WebJunction

Here's how Mike Christenson, Systems Administrator for the City of Kerrville, Texas configures his library's public access computers:

The first thing we've done is set up a standard configuration as follows:

The graphics adapter, NIC, and audio adapter use the same drivers in all the computers.  Two primary partitions are created on the hard drive and formatted with NTFS.  The first is the C: drive with a capacity of 10 Gigabytes.  The second is the E: drive which is named Ghost and has a capacity of 10 Gigabytes which only administrators have access to.  The D: drive is a CD-ROM or CD-RW drive.

The following software is installed:

MS XP SP2 with all updates installed
MS Office 2000 Pro with all updates installed MS Internet Explorer with all updates installed.
Adaware 6
Spybot Search and Destroy
Spyware Blaster
Symantec Corporate Edition Norton Anti Virus Symantec Ghost Java - latest version Flash Player - latest version Acrobat Reader - latest version Irfanview - latest version with plugins Roxio CD Burner

We created a "Work" folder on the C: drive that is shared with "Full control" for "Everyone".  This gives the patrons a work area on the local hard drive.

We use the Gates Foundation Public Profile Manager to manage a common profile named "all".  This user id has no password, making it easy for the patrons to log into the computer.

Once this configuration is working as desired we use Symantec Ghost to store an image of it to a central server on the LAN.  We restore that image to each computer and then change the computer name to be unique.  Once the computer has a unique computer name, we use Ghost to create an image named desktop.gho on the E: drive (the Ghost partition).  We used Ghost to create a boot diskette that automatically restores the C: drive from the Ghost image on the E: drive.  The autoexec.bat file looks like this:

@echo off
SET TZ=GHO+06:00
MOUSE.COM
echo Loading...
CD GHOST
GHOST.EXE-clone,mode=prestore,src=1:2\desktop.gho:1,dst=1:1

Whenever the library has a problem with a computer becoming corrupt in any way, all the librarian has to do is put the Ghost boot diskette in the C: drive and reboot the computer.  It takes about five minutes and the computer is restored to its original configuration.  If the E: drive (Ghost partition) becomes corrupt as well (has never happened), the entire hard drive can be restored from the central server and reconfigured with the computer's unique name.  This image is again "Ghosted" into the E: drive.
The central server is backed up to tape every night.  Friday tapes are stored off site as are month end and year end tapes.

We have an Adtran Netvanta 2400 firewall that comes with four fast ethernet ports.  We have configured one for access to the internet, one for access to the LAN, one as a DMZ for our WEB servers and email gateway, and one as a DMZ for the public computers.  The DMZ for the public computers only has access to the internet.  We are currently working on providing a WIFI hotspot in the public computer DMZ so that patrons can use laptops available for check out at the library or their own laptops to access the internet.