I have a group of Dell Inspiron 5100 laptops that I need to setup so that they have NO access to the Internet. Unfortunately, all the accounts on the laptops are 'adminstrative' accounts so that a group of applications with unsigned macros can run. Is there a way I setup the laptops so that only another 'savy' tech person would be able to change it back?

I already uninstalled IE from the windows components and gave the nic a 10.10.10.10 ip address.

But I can see them, the panel of users, going back in & adding the IE component and using a USB wireless card to access the Internet with these laptops. Is there a way to prevent this?

looking for answers......

this always depends on how clever the users are. we restrict our users to power users which leaves us more options.
you could for example set a proxy address which leads to nowhere or just 127.0.0.1 and then remove the connections tab from internet exploiter with a group policy.
I guess there are alot of different methods to disable internet access but you need to find a way thats really hard to fix for them.
one thing that goes through my mind.... do you use a switch or something that you can configure in your network or between the networks your users are connected to? I think you could disable forwarding request from the local network to the internet or proxy server as a general option there as well.

post back if you need more optiions!

These laptops are not connected to a LAN, so I cannot setup group policies.

They will be used during panel forums, but will be loaned out for 2 weeks. During that time, they will have then at hotels & such. We will ask then NOT to connect with the net, but I am just trying to make sure.

any other suggestions?

Well, anything you do in software can easily be undone by (re)installing Windows or using any other OS.

Maybe set a BIOS password, then disable network controllers and USB in BIOS? You would still have the PC Card slot active though.. Fill the slot with superglue?

What maros are we talking about here? And why would one need administrative rights for them?

well it doesn't matter if they are connected to the lan to apply some policies.
I would rather restrict the rights and disable the lan adapters but you still have to touch all the laptops and could set the policies then

examples:

open gpedit.msc

go to computer configuration > administrative templates > windows components > internet explorer. there you will find everything you need.

in the right pane enable the following options:

disable changing connection settings
disable changing proxy settings

in the right pane open internet control panel and enable

disable display the connections page


these settings are hard to find for "normal" users. so I would give it a try

Unless you have physical control over the computers, you really don't have any control at all.