Is the rest of my network endangered?

[rw120555]

My kids have a ridiculous number of weird programs on their computers -- Bonzi Buddy, messenger programs, file sharing stuff, etc. How they can stand the wait for the machines to reboot and all the popup junk they get is beyond me!

Personally, I wouldn't much care if their machines got zapped by this junk -- indeed, I'd be happy to reformat them from scratch! But does all this junk put other machines on the network in danger? We have norton antivirus on all machines -- and while some folders get shared, they are shared read only. I haven't seen any indications that other machines are suffering from this, but I'd like to be sure.

Is there an easy way I could give these machines internet-only access (and perhaps printer access) and otherwise be cut off from the rest of the network? Thanks.

 

[JackMDS]

My biweekly examination of my grandson computers. Shows that most of the staff is commertialy oriented popups, habit spies, and wallpapers, cursers screensaver changers.

However you never know, the possibility that some malware will sneak in and infest your network does exist.

I explained to my grandson the situation and ask is permission to examine the files and disabled most of it.

Most of the ?stuff? is loaded through the Windows Startup system.

You can get this little proggie; it is an excellent StartUp manager (I use on all my computers).

Unzip it and Run nothing to install. StarUp Manager Program.

You do not have to delete any thing if you use this program. It controls and restores Startup programs by using simple check marks interface. So you can uncheck an entry, and check it back if necessary.