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Administering a PC in a Vacation Rental Home?
mrn121 asks: "Some relatives of mine are preparing their beach house for rental, and they have asked me to assist in setting up some of the on-site technology. One of my ideas was to add a computer with high-speed internet access to the house, but security issues may be overwhelming. I have administered campus computing labs in the past, so I am familiar with locking systems down, but I am curious about what level of security readers might suggest, and how to go about achieving an appropriate balance between security and usability for such an application. On one hand, I don't want renters to clutter the computer with software and useless bookmarks, but on the other hand, I don't want the system to be utterly useless. One major difference between this computer and a lab computer is that I will not have access to the machine for the entire summer, while the house is being rented."
I think it is fairly safe to assume that it being a vacation rental, presumably not in a resort community for programmers,
.ru I'd lay dollars to donuts they could get get a mad spam relay station going for their russian bride business!
NEWSFLASH: programmers are as likely to take a vacation as much as anyone. You don't need to be a programmer to get admin access to a box you have physical access to. Any dumbass teenager with a book and an interest in computers can compromise your system. The point is, you can't assume who's going to be there. Security through obscurity ain't the answer, genius!
that choices #1-5 will be windows 9x+, #6 might be mac OS X, with linux battling it out at #7 with windows 3.1. I am not trying to be all anti-linux here, but this is a vacation setting, you want to keep people as happy and comfortable as possible, not completely shatter some average guy's self perception of computer literacy.
Good point. You don't want anyone to feel down on themselves cause they can't use linux. But, again, the point is you don't know whose going to be using the box. And linux is fine for cruising the web and using email (which is what any average user does anyway. GNOME, AQUA, XP...pheh! Whatever. If there's physical access+knowledge it doesn't take a genius to crack it.
As for protecting what damage the computer can do to the rest of the world, there are also easy OS agnostic solutions you did not realize- mainly a firewall. blocking all outgoing/ingoing ports except port 80 should keep anyone protected.
. If it's a linksys, just make sure paperclips are safely locked away and buy up all the local office supply stores of their stash.
And you never mentioned your ISP. If they don't block port 25, and you're tennents are visiting from
Unless someone needs VPN access to their job, it is reasonable to only restrict them to the web.
Yup. VPN would break your security measures too. So first you assume that the people using the vacation box are know-nothing ninnehammers and all of sudden they know how to use VPN? Make up y'r mind!
Yeah if someone knowledgable really wants to get around the system, they can... but who really rents a vacation house when they can go to a library.
Another newsflash: geeks like the beach as much as anyone. I used to live 500 feet from a gorgeous NJ beach. Loved it. hacking, videogames, getting blasted, cruising the boards and bodysurfing. Twas the life.
There is a threat of an axe murderer renting it and burying bodies in the basement, does that mean you recommend putting video surveilence down there?
No, but if your ISP is dumb enough to have smtp relay turned off, you may want to bring an axe the next time you visit these tennants. Depending on whether of course, they are in fact using your station for spam relay.
Your idea of screening tenants to see what computer background they have is silly. hes renting a vacation house with a computer, not a computer with a vacation house.
Missed the point entirely. That wasn't where I was coming from, sparky. Point I was making is that you simply don't know. You read way too much Ionesco.
It is posts like this that really make me want a (-1, stick up ass) moderation.
I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was addressing a 12 year old. If I did, I would've coddled you more and thrown a few more "power rangers" references in to make you feel more at home. The entire point of what I wrote is that, without providing ANY specifics, how can anyone give you serious help? By the way, I know your sarcasm detector is way off...I was kidding about the paperclips. Just keep the linksys under lock and key. Even that won't stop Joe Uberh4xor on vaycay...
Quod scripsi, scripsi.