how to block IM

Bulldog Bill wrote:

> how do I block IM from an XP machine that is in a workgroup configuration
> and not a domain type config

You could look into using OpenDNS as your DNS server instead of your
ISP's DNS server assigned to you when you use their DHCP server. If you
have a router, configure it to use OpenDNS for DNS services. OpenDNS
lets you use their DNS server in case you find your ISP's DNS server
occasionally is unavailable or gets poisoned. In addition, and if you
open an account at OpenDNS (free), you can specify what domains to
block. You can also select categories of sites to block. One of those
categories is Instant Messengers.

Since you probably get a dynamic IP address assigned to your router from
your ISP's DHCP server, you need to run a client on your host that
updates your OpenDNS account to report to your account there as to what
is your current IP address (for the WAN-side of your router). Their
client handles that.

Then everyone using DHCP in the TCP/IP configuration will end up using
whatever the router uses for the DNS server, and that will be the
OpenDNS server with the restrictions established in your account. Only
if they use static IP address can they specify an IP address for a DNS
server which could be different from ISP's or OpenDNS' DNS server. You
could, however, could configure your router to block all port 53 traffic
(DNS) that doesn't go to the OpenDNS servers. That is, they can specify
whatever DNS server they want but it won't work through the router
unless that DNS server is the one that you specify which would be the
OpenDNS server along with your category restrictions.