Help on Internet Port Blocker

[dxp4acu]

Okay, I work in an office, but one of our employees comes to work late, leaves early, and in between spends most of his time on the internet. That might be okay, but he doesn't get work done in the time that he should. I am not his boss, so I can't fire him, but I can at least get rid of his internet. We use Windows 98 (but I use a Mac), but I do not know how to do this for Windows 98. Does anyone have any idea what the best approach or software would be?
Thanks.

[MrMacMan]

Some firewalls have options to open, and close certain ports, so maybe if you find the port you can install a firewall and block the port.

[Rufus]

You would need to block his IP address from accessing the internet in your firewall. However, since most companies use DHCP to distribute IP addesses, you might not be able to guarantee that a particular IP is always used by that particular person.

Another solution might be to confront this particular user with logs of their usage. Then follow up multiple times in the future with further log checks. Most firewall or proxy server products have the ability to produce detailed logs that include source and destination IP addresses.

[dxp4acu]

Thanks! Those both sound reasonable.

[ibookin']

You might want to be careful blocking his IP address, especially if he needs to use the network resources such as email or printing for his job. What you should do is block HTTP access from his machine (port 80). I'm not sure how to accomplish this in Windows 98, though.

[Naldo]

Hi
Just go internet options and under the connection tab enter in a proxy server address that does not exist ie 1.1.1.1 this will have the effect of murdering internet access as it will spend all it's time looking for the proxy!!
This is pretty easy for anyone who knows anything about networking to fix but your average joe will have no idea what it is and the fear of breaking keeps the hands off.
ps I have done this many many time works like a charm
Ron

[mrjamin]

kinda unrelated - but this is my fave office prank:

say for example you have a load of computers on open desks in close proximity - back to back works well - swap the mice over so you're effectively moving the mouse of the computer behind the one you're sitting at - had my dad's office stumped for several hours a few years back!

[Rufus]

Well, the setting a false proxy on the client will work, but it shouldn't be that hard for the user to figure out how to turn off. However, there is also a registry key that can be modified that will prevent the user from changing ANY of their internet settings. If you want more info on this, I can dig it up.