how to make the internet safe for grandpa?

silk186

silk186

[H]ard|Gawd
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Feb 26, 2008
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I finished the ITX build and I'm installing windows 7. I will only come back once a year and grandpa has never used the internet before. I'm thinking about how to make the internet as same as possible for someone the could be fooled by almost anything.

First idea is that I will have an admin account in English for me with password and a second account in Chinese for him and I can turn up the security sections. I will try to make virus scanners and updates scheduled. I will install 360 (chinese virus scanner) and MSE.

Does anyone have any other ideas?
 
Install some sort of remote management system on it like TeamViewer and peek in every once in a while to make sure its still good.
 
Ticking timebomb.

The best would be a setup that rolls back to a clean state on every reboot, with his files and settings on a separate USB key or something.

As soon as it involves e-mail, all bets are off if he never used the Internet before. It's like trying to hide in a shark pool with a bleeding nose.
 
Silk, if you're going to use Qihoo 360, use the english version if you can. The Chinese version is basically scareware, saying you're "unsafe unless you install Qihoo's browser", and refuses to let you uninstall it if you do add it on. There's a thread going for the english version here:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=348585

Great detection rates, but the company is shady as a mother****er.

Another option would be Fortinet's client (also free). Good detection, and has one of the better web filters I've seen. You can't even change any settings unless you have the GUI running as admin, so he won't be able to fiddle with it.

http://forticlient.com/
 
You may need to hold his hand for a while.
I recommend making a backup image of his setup so you can restore it quickly in case he installs something nasty.
Make his data as resilient as possible such that it is isolated from the PCs config.

Store his personal data on a separate hard drive/partition to the OS.

Use webmail so that control of emails config is removed from the PC.

Use a sandbox for his internet browser.
Sandboxie is brilliant, you can completely isolate his browser by storing session data on another drive even.
http://www.sandboxie.com/
Not free unless you dont mind a nag screen.
What you install on the PC still gets used within the sandbox but cannot be altered unless you configure it to.
Anything coming from the web will be trapped in the Sandbox unless you either configure the sandbox to pass data through or manually do it.
ie you can tell Sandboxie to allow Favourites and cookies to be stored in the main PC and nothing else.
You can start a new Sandbox each time or re-use the same one so that any changes he makes stick.
If it goes tits up, delete the sandbox and start a new one.
A great learning environment and will likely save you having to do much fixing.


A very good tool to prevent him going to many bad places is Peerblock.
http://www.peerblock.com/
You can choose from a selection of block lists, it will auto update the lists and you can create your own.
You can even block the whole of North Korea for example if you find the IP address ranges.

I dont know how well it works on windows 8 as it hasnt been updated for some time, but its great on Windows 7.
To make it auto run on boot in a 64bit OS, use this guide:
http://www.peerblock.com/userguide/how_to_use/htu-useraccountcontrol
 
Set his homepage to redtube and wait......








Just kidding :p


Seriously.....just let him have free range and if there are issues either use system restore. Or as other poster said use teamviewer......Or just load maleware bytes and a few other programs, to tea-timers.
 
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