putting a password on internet access

I work for a store and we just installed a computer and put it on the internet. I wish to put a password on both IE and Firefox so that only a few of us can go online. We have XP home for an OS. Any ideas? oh and I want it cheap, I don't care about spyware becuase there is nothing of value on this computer

 

Before I talk about your question, first let me say you should always care about spyware and viruses. Even if there is nothing of value on the computer they can cause slow internet access, poor system performance and if there are any other computers on your network they can infect them. Also, not caring is selfish. Most people don't know that spyware and viruses are used for internet attacks and spam. By not protecting all of your computers you could be helping someone send thousands of spam emails. Do a google search on "zombie pcs" to find out more. There are plenty of free programs, listed in a post at the top of this forum, that can help keep your computer free of spyware and viruses. Do everyone a favor and use them.

With XP home I do not know of a way to restrict internet access without third party programs. I found a couple of programs through a quick google search of "internet access password"

iNet Protector - http://www.blumentals.net/inetprot/
Internet Lock - http://www.toplang.com/internetlock.htm
Internet Password lock - http://www.sharewareconnection.com/internet-password-lock.htm

There are plenty of others these are just a few examples. They're all shareware so you should be able to download them and try them for a period of time before you have to buy the license. I don't have any personal experience with any of the programs so can't give any recommendation. They have different options so look through their features and see which method you prefer.

-Mike
"Its not until you lose everything that you are free to do anything"

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take a look here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/intmgmt/35_xpncw.mspx

you can set up different users, and the ones you dont want internet access for (like guests) wont have it, and the ones you do want (like power users) will. It's easy to set up and password the user accounts.

 

That procedure is for XP professional. The OP said his computer was running XP home. I do not think the procedure will work in XP home.

It is interesting info and something I did not know about so I thank you for showing me shomething new.

-Mike
"Ain't so funny meow is it?"

 

In IE, you can enable Content Adviser. Go to Tools>Internet Options> highlight the Content tab>Content Adviser. From there you can restrict access to IE for different levels of access.

I'm not really sure on Firefox though, but maybe there's an option in the profile manager that might help. If anything, you could delete the shortcuts pointing to FF and only launch the browser from the run box.

Another idea would be to password protect the whole log in account, that way someone would need the account password to get to the internet itself, also you would want to disable the guest account in this scenario. You would need to log off each time you leave to insure someone doesn't come around and get on the internet. You can set the account to lock after a period of inactivity, forcing the use of a password after a predetermined amount of time. Not completely sure on this with XP home though, but worth a shot. Many corporations use this feature for security purposes. I'm sure there's many other options here that utilize the built in security features of the OS. Encryption is out since its a home version.