Someone has been impersonating me here at TSM

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

I'm not the only person posting with this account, it seems. I knew I seemed my count was going rather fast...

 

I know who it is and how it's being done but now I just need to make sure they cut it out. So there's two things I'm concerned about:

 

1. An autologin cookie on another computer

2. Keeping people from logging in on this computer without it being too inconvenient

 

The first one is the toughie, I guess. I don't know how many and which computers have a "Remember my name and password" cookie on them. If I change my password, does this make these cookies invalid. Basically, I'd like to kick any and all computers with my login cookie back to login screen. I know that banning this account and getting a new one would be a surefire way to do such a thing, but I'd rather not have to do that if it's at all possible.

 

The second problem is keeping people from posting through this computer. Putting a startup password in the motherboard firmware is one option, but that's potentially dangerous if I should forget it and it means nobody else can use the computer for ANYTHING. =/

 

I have Windows XP Home. Is the multi-user support in that any good? I know in Win98 it was laughably horrible (pushing escape at the "Choose a login" screen would give you access to everyone's files.) This person isn't Kevin Mitnick so I don't need massive corporate-level protection, I just want a passworded login method that keeps his files and my files, and more importantly his cookies and my cookies seperate. And it needs to have more teeth than Win98's excuse for security.

 

Thanks.

[Guest MrRant]

1. Changing the password would make the other cookie invalid yes.

2. XP Login would work... as long as you are the administrator.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Can I choose who owns a folder or something? I'm going to password this folder up as an administrator account for installing things and messing with the system, but different people have files scattered around My Documents

[Guest MrRant]

Seperate logins for everyone would keep all files seperate from each other.

 

Edit: And you can give them limited access logins (can't install much or uninstall stuff).

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

OK. I guess I'll just simplify this by making a "Me" and an "Everybody Else" account. Thanks

[Guest MrRant]

By the way XP Pro would give you more options.

[Guest I'm That Damn Zzzzz]

A drastic measure would be add the line

 

127.0.0.1 forums.thesmartmarks.com

 

to the HOSTS file (C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts on XP) when not using the computer. This will block anyone from using the board at all.

 

To re-enable the board, put a # in front of the line so it looks like this:

 

#127.0.0.1 forums.thesmartmarks.com

 

and save the file. When done, disable again by removing the # sign.

 

For easy access to the HOSTS file, create a shortcut with this exact filepath:

 

%windir%\NOTEPAD.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

 

and tuck the shortcut in a convienent place.

 

Again, this is a drastic measure but can be very effective.