How to Lock-In Web Addresses on Netscape Navigator

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Choose your browser and follow the instructions...in less than 5 minutes you can secure your browser against wayward surfers! When combined with IKIOSK or some other software, it should keep things where they should be. This isn't completely secure as it uses settings within Netscape Navigator. However, it should deter the average surfer and would require someone with a fair amount of familiarity with Navigator to figure out what you have done. Thanks to Glen Davies who first provided this solution on Web4Lib!

Netscape Navigator 4.x and Communicator 4.5+

Netscape Navigator 3.x

One advantage of this method is that it allows the proxy settings to be turned on and off at will, however, for those of you who do not need this flexibility, check out Tim Kambitsch's Exploiting and Abusing Netscape Navigator page for a more permanent solution. Another solution you can look at is using the HOSTS file to block specific IP addresses.

NOTE: If you use this method and then try to install Internet Explorer 5 on your machine, the ie5setup program may generate general fault protection errors when trying to run. Before installing IE, remove the proxy settings in Netscape to avoid this problem. Thanks to Jerry Kuntz for bringing that problem to my attention.

For Navigator 4.X and Communicator 4.5+

Select:

Edit -- Preferences

Under Category, select Advanced -- Proxies

Check Manual Proxy Configuration and click on View

Under Servers, go to HTTP and under the field "Address of proxy server to use" enter in a message like "This workstation is limited to Magazine Databases" or something similar. This is the message that will appear when a patron tries to access a url outside those you permit.

At the bottom, under exceptions, enter the url's you wish to allow access to.
Make sure that you enter all the url's in one line, separated with commas. If they are on separate lines, they will not be saved!

Click OK and OK and you're ready to roll!

These configurations can be used for any domain.

Also, don't forget, if you link to these applications from a web page, include its domain in your list(i.e. if you link from http://tln.lib.mi.us/magazine.htm, include tln.lib.mi.us).

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: How do I allow access to a single domain [i.e. all ".gov" sites]?
A: Enter in the domain name [gov, edu, etc.] into the exceptions box - do not include the "." or wildcard characters [like *]. This will allow access to all sites ending in ".gov" but no other domains. You can be as general or specific as you want.

Q: I've entered in a the domain name for my database but it won't connect properly. Why not?
A: Many of the online databases use multiple servers with multiple domain names to present the information. Try using a more general domain entry in the exceptions box. For example, instead of using "infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/lom_waterfordtpl", use the more general "infotrac.galegroup.com" - this will allow the browser to access all sub-domains at "infotrac.galegroup.com".

Written by Andrew Mutch.
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Last Updated July 5, 2001.