Surfing, OS X Panther, and viruses

[winwintoo]

I can't believe I'm still so stupid that I have to ask this.

My 13 year old grandson has been banished from the family computer for sending various things containing virii that he found on the 'net to family and friends.

We don't want to punish the other two kids for the misbehavior of the oldest one.

The family computer is really too busy running the family business so I loaded Panther onto my old G3 iMac and gave it to them. If they hook it up to the internet, will the 13 year old still be forwarding pestilence far and wide from the Mac?

He's not smart enough to write the stuff, don't know how he finds it, and I don't know enough about Windows viruses to offer any ways to prevent further incidents.

Any information gratefully accepted, Margaret

[MBHockey]

Yes he will still be able to send it to whomever he likes (assuming he knows how to 1) surf the web (assuming this is where he is finding the virii) and 2) send email from a mac) even though they will not infect a mac.

You could always set up an account for which he doesn't know the password to, for the other kids to use, so he can't use the computer at all.

[winwintoo]

I was afraid of that.

I'll pass that along to the parents. They will need some kind of router so they can probably control his web access that way.

Thanks, Margaret

[trevor]

Quote: Originally Posted by winwintoo My 13 year old grandson has been banished from the family computer for sending various things containing virii that he found on the 'net to family and friends.

I certainly don't want to tell anyone else how to raise their children or grandchildren, but I do wonder one thing from your story:

Are you SURE that your 13 year old grandson is sending viruses out on purpose? Many Windows viruses nowadays are sent out without any intervention at all. In some cases you just have to be tricked into clicking on an e-mail, in a few others you don't have to do anything except use a Windows computer while it is connected to the Internet.

Unless you have some evidence otherwise, it is completely believable that the 13 year old has done nothing intentionally wrong at all.

Also, you should know that the probability of the Mac forwarding viruses is pretty low--since they don't run on the Mac, what is the incentive to forward the .pif or .scr files? On the Mac, they're just spam. So, yes if one wanted to, one COULD forward viruses, but the likelihood is very very low.

Trevor

[GSGM]

{Soapbox disclaimer applies}

I have 2 kids ages 12 and 4. My setup for home is as follows;

Cable modem ->Linksys router (with built in firewall) -> iMac running Panther (and Brickhouse Firewall and Virex AV). The Linksys also has a connection to my work laptop (PC).

On the iMac I have seperate user accounts for myself (admin), wife (admin), daughter (normal) and son (simple finder).

Before getting cable modem, ISP connection was through AOL.
AOLs Parental controls were quite good (not perfect) and allowed for time limits, content control and reporting.

Since getting the Cable Modem, I have added http://intego.com/contentbarrier/home.html

My Wife and I are pretty much wide open. Daughter still has daily time limits as well as content filtering (several categorys exist-shopping, gambling, racisum, adult, etc...) and preditor monitoring. Son has zero net access.


Everything listed above stops bad things from comming into the mac.

Intego also has a product that offers "Antivandel and privacy" security.
Supposedly this stops bad things from going out.

I myself choose the education method. (Our daughter knows what is and is not going to be tolorated) as well as log file checking--which she knows I do!

Some methods can also be reversed to ensure that you are not the source of problems. (Firewalls for example)

Perhaps the above will give you some ideas.

[pink]

Quote: Originally Posted by trevor Are you SURE that your 13 year old grandson is sending viruses out on purpose? Many Windows viruses nowadays are sent out without any intervention at all. In some cases you just have to be tricked into clicking on an e-mail, in a few others you don't have to do anything except use a Windows computer while it is connected to the Internet.

Actually, all you need is to have your email address in the address book of a windows user naive enough to click on a virus. Many viruses nowadays use the Address Book to find new recipients and to insert a fake sender address. This is the case e.g. for mydoom.F : "The spoofed sender address is taken from email addresses obtained from the system." [trendmicro.com] , but, AFAIK, applies to most modern viruses.
Even I get a mail every other week or so where some sys admin claims that I sent a virus infected mail to one of the recipients he is responsible for; this despite the fact that I use only macs, both at home and in the office; and I hope you belive me that I do not send virus mails on purpose...

If you are sure he really sent these things on purpose, I think some weeks (or months) worth of downtime would give him time to think about his stupidity. So why not set up a restricted account for him (System Preferences -> Accounts; create a new user; click on limitations, at least
uncheck all web Browsers (Safari, Internet Explorer, others you may have installed) (webmail interfaces !), Mail.app, any other mail program you may have added, iChat (?) and Applications (OS 9); Utilities should be unchecked anyway (Did I forget anything ?). Like that he would still be able to write and play, but would hardly have acces to the internet.

cheers, pink