Locking an iMac to just the internet

[karlmarx934]

Hi There,

Im wondering if it is possible to lock an iMac or MacBook to just be able to use the internet on it.

Please can someone help me regarding this, or let me know where to look in order to find out how to do this?

Thanks in Advance

karlmarx934

 

[samh004]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

You can probably set a parental control along these lines if need be.

 

[AreYouAMac]

Hi,

Sorry, but I am uncertain as what you would want to do. Just to ONLY have the internet available on the iMac with no other programs? The only thing that I could think of, is just to drag all of the other programs to the trash, and empty it....BUT only leaving Safari, and the Utilities folder.

 

[arkitect]

Well I guess if you remove all other apps apart from say Mail and Safari or Firefox you'll have an Internet-only machine…

Just set the prefs so no one else can install anything and hey presto.

Question is though: Why?

 

[karlmarx934]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

You can probably set a parental control along these lines if need be.

Any idea how i can manage that?

Thanks

 

[karlmarx934]

Why....

Reason being that i want it to just showcase my work website, and a Mac would be the best way to do it, if its possible (as we use only Mac here anyway) but otherwise ill just use a PC with a full lockdown of everything else except internet on it.

 

[wordmunger]

Any idea how i can manage that?

Thanks

Just send me the computer and I'll set it up for you

Seriously, just go into parental controls in your system preferences and click on the things you want. It's not hard.

 

[156457]

You can have it so only one site can be access on one app (safari).

Just go into System Preferences, then parental controls and the account you're going to be using enable the controls and only tick the Safari app (or whatever browser you wanna use) then in one of the option tabs you can set only one website to be accessed.

 

[samh004]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

You can probably set a parental control along these lines if need be.

Any idea how i can manage that?

Thanks

Look in system preferences, you'll first need to set up a second non-admin account. You can then set program access to only safari etc. No need to trash applications.

 

[IgnatiusTheKing]

I agree with samh004. Just set up an account and only allow it access to Safari.

 

[JSchwage]

I'd recommend trying a piece of software called wKiosk.

 

[skinnylegs]

What ^ said. It is a great app.

 

[TEG]

If I'm not mistaken, the Saft plugin for Safari can force it full screen and require a password to change programs. It can also be set to return the browser to a particular page after a set period of inactivity.

TEG

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Reason being that i want it to just showcase my work website, and a Mac would be the best way to do it, if its possible (as we use only Mac here anyway) but otherwise ill just use a PC with a full lockdown of everything else except internet on it.

You could setup your firewall to only allow the HTTP and WWW ports to operate. This sounds harder than it is. You can either do this (set the firewall) through OS X or through your Router. But you want to block all ports* except port 80. You can do this by going into System Prefs>Security>Firewall and "Set Access For Specific Services and Apps" you will then find the programs you do not want the internet to access and select Block Incoming.

Through your router you'll actually use your MAC address or IP and block all ports except port 80 (they're might be more to it than that, but nothing I can think of).

*Ports are virtual doorways that allow the passing of information from your computer to an outside source (i.e. the internet). When a firewall is used it closes and locks all of these doors, except for the ones that you leave open.
I hope that analogy makes sense to you.