Heather,

While I agree with Tom on the instruction and use of firewalls, anti-virus
tools, and anti-spyware tools, I think more needs to be said.

At one point I was working in an education system as an IT.  I cannot tell
you how important it is to have an IUP that is specific to your issues.
Ninety percent of the issues I ran into were the educators and not the
students messing up the computers.  These issues usually stemmed from
workers with a little "down-time" that wanted to use MY computers as if they
were their home computers.  Problems I've seen and what the issues are:

1)  P2P -  Peer to peer sharing:  these are great little programs for
getting mp3's, programs and movies, however the programs often run outside
the firewall and therefore are not blocked of any evil content (viruses,
Trojans, etc.)  Often times the P2P software itself contains more spyware
than you can imagine. DON'T ALLOW P2P for any reason!!!

2)  Music Streamers:  Programs like Windows Media Player and the like are
typically not dangerous to your computers, however depending on the size of
your network and the amount of bandwidth you share 20 people all listening
to streamed music in their offices can seriously drain the network of power.
I've seen a large T1 connection go to a snail's pace simply because of
streaming.

3)  Online shopping:  No joke.  Shopping at Amazon or Target.com isn't
really going to be a detriment, but newbies often find web shopping portals
that offer "great deals".  These portals are about as wise as walking
through Mid-town Manhattan with fifties sticking out of your pockets.  You
might be ok, but you're just asking for trouble.  Again, these portals are
small programs that almost always contain spyware and are backdoors into
your system.  If you allow some shopping be sure to emphasize that employees
use sites that contain secure servers for their protection and that of your
network.

4)  Porn:  Yeah.  While I'm not against free speech (a picture speaks a
thousand words remember), the perusal of interactive nudity can lead to a
myriad of issues network wise and ethically as well.  

	My overall suggestion is to CYA and not allow any internet
activities that may hinder, hamper, or interfere in any way the network or
any systems connected to it.  If the User has any questions if this or that
is wrong, then they should contact the IT.

I hope this helps some.

Have a great day,

Christopher Reeves

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