I  am the systems analyst for our school system..In our Qbasic class we
have been having security troubles because of the commands "kill", "name",
and "shell"
is there anyway to disable these commands????

Off the subject of Qb, does anybody know how to make it so a computer will
not boot on a disk unless it has a certain name??(We need to be able to
boot off of floppies, but we don't want the kids to be able to.)

Please E-mail me as soon as possible if you have any input.....thanx

Not as far as I know (but on the other hand, I've been wrong before.

One way I can think of stopping the little rug rats from lousing up the
system is this:

1) Create a backup directory and call it something really wierd.
2) PK-ZIP all the important files to a single file in that directory, using
   the switches for password protection and maximum compression.
3) Keep another copy of that directory someplace else (assuming you still
   have room)
4) Attribute the archive HRSA.

   anywhere but home.

Kids are real clever. If you try to implement security by disabling
commands, they'll still manage rto find a way around it.

As far as being able to boot off the floppies, some BIOS routines have a
switch for boot sequence to look at C: first, then A:.

Maybe that'll help.

Gregory Pius
IBM Boca Raton

ANSWER:
Removing dangerous commands like KILL might be possible
by changing them in the .LIB files by means of an hex-editor
like PC-Tools.
NOTE:
I did not try this out!!!
Be sure to save a copy of the orginal files!

Changing them will have the advantage the YOU still can use them.

IMHO by the way it's better to make backups then to learn children
an incomplete version of QuickBasic. If they want to use KILL etc.
they should suffer te consequences, you should be save bij means
of your backup...  :-) :-)

Good luck,

Bob Suurhoff

: >I  am the systems analyst for our school system..In our Qbasic class we
: >have been having security troubles because of the commands "kill", "name",
: >and "shell"
: >is there anyway to disable these commands????
: >
: >Off the subject of Qb, does anybody know how to make it so a computer will
: >not boot on a disk unless it has a certain name??(We need to be able to
: >boot off of floppies, but we don't want the kids to be able to.)

: Not as far as I know (but on the other hand, I've been wrong before.

: One way I can think of stopping the little rug rats from lousing up the
: system is this:

: 1) Create a backup directory and call it something really wierd.
: 2) PK-ZIP all the important files to a single file in that directory, using
:    the switches for password protection and maximum compression.
: 3) Keep another copy of that directory someplace else (assuming you still
:    have room)
: 4) Attribute the archive HRSA.

:    anywhere but home.

: Kids are real clever. If you try to implement security by disabling
: commands, they'll still manage rto find a way around it.

: As far as being able to boot off the floppies, some BIOS routines have a
: switch for boot sequence to look at C: first, then A:.

: Maybe that'll help.

: Gregory Pius
: IBM Boca Raton

--

 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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 |  Tempe, Az 85281     | * Custom Programming * Data Recovery * Telecom    |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                "My beeper's still burn'n up..." - Ice Cube               |
 +==========================================================================+

: >I  am the systems analyst for our school system..In our Qbasic class we
: >have been having security troubles because of the commands "kill", "name",
: >and "shell"
: >is there anyway to disable these commands????
: >
: >Off the subject of Qb, does anybody know how to make it so a computer will
: >not boot on a disk unless it has a certain name??(We need to be able to
: >boot off of floppies, but we don't want the kids to be able to.)

With an editor you can rename the commands in the programs EXE and LIB files.
Like VBDOS.EXE and it's LIB. Be sure to keep the length the same. Like for
KILL you could rename it KLLL. That way the command could still be used, but
it would err if the kids used KILL. For the floppy question you could
set up a password in the CMOS and change the drive (A: or C:) sequence
depending on if you want to boot off a floppy or not. If the rug-rats put
a disk in it won't boot and without the password they can't change the
CMOS to make the computer boot from A:.

 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 |  COMPUTER MEDICS     | * Network Cabling/Installation (Novell, LANtastic |
 |  682 East Oakleaf    | * Hardware/Software Troubleshooting * Virus Clean |
 |  Tempe, Az 85281     | * Custom Programming * Data Recovery * Telecom    |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                "My beeper's still burn'n up..." - Ice Cube               |
 +==========================================================================+

Well, I ended up figuring out an easy way to edit the commands and I
thought that I would share it with the rest of the world....

First you have to use pklite to uncompress qbasic.exe, then you use debug
or another editor and find the command you want to disable, and change one
of the letters to small case....

I still don't understand how to edit the CMOS though....

: I  am the systems analyst for our school system..In our Qbasic class we
: have been having security troubles because of the commands "kill", "name",
: and "shell"
: is there anyway to disable these commands????

Well, you will have to turn on, the "read-only" bit of each of the affected
files, so they (your students) can't easly delete them.  But a relentless
individual, will find out how to circumvent this protection, for what you
will be forced to expell the student :)

Besides  that, I don't know what else you could do about those commands.  

Now think about this: would you work with a BASIC compiler that didn't
allow you to use KILL, NAME or SHELL?
--
-Carl