Security Tweaks - Disable Internet Access

By using this tweak you are able to restrict access to the Internet when using Internet Explorer and other Microsoft compatible products such as Office.

To do this, follow the next steps:

  1. Open the Registry Editor click on the Start button on your taskbar, then click on Run and type "regedit" and click on OK to start the regedit utility.
     
  2. Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings (see picture 1).

    Picture 1
  3. Change the value of "ProxyEnable" and set it to "1". Change the value of "ProxyServer" and set it to an IP address and port that is invalid on your network such as "10.0.0.1:5555" (i.e. "IP:Port").

    By changing these settings Internet access will be disabled for any applications that rely of the Microsoft proxy server information such as Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, Opera browser.
     

    Disable_Internet.reg Enable_Internet.reg

To stop users from modifying the proxy settings add these restrictions to disable changes to the Internet configuration.

  1. Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel (see picture 1).
     
    Picture 2
  2. Create two DWORD values named "Connection Settings" and "Connwiz Admin Lock" and set them both to "1".
     
  3. To remove the restriction, set the proxy settings back to their original values and delete the policy values.

Note: The change will take effect immediately for any new browser windows, existing Internet Explorer sessions will not be affected until the browser is closed and reopened.

 


Author:

Lex van der Horst

Date Added:

06-11-2004

Last Reviewed:

06-11-2004