! \
some one mentioned this was a war that i would never win ...
youa re so damn right ... but i ll fight ... and i ll fight till i get fired for letting those kids play !
I guess that takes us back to policies and enforcement.
You need your principal to back you up. No unauthorised software..............
The "random surprise software audit" has been known to work wonders :cool:
I am not sure of the practicality, but I have worked in EW and ECM for quite a while, and I would just get the guys to build me a jammer :D Or maybe a wardriving scanner, so you can pick them up when they turn the WiFi on?
I think that the "audit" approach is your best bet.
Cheers
What's a jammer do? :eek:
/slightly off topic
Basically blocks transmissions of radio/radar signals in a frequency or range of frequencies. The concept is like a scanner, but is proactive, as it blocks (jams) the signal. Hence its use in electronic warfare and electronic counter measures.Quote:
What's a jammer do?
Crudely speaking, it produces a much more powerful local signal that interferes with the original.
You can get them to jam speed trap radars (illegal though!)
;)
Ah, the good ol' days when i used to give my computer lab's teacher headaches... (when I was on 7th) :cool: Now I know how she felt =P Too bad i dont have these classes anymore. Once I got her pw and accessed some of the teacher's files looking for um... maybe test results, maybe the answers... who knows?. Well, it turned out they weren't there. I did however, find in the science lab's file, a picture of a man swallowed whole by a snake with his legs out of it's mouth... hehe =P
That's when my teacher got too close and we (my lab partner) had to close everything before she saw it =/
I always managed to install games, even when she blocked installations. Every week/month she reinforced it. Maybe she needed to visit AO more often :)
Try to get the principal to hire you a lab assistant to walk around the classroom while you teach. They may end up helping for other things