Our high school just got the new version of Novell ZenWorks, and it has some awesome features. I'm a computer tech at the school, so I get to use many of these features. I think one of the more scary features is the remote control. The admin can control any computer on the network. He can turn them on, log them in, and even lock the local mouse and keyboard. It's really fun to spy on people in the library and computer labs, and lock people's workstation controls, although I have had this happen to me. Many people in my school believe that it is an invasion of privacy. I would like your opinions on this, and I plan on presenting them to the complainers. Thanks

for me, i think it is ok. anyway, it is a school. It should be controlled. we dont want to see school internet being used for bad things such as porn or whatever.

but, the most important thing is that the admin should be very responsible. he/she should not abuse their power. if an abuse happened, students are needed to report the incident to the management.

long time ago, i've come to a company which was really restrictive about their internet usage policy. users can go to the companie and their partner website only. no email or anthing else. only port 80(for HTTP) was open, other access was imposibble. wasnt that annoys you?

As a former Novell network administrator, I can tell you that although you have a degree of power, you shouldn't get carried away with it. Yeah, it can be fun to watch someone's surfing or takeover their mouse and keyboard, but by doing that more for fun than out of necessity, you make the complainers point for them. If their complaining gets loud enough someone might take your admin privileges away.

I'm sure you're not being a jerk and messing with people all the time. And sometimes you have to try a bunch of things with new technology so you can learn its limitations. Just remember, in your position, you're supposed to be the "good cop." You're the one they call when something breaks and they need to get it running again. You should get to know your ethical code because you will often be responsible for dealing with users doing unethical things. You're sort of like Spider-Man - part cop, part vigilante, part everyday nice guy. That's what it takes to be in charge of a network and keep your users confident that you are not taking advantage of them.

As for the users, tell them if they were at home they could do whatever they want with fewer prying eyes. But on the school network it is your job to keep bad people from doing bad things so you have to watch out for everybody and keep track of what everyone is doing... ethically.

I'm not an expert in the area of civil rights and privacy but I am a parent of a high school freshman and a 7th grader. I don't believe that monitoring the activities of students (or teachers/administrators) on school computer equipment is an invasion of privacy. I would want responsible school personnel monitoring my child's and her fellow classmates computer activities. But as banjosforpeace stated "although you have a degree of power, you shouldn't get carried away with it." If those with the power do get carried away with it, the result may be laws restricting that power. And that would make it easier for the bad people to do bad things with school computers. I definitely would not want my kids and their fellow students to have the opportunity to do bad things with school computers. Besides, it could lead to lawsuits against the school administrators and school districts.

In my opinion, its only an invasion of privacy IF someone is actually wathing you.

for example, most cctc camera's record, but the tapes are only watched by human eyes when a crime has been comitted, no crime, no1 watches, no invasion of privacy.

to stop p0rn, you should configure the proxy to prevent porn and keep logs.

reading logs is okay, but seeing what is actually happenning on there screen is a bit over the top 1984 style.

I think it depends on the usage policy the school has instituted and what warnings they give. If you say in the policy that computer usage may be monitored and give warnings in the lab to that effect I don't think there is an issue because they know that monitoring may occur and their actions are public. If the policy does not state anything about monitoring then it would be an issue because then the students think what they are doing is private and when they discover that they have been watched, feel that their privacy has been invaded. IMHO.

I completely agree with ther fact that we should not get carried away with our power, which I usually don't What we do not allow at our school is porn, games, and anything that is not within reasonable limits of being at school. We have a rather strict url blocker, but as most blockers are, they cannot block everything. That is where we come in. Although I myself cannot use the remote control software, my computer teacher/network admin can. So, if we don't have anything to work on, we monitor the computer labs and library. If we find someone doing something that is not school appropriate, we lock out the controls, and exit firefox for them. My opinion is, that if you don't want people looking over your sholder, you are probally doing something that is able to be considered as not school apropriate

yeah if you don't intend to do anything against the policy you won't protest as much to being monitored.

i hope some one can help me.. i used os windows xp as server and window 2000 as client but when i sharing printer from client and test print.. the window show owner "guest" not computer client name...

p/s refer attachment

Yes, i couldn't agree more with those comments, the administrator should definitely be able to lock a computer or so on, as long as its for a reason and not just for fun. As someone could be doing a very important piece of coursework and just have someone lock your pc is stupid.