Any computer which is on the web can be accessed, regardless of the OS.
I recommend putting a firewall on (I use Firestarter, personally). I
get about 5-10 hits from outside computers a month, but I've never
actually had anyone able to hack into it (though it appears that some
bored guy at MIT keeps trying to get in, every couple of weeks,
according to Firestarter's log).

Night before last a girl was on the library pc and she got hacked.
The hacker gained access to the library systems for about an hour before
he/she was noticed.
The library has not blocked MySpace and anything like it.

My sons computer all of the sudden had 18 trogans on it as of this
morning. When he is on myspace I have the virus scanner working every 5
hours. It was fine until 12pm last night. 6am I had this problem to deal
with.

Its is specifically myspace or a module implemented by another user?
Dont know.
Dont care now.
I blocked myspace from my network from now on.

Just curious, were these winblows, or linux pc's?

Ill just stop that ip from coming through my router and that will be it.

For one My S is horrible for all things above. I know kids love it and it can be
just fine. However, you as a parent need to look at what the kids are doing on
the net. Take a look at the kids MS page and see if ANY, I mean ANY thing of
personal information is on their pages. Like the town they live, their ages,
pics of them, and any thing that can bring them or you in harms way. Like the
town should be like "Anytown, USA", Age 999, and so on.
As for some hacking into the system. Yes, install Firestarter through Synaptic.
This program gives you access to the firewall install in Ubie. And yet, if I
recall correct, that you run Xubie on the kids computer. For one upgrade your
system to the newest version. This will up date the firewall with in the Linux
Kernel. With firestarter you can tune up the firewall and can block all cookies.
All so delete your cookies once a while. Most of the part time who do the
hacking are running windows and really cannot see much of your system. However,
true blue hackers use Linux or Unix to hack with. The true blue ones are trying
to hack in bigger things than your little system. They have nothing better to
do, they should get out of Mom's and Dad's basement, and find a human company.
Cripes! Are they tired of their hand all ready. Geeze!
So when the kids are on line on the system. Ask them to look at their My Space
page. Tell them the truth and tell them why. There is perverts and they are
ready to prey on them. All so look at any thing they are doing. If they give any
type of personal information on the net.

Well, blocking cookies entirely can cause many sites the parents need
(such as banking sites) to stop working properly. You may want to find
a way to block cookies for specific sites.

As to looking at a kid's myspace page to see if there's any info a
sexual predator can use - the media's over hyped it. Sexual predators
really are not that terribly prevalent on myspace (I think someone found
that they made up something like one onehundreth or one onethousanth of
a percent of the people on myspace, going by the reported incidents).
Also, I've never heard of a sexual predator coming to a kid's house
without the kid asking them first (so whether or not the info is on the
kid's myspace page is a moot point - if they're asking the guy to come,
they'll give it away anyways). And most of what kids do on the web,
from what I've seen, is pointless conversation (you'll never believe how
many times I've seen someone send an e-mail saying they'll call someone
else after school).

As for tracking what your kid is doing on the web - get them to use an
e-mail app so you can see their sent messages, and use a program like
Gaim where their IM convos are logged. The majority of what's going to
be said that kids don't want you to see is probably not going to be put
on a public web page. Also, freaking out simply because the kid has
what state/city they're in and their age is overreacting, in my opinion
- there's very little someone can do with that (unless you happen to
have the only 16 year old in Chicago, or something like that). Now,
their full name should not be on the page - this is not only for sexual
predators, but identity theft can be a concern as well, and the kid
should get in the practice of making sure no information that could lead
to it is posted.

Also, on the topic of identity theft, that is one reason why someone may
hack into your computer. If they can break in within fifteen minutes
and get all the info to your credit cards and your bank accounts, then
they've made a profit. While I haven't heard of this happening, I
really do not think it is outside the realm of possibility.

However--they are using Edubuntu Dapper Drake, so I guess? that means I
can skip all the kernel update stuff and install Firestarter. Yes?

On the privacy thing. I tried and tried that route and it didn't work
with my stubborn kids, til the oldest got a good scare one nite. They
are careful, but at the same time, we go with the policy that ANything
that is on the pc, is public knowledge. So they may or may not have
"real info" on their pages and stuff, but they are ALWAYS to assume that
they are being watched. I figure that if someone was really trying to
do something wrong, the false security given by the fake info is more
dangerous than someone across the country knowing what state we're in.

Oh, BTW, my dd's asked how old your son is. Silly,.

You wouldn't have any suggestions for how to fix my network
configuration problem, would you? I posted earlier this week, but got
no answers.

Ok wait a second. I can see blocking myspace for stopping some of the
scripts from comming through. However censoring them from your kids isnot
going to work.People just talk to your kids. Take the time sit down and
explain to your kid on a level they can understand why you dont want them on
what ever site. Me personally if when I was living with my parents they
decided to block my space I would have taken that as a personal challange to
figure out how to get to that site or found another site to play on. All in
all I think that myspace is the safest for our youth. Think about it it gets
the most scruitany in the media being the most watched website in the workd.
Where as places like okcupid and yahoo 360 fly under the radar, and even
lower under the radar are places like craigslist or livejournal go uncheck.
So my point here is no matter what site you block there is always going to
be another. Educate yourselfs and your kids to the dangerous and wonderful
things that are out there on the web. Just because the biased media says its
bad doesnt mean its true. Damn I hate politics. Have a good day.

I was not per say block all cookies coming in, just delete cookies here and
there. You could be sneeky and with your other computer is to login to the kids
computer with out their knowing. It is done quite easy and you could monitor
their actions. Or you could tell them that you can and you will. It is basically
hacking, but with out them knowing at all. You can see every thing they do on
the net or to the computer games they are playing.
It is not hard to set up and let them know that. You can even log into the kids
computer from work and see what they are doing. Well, any where from the world
from any computer.
Up dating the kernel is going to help. No one like up grades, but the linux
upgrades, you are updating the firewall and other stuff too.
All so, are you root person on the kids system? Did you set them up with each
account? You as root/admin can get all sorts of collection of data from each
user. You can do this. Get the newest Ebie and do a fresh install. Set up you as
the admin. So only you can, install programs, update the system , and set up
what each kid can do.
Thus you can lay the law down. Me being a parent myself and a couple more years
till teen age time. Tell them if the abuse does not stop. I'll stop it for you,
where all they can do is research a project for their homework. I know trust is
key in the family and you want to trust the kids to have better judgment on what
they do on the net.
So tell the kids that you trust them that they are using the web as growing
adults do. Tell them what you can do from what I stated from above. They'll will
not like the parent can see every thing what they do on the computer. Then if
one kid does not listen to you. And they do. Take the box and do above. You'll
get oh but Mom. You warned them and tell them that life is never fair.
It can be done and you know your family and it is your call.

I could pick your brain for days. I guess I'll have to break down
and put feisty on thier pc. Darnit I hate dealing with all these basket
case computers. Seriously, I wanted to do it anyway - just means more
learning, I'm afraid. After networking 101 LOL!

Seeing what they do is a lot of what I want that feisty for. The thin
client server has a new desktop viewer or something supposedly. So I
can control their every move Bwahahaha (during school-time).

If the popup tld someone is accessing ur desktop make sure remote
desktop feature is turned off. To check this goto
System->Preferences->Remote Desktop and make sure its its turned off. :)