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End-user is changing computer settings...
I have a hospitality customer's NOC staff making changes to the Win7 Pro desktop systems. In particular, the NOC end-user is changing the NIC settings but denies the changes the next day. However and in order to give the end-user the benefit of the doubt, it could be possible that they are working with the ISP or the reservation system tech support of which, either may be making changes to the desktop to either bring the system online and/or suit the computer to work with their software. Nonetheless, it sure would be nice to learn who is actually making this network configuration change. Can someone recommend a tool to monitor the changes? Or is this something that Windows 7 auditing feature can detect AND report via a triggered e-mail?
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Find out If he is even allowed to change it.
Is he a member of network configuration operators or administrators? If not, it can't be him.
Is he a member of network configuration operators or administrators? If not, it can't be him.
No one is supposed to make any system modifications. The problem is, and is an unfortunate one at that, many software vendors require that client machines have at a minimum, local admin rights. This being said, staff members are repeatedly informed that they are not to do anything on the computer but operate the reservation software and look up general information if a guest asks/needs a store, activity, restaurant, itinerary printout, etc... Most abide by this policy.
Regardless, system settings are changed and I just need to know when and by what login account. Knowing this, particularly during the NOC hours when there are only two employees working would allow me to counter any denial of changes to the computer systems.
Regardless, system settings are changed and I just need to know when and by what login account. Knowing this, particularly during the NOC hours when there are only two employees working would allow me to counter any denial of changes to the computer systems.
You can audit the registry keys where the IPs are saved to see who changes them. The path is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
Audit that key and subkeys.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
Audit that key and subkeys.
What about GPOs? Are you aware of a GPO policy that can be initiated to avoid changing the NIC settings? I haven't used Auditing in sometime. Where can I enable auditing and can it (Windows 7 Pro) alert me of a specific change to a NIC configuration?
GPOs don't stop administrators from changing the network settings, sorry.
Auditing: open secpol.msc ->local policies ->audit pol. ->object access -> check success.
Then, navigate to to that registry path I mentioned, right click it, open security settings, navigate to auditing and setup auditing for user "everyone" for full access.
Changes to network settings will be logged to the security event log and you can see who it was. Try it out right now at your machine.
Auditing: open secpol.msc ->local policies ->audit pol. ->object access -> check success.
Then, navigate to to that registry path I mentioned, right click it, open security settings, navigate to auditing and setup auditing for user "everyone" for full access.
Changes to network settings will be logged to the security event log and you can see who it was. Try it out right now at your machine.
Sorry, disregard the last segment re: Auditing. It's the Local Security Policy.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/monitor-attempts-to-access-and-change-settings-on-your-computer
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/monitor-attempts-to-access-and-change-settings-on-your-computer
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