stoping laptop users

hello all,

need your help.

at my work place, people can use their laptops and log into the network and surf the internet.

how can i stop them from doing this?

and what else can i do to limit laptop users from using network resources?

thanks in advance.

Hello, me again,

Will this do the trick, if not, let me know.

if it's wireless - set a WPA passphrase for security, and typing it in manually into all machines that NEED wireless access to the network. If no computers need wireless access, turn wireless component OFF entirely.


If they're using wired connections to the network and have access to the router's configuration pages, lock down the network to only pre-approved users by using MAC Address filtering... requiring all the MAC Address for all of the machines that are SUPPOSED to be using the network, and entering them into the router. Then set up the router to only allow access to machines with those MAC addresses.

You can do MAC address filtering for both wireless and wired connections.

Both of the above guys are correct. It all depends on how they are connecting to your network. Do filtering for either or both and you will surely piss them off, which in IT means that it is a good thing.

Just go ahead and do mac address filtering. And if someone gets pissed off, tell them to shove it because they are violating corporate security policies. Otherwise, go to upper management and tell them that you cannot guarantee the operational security of the network to support the current business processes.

i was faced with a similar situation, but thankfully the culprits were not from my own department, on which i keep a strict vigil.
mine was a wired network, and i had blocked it from abuse. but after much protest by that particular department that they dont' use the company networks for pure surfing purpose i.e. ebay, msn, yahoo messenger, youtube etc etc.etc.....i had to prove that they did. so all i did was use a server as the gateway, set up my proxy reports, and actually show each and everyone individually what they did, when they did, and for how long!!!
that shut them up
their boss came up to me with threats, and i politely asked him to let me do my job, and if that created any problems for them, he was in his rights to go speak with my manager. i hate mud slinging, but in this case i had to put up for myself. so in a joint meeting between my department and theirs, i had to actually read out the major users who abused the internet facility, only to see them go red faced in front of all of us
at the end of the day, i didn't earn many friends, but everybody knew, they should think a million times before messing with me, let alone even think about accusing me as a liar.
so, in the long run, you will be at the better side of this entire issue. so go ahead, filter the MAC addresses, allow users at your discretion, and if anything happens report it to your boss.
cheers