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I'm underqualified for my job, and now I need help.

21:24 / 22.06.04

I work in an architecture firm as an architectural technologist and server administrator. I have an architecture degree, but I was only trained for two hours to be a server administrator/office techie, and while I'm not bad with a computer, I'm in a bit over my head. Our last administrator is on another continent for several months and cannot be reached, and I don't think I could ask him about this anyway. One of the guys at work is getting spammed all the time, and one of the other employees has told me that the guy has a nasty porn-in-the-office habit. I'm sick of cleaning out the viruses, and listening to him bitch about the spam. The trouble is, he's clearing his cookies and temporary files daily, so I can't really put it in his face - and he's technically one of my bosses (I work for four different architects in the office), so I'm in a bit of a tight spot. Also, when I gently suggested he be more cautious about the sites he views, he got all snippy and defensive - I never even suggested he was viewing porn. I did find some residual porn during maintenance the other day (under his old login ID). So that's the back story. Here's the question: What the hell do I do? Is there a way I can block him from the sites he's accessing from my end? Calling my ISP and asking them for help is no good, not as a first step, because they're also my technical support for all the machines in the office, and it would be, well, unpleasent. Any advice?

22:16 / 22.06.04

Forget about the porn. How do you really know he has an unusually bad habit apart from hearsay? How do you know his colleagues aren't at it too? Would they care about his one-handed surfing anyway? Your problem in this area is political rather than technological.

Concentrate on the virus issue. Virii cost companies money. It's going to be a lot easier to get a consensus for developing your company's anti-virus strategy. And it may incidentally stop the wanker abusing his equipment.

That's what I'd do.

22:20 / 22.06.04

And of course research e-mail filters to cut down on the spam. Also, does he have his email address posted on any company website? That pulls in a lot of viagra ads etc.

22:26 / 22.06.04

in my office, we aren't authorized to clear our history or cookies. can you, um, make that happen? (...knows nothing)

22:42 / 22.06.04

There are various ways of stopping the cache and cookies clearing strategy. Depends on the OS of the workstation. If it's NT, go in as admin and use a sneaky and nasty utility called poledit (a policy editor) which will allow you to alter users' authority to perform certain tasks.

Anything bigger or cleverer I can't help you with at the moment, but your best bet is to get them to agree to a good firewall/antivirus system. This will allow you to log who is looking at what.

22:43 / 22.06.04

There are a number of security sites that are pointing to Internet Explorer as a main culprit of the proliferation of virii and general fubar. You might suggest to the individual in question that Mozilla might be a viable alternative. This may not solve ALL your problems, especially not the political ones, but it may reduce them. I am recommending this to all Windows users I know, and some Mac users as well.

22:47 / 22.06.04

ALSO. Cover your own arse! As you will be presumed to be the person who knows how it all works, make sure you NEVER know their own logon passwords. If it comes to the point where he is about to get fired for looking at people bumping nasties, he may well claim you have access and that you did it yourself to frame him.
As of tomorrow, insist that _everyone_ changes their passwords, and that you do not find out what they are. It's a security measure, and means that you have a defence if anything new turns up.

23:00 / 22.06.04

...and asking that no-one clears their cache and cookies so you can monitor what is going on with the "viruses" is also an entirely reasonable request.

02:13 / 23.06.04

Thanks guys. Since my office is small, there is no way they'll be willing to invest any cash into the problem - because it should be solvable, and they have faith that I can fix it, given time to sort it out. I know this is an isoltaed issue in the office, because I maintain all the computers, and most of my colleagues wouldn't know how to clear the evidence. I'm sure the others at work would care, given the salary this individual receives, the position he holds, and the problems related to porn in an office without walls. And, besides, I care, because it's causing problems which are wasting my time. I'm looking into Mozilla, and I'll try to change his authorizations, and maybe I'll be able to stop the activity without having to actually have the conversation with all my bosses about appropriate and safe web practices. Again, thanks.

nedrichards is confused

09:54 / 23.06.04

re: Mozilla. If you go that way choose Firefox, it's a lot more understandable for the sort of people who use computers in offices and nowhere else.

10:25 / 23.06.04

Seconded. I started using it this week, and it's just great. However, it doesn't seem to have a mail client, which Mozilla does.

nedrichards is confused

10:30 / 23.06.04

It's called Mozilla Thunderbird which is to mail clients as Firefox is to browsers. I always though there was a good app in the Mozilla suite waiting to come out. It turns out that there were actually two good apps.

10:33 / 23.06.04

Mozilla Firewhatnot doesn't have a mail client, but if you need one you can download Mozilla Thunderbird. It's their standalone e-mail client, it's still got a few problems but nothing that will kill your e-mail. It has a nice clean design and spam filtering. There are other e-mail clients out there, but if you're already heading down Mozilla Road then it's worth looking at.