[K12OSN] A different authentication issue

madsen at vijit.com madsen at vijit.com
Thu Apr 15 01:22:50 UTC 2004


Reading about a previous poster's authentication issue (for which I'm
sorry to say I have no answer), I was reminded of a problem I've sorta
been ignoring.

Students are using a Novell server and I want to migrate them to 
LTSP or a "conventional" [Linux] PC as appropriate.  That's not an issue.

But Novell Border Manager is used to keep track of who to allow onto the
Internet.  Once they log in to the main Novell server, the Border Manager 
knows about the login and can check to see if they're allowed to use the
'net, too.  Some students' parents have signed Internet permission slips,
and some have not.  Lower grades aren't permitted to access the Internet
anyway.  This means we have to allow selective Internet access based on 
human identity, not IP address or some other machine characteristic.

I suppose something could be hacked to "fix" the default route in 
the routing table in a "conventional" Linux environment, but that still
leaves the control on the client (end-user) machine.  I don't see this
as too smart, as end-user ingenuity could be used to defeat this.  It
would be better to have something more "central" that the kids couldn't
get to acting as gatekeeper.

Does anyone know of any facility (in either an LTSP or "conventional"
Linux environment) to do this?  

All/any suggestions welcome!

Dave Madsen ---dcm
madsen at vijit.com





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