How to Use/Manage Chromebooks in a Lab

[xwisdom]

Hello,

I would like to use chromebooks in a small computer Lab environment
but would like to restrict access to the web sites that users are
allowed to view. Is this possible?

In addition, is it possible to share a paid web app on a chromebook
with other users? For example, let's say I would like to run a
specific web app within lab but I don't want each user to have to
download and install or purchase the app when they use the lab. With a
desktop OS it's possible to install the app once and use it in a lab
environment.



Best regards,
__
Raymond

[Steve Pirk]

A possible answer to question number one would be to limit what web sites the lab users can access with the normal proxy rules you would have in place for other computers in the lab. Limiting what hosts individual Chromebooks can access is not possible as far as I know.

If you lease Chromebooks, I believe you can remotely administer things like proxy servers, so you might want to look for that option on the Chromebook Google page.

-- steve

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[Glenn Wilson]

The Chromebook management console offers policies to enforce a proxy,
or set your own URL whitelists and blacklists -- which method you
choose would be dependent on how much you want to block, and whether
you want to use a third-party filtering service to do it.

The management console also allows you the ability to pre-install
applications/extensions from the Chrome Web Store. (Most applications
are "freemium", so you can install and use some basic level of
functionality for free, but if you want the paid version in bulk,
you'd need to discuss with the vendor.)

Check out more info about the management console at
http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/business/chromebook/features.html
(do a quick search for "management console")

Hope that helps!

[Steve Pirk]

Nice link Glenn! I had not seen that that page before. I really need to forward link that to some people here in town. There is a lot more information on the management console now. Shiny!

Thanks!

-- steve

[Glenn Wilson]

Happy to help.  If you have more specific questions about the console, feel free to reach out to me directly.

Best,

Glenn

[Raymond Irving]

Hi again,

Many thanks for the link the tips.

After doing some thinking I though it would be so much easier to just have a policy that allows the admin to block Malicious websites and Adult contents (such as porn sites, etc). This would be very useful in schools. It's even easier than having to individually add websites to the url blacklist.

What do you think?

Best regards,

__

Raymond

 

[Glenn Wilson]

Hi Raymond,

There are many third-party filtering services out there that organizations are already using -- typically, administrators set the 'proxy' policies in the management console to route the user's traffic through one of these services.

The URL blacklist/whitelist policies are typically more useful for different use cases: either to block *everything* except a set of known sites, or just block a set of known sites.

Hope that helps!

Best,

Glenn