jiiins2
asked on
Restrict Skype Contacts
Hello,
I manage 2 small networks on 2 different continents and the 2 user groups need to coomunicate with each other through VoIP. I picked Skype becuse it's free, works fine and encrypts the voice communication. What I need to do now is preventing the users to spend the whole day chatting with their old school mates, so I would need to find a way to limit the Skype contacts they can use. Alternatively, is it possible to somehow limit the connections to the IP of the networks?
If this is impossible, would you recommend a valid alternative to Skype to reach my goals?
Thanks,
J
I manage 2 small networks on 2 different continents and the 2 user groups need to coomunicate with each other through VoIP. I picked Skype becuse it's free, works fine and encrypts the voice communication. What I need to do now is preventing the users to spend the whole day chatting with their old school mates, so I would need to find a way to limit the Skype contacts they can use. Alternatively, is it possible to somehow limit the connections to the IP of the networks?
If this is impossible, would you recommend a valid alternative to Skype to reach my goals?
Thanks,
J
ASKER
These programs would not prevent the users to chat with their friends. I read somewhere that is possible to achieve what I want by using a proxy. How would this work?
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The best advice that I can give you is to treat this technology like a parental control technology.
Vista promotes new parental control offerings such as limiting pc time, limiting time of day for logon, activity reports, game/program permissions, etc. Check it out here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/parentalcontrols.mspx
Some other alternatives include the following:
Net Nanny offers much of what Vista now offers. Here's more info: http://www.netnanny.com/products/netnanny
iProtectYou Pro: http://www.softforyou.com/ip-index.html
"Schedule Internet time, control which web sites can be visited, block e-mails and instant with inappropriate words. Set different levels of restrictions for every member of your family. Get detailed information about your child's online activity. Comes provided with a huge built-in database."
ChildCentre: http://www.katyasprograms.com/
"The program that looks after children 3 - 7 y.o. while they are playing their games or using their programs. It does not allow them to work more time than you defined (total time during a day). The most strict parent cannot compete with the program!"
Advanced Parental Control: http://www.regnow.com/softsell/visitor.cgi?action=site&affiliate=8491&vendor=9049&ref=http://www.advancedparentalcontrol.com
"Advanced Parental Control enables you to control, restrict and monitor users of your PC. You can control for how long and when users are allowed to use the computer or Internet. Also halt the use of specific programs, block access to any URL, restrict access to Windows functions and more. Block chat or web sites and intercept the user if keywords (of your choice) are encountered. Also capable of monitoring activities."
Again, the Vista technology is pretty comprehensive, so you may want to try them all out before you buy.
Good luck!