Forums Feature Suggestions Password version of mIRC

I teach basic computers at a local Community Center. There are nine computers available, all running Win98SE, and I would like to install mIRC on them so I can introduce the students to chat as part of the class.

There are two problems with this:
1. Others have access to the computers, including children under 13, and

2. I would have to purchase all copies myself, as the Center doesn't have the funds.

I would like to be able to set up each copy of mIRC to disable certain options and then set a password so that only I would be able to change anything.

Even though there will be paid versions of mIRC on each computer, I don't want all users to have full access since I don't know who will be using it and how old they are. Also, if they understand there are options that have been disabled and they want them, they are more likely to buy their own copy for their own computers and leave my lab computers alone.

How hard would it be to set up some kind of file encryption process that could password protect at least the mirc.ini file and possibly certain other setup files?

There is a lock feature in mIRC that has various options to disable things. You can even set up a lock so a password must be entered when you startup mIRC. There cannot be more than one password set for one copy of mIRC.

You can access this lock feature by opening mIRC and then going to:

ALT+O > Other > Lock and click on 'Lock' to set a password. Before locking, check which options you would like, and click on the 'Help' button for further help. The password is, I believe, put into the registry somewhere, so unless you have a kid genius it is unlikely the password would be retrievable, and with the correct blocks put on they shouldn't be able to access the registry anyway!

Should you yourself forget the password and are unable to access mIRC the password can be removed by playing in the registry - instructions can be found here.

If you needed/wanted further locking (i.e. lock access to mIRC.ini) then that would probably be a Windows feature of some sort, or perhaps even an mIRC script could do it. Disabling //run is a good idea IMO, and definitely disable DCC to help prevent infection unless file transferring is one of the features you need/want.

Hope this helps

Regards,

Thanks for the info Mentality. Unfortunately, all the lab computers are currently running Win98SE, so locking much of anything is out of the question.

I will definitely investigate the options you mentioned, but don't think it will be enough under Win98.

I have heard the rumor that we may get some new(er) computers running WinXP. If so, then there will be renewed hope.

OK, I've tried the lock option, but it still allows too much access. I would be leaving mIRC on the lab computers, but they are not supervised 24/7 and young children often gain access to use the computers for various reasons.

I would want to lock down their ability to make any changes whatsoever. I don't want them to be able to enter a new server, visit any chatroom not on an approved list, change any scripts or write and add any scripts, etc. An encrypted ini file would be a big bonus.

I can just imagine coming into the lab one day and finding mIRC set to auto-join some porn room just because the kids thought it would be funny.

If possible, I wouldn't even want the menus to be visible ... out of sight, out of mind.

The main problem you have is that it's extremely hard (or impossible) to completely lock the Scripts Editor. Plus, helping with that in this forum is not really acceptable as there is public access to any thread, and it could easily be abused in scripts.

You might try aliasing over the /server command and default /s alias however:

/alias server echo -a Sorry, you are not allowed to use /server

And the same for /s - /alias s echo -a etc.

You could then alias over the /alias command, for example, /alias alias You are not allowed to change the Aliases. Unfortunately, ALT+D is still accessible and they could edit it there.

You could set a timer every 10 seconds or something to use /remote off. That way, if they did add scripts (and didn't work out how to remove the script you've made) then it would disable them. Something like:

on *:connect:{ .timer 0 10 .remote off }

The . before commands hide the fact that the command has been used.

Deleting the help file may be a good idea, so they don't know how to use certain commands.

"visit any chatroom not on an approved list"

You can do this through the Lock options - simply check 'Limit channels to' and then type in the channel name(s) that you want them only to use. Once typed in, click 'Add', and then add another etc. etc..

To hide the menus...you'd probably need a DLL. You might want to delete all of the popups in ALT+P.. You might try searching websites such as mircscripts.org for such a DLL. You could make your own custom toolbar and replace it in place of mIRC's default toolbar, therefore, with the possibility to remove the button that accesses Remotes. You can hide various bars in the 'View' menu - Switchbar is the bar with the channel names in, Toolbar is the bar with the buttons in, and Menubar is the bar with the words 'File', 'View', 'Tools' etc. in.

Fact is, there are various limitations through the basic GUI. If these kids are relatively young then they are not going to be able to work out how to script, especially if you block various mIRC-related websites from being accessed aswell as delete the help file.

Regards,

Thanks for the reply, but some of these kids have mangled some of the computers so much I had to reinstall Windows. You don't do that easily if you don't know something about computers.

I think my best bet is to hope for the donation of a secure OS before I install anything I need to limit access to. Then I can set up an account only I know the password to. I will be there any time it is used because I will have to get them into the account, so can monitor its usage. What a pain that some of the users cannot be trusted with such tools as mIRC.