LM_NET: Library Media Networking
* * * Warning: This is a long message! * * *
Dear LM_NET Colleagues,
Here are the results of my question regarding the security and
screensaver application, FoolProof for Macintosh computers. Lots of
responses, and generally quite approving. Once again the experienced and
wise LM_NET Community comes through!
Thank you, thank you all very much for your (32) responses, excellent
comments, suggestions, and recommendations.
Here is my question, followed by the responses:
My original question:
> Our school is considering a switch from At Ease to a new package of
> software which includes a screen saver, plus file and desktop security--
> for *Macintosh*. The Company is SmartStuff, and their package is called
> The Complete FoolProof Family (includes FoolProof, Undercover, and
> ScreenPlay.)
>
> Big questions: Have you tried them, and if so, are you pleased with them?
>
The responses:
---------------------------
Our school uses At Ease and Fool Proof in the lab of 31 computers. Works
well there. All the kids save things in their teacher's file under
documents. Anything else improperly saved gets dumped about once every
two months...time consuming, but it works.
We don't have either working with our CASPR system because our computer
guy says that both with interfere somehow. So we have the Library Browser
so that it is only read-only. So far we have had just a couple of
problems, but we have started putting the keyboard at the circulation
desk away at night, and that has solved those problems.
Barbara Sanford
Spokane, WA
bsanford@esd101.wednet.edu
Peter, I have used FoolProof which prevents casual :-) destruction and
changes; however, the sneaky little devils are now bringing their own
system disks with their own programs and overriding FoolProof. This is a
new problem. For the first year, FoolProof worked well to stop saving and
copying stuff to and from the HD, etc. Good luck.
Sue Yahng Piedmont High NEW ADDRESS syahng@cello.gina.calstate.edu
We have been using Foolproof on the 18 Mac
LCIIs in our LMC. It has been terrific. I didn't care for At Ease because
the user loses the traditional Mac desktop and I felt students should use
the Mac as it was intended. Foolproof allowed us to maintain most of the
traditional Mac look while being able to save the data from being
altered. The company was also willing to negotiate somewhat on a site
license. Hope this helps. Thank you again for your help in the past.
Beverly Frett
LMC Director
Robert Clow Elementary
Naperville, IL
bfrett@eagle.ibc.edu
Peter, I have nothing but good things to say about Foolproof. We haven't
tried the other two programs yet, so I can't attest to them. We used to
have AT EASE and found it cumbersome. Plus we are networked and wanted
to teach the children how to use the Chooser, as well as be familiar with
the desktop of the Mac. We switched to Foolproof and it has been
fabulously successful. Simple to install, various options for you to
choose from--all in all a nice program.
Anne Knickerbocker Cedar Brook Elementary
Librarian 2121 Ojeman
SBISD Houston, Texas 77080
aknicker@tenet.edu (713) 365-5020
We use FoolProof on Macs all over our building and like it fine. One
librarian in our district thinks FoolProof is "way bett2er" than At
Ease,and she has used both. Donna Cook <dsc.tenet.edu>
Run, do not walk, to SmartStuff and buy a site license!
FoolProof is super - the version 2.5 which just arrived copes with
the new system 7.5 features (do you see all the "stickies" the
8th grade will dream up?)
They have email support at support@smartstuff.com
Shelley
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shelley Lochhead, Librarian ____/| 603-746-4167 x230
Hopkinton High School \ o.O| S_Lochhead@mentor.unh.edu
297 Park Avenue =(_)= htbo@lilac.nhsl.lib.nh.us
Contoocook, NH 03229 U AOL: SLochhead
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We have both At ease and Foolproof and I much perfer the latter...it
makes the Mac look more like a "real" Mac and the kids learn about
folders and organizing files etc. IT's real easy to use. I can't comment
on the rest of the package...haven't used it.
Guusje Moore
Librarian, Housman Elementary School
Houston, Texas
guusje@tenet.edu
We have used FoolProof for two years (v. 1.?), and have been satisfied
with the results. We wanted security along with the actual feel and
general operation of the desktop, something that AtEase masked. Have
noticed no conflicts. There area couple of little things that I would like
(and may be possible if I would reread the manual); students often clutter
the desktop with new, but empty, folders, requiring disabling the system
in order to clean things up. I wish thre was a keyboard shortcut to
quickly get in and do this, but that may defeat the purpose of the
program. Support has been good.
Good luck.
Bob Hall
Patrick Henry Local Schools
PHE_ACA_BH@NWOCA.OHIO.GOV
Peter, Until this year I was with the Lincoln (NE) Public Schools. We used
Fool Proof there and were very happy with it.
We set it so that saving could happen only to disk. On my media center
computer I also set one folder which could be saved to. Worked great for
me.
If you want more information you might contact Klanger@lps.esu18.k12.ne.us
(Kirk Langer) He is the Machintosh tech. for the district, wonderful and
over worked.
Barbara Fiehn, Assistant Professor
Mankato State University
Library Media Education
MSU 20/Box 8420
Mankato, MN 56002-8420
AOL: bfiehn
Internet: bfiehn@vax1.mankato.msus.edu
I like Foolproof because the desktop keeps the same
appearance. I've put the package of 3 products on my Mac at
school, but haven't read up on Undercover yet. Foolproof just
came out with a free update to the 2.5 version and if I
remember correctly is less expensive than At Ease.
--
Jackie Keith, Librarian jkeith@pen.k12.va.us
Battlefield Middle School 11120 Leavells Road, Fredericksburg, VA 22407
I have both At Ease and Foolproof for my MacIntoshs. I now much prefer
Foolproof as the screen looks the same as the normal screen without
protection software. Students in my high school easily navigate around and
I find that leaving aliases on the desktop for the most used items from
the hard drive makes their lives even simpler. Furthermore, when you do
need to make changes in your setup it is as simple as clicking a switch
after typing in your password!
Carole pub_holpat@midyork.lib.ny.us
Peter - please offer a description of Undercover, if you get one.
We use FoolProof successfully so far - but I wonder the features of the
other elements of the package.
We had to remove FoolProof and return to At Ease when we put the SLIP
connection on a MAC for the Internet and teachers have to have access to
the Control Panel to set up folders using Eudora.
It is not on my machine - and I am sad about these changes, since just
now I am comfortable with PineMail.
------
margaret mmccormi@services.dese.state.mo.us
Our school made the switch from At Ease to FoolProof and Undercover. We
haven't used it for a long time, only abt. a week. However, we definitely
like it better than At Ease. I am interested in responses from others.
Carol Van Deest Johnstown H.S. Johnstown, OH 43031 cvandeest@laca.OHIO.GOV
We have used Foolproof with happy success, but have not used the other
items in the package. This is a K-5 school, and Foolproof has eliminated
the major hazard of having little fingers use the computers - no
accidental trashing or applications disappearing.
Jackie George
jmgeorge@mirage.esd123.wednet.edu
Just loaded Foolproof on our Macs. Very easy to do and better than At Ease
because you don't need a password to get into finder. I do know from
previous LM_Net conversations, that the older version of Foolproof has been
broken by students.
Another program is MAC control but it is more expensive.
From: DavVic@aol.com
Peter - FoolProof is great! I wonder what's in the Oregon air that
produces such good software from near Portland! Digital Chisel is also a
great program, but for security, FoolProof package is great. We too have
just moved from AtEase to FoolProof.
Joyce Conklin jconkli@ed.co.sanmateo.ca.us
Hillsdale HS
San Mateo, CA
Yes, we use foolproof in all of our buildings. I like it because it gives
you the regular macintosh desktop. You don't even know it's there, unlike
At Ease. In the new version they've made some much needed changes, like
being able to eject a CD, and the image is also ejected. The support is
good and the price reasonalbe.
Miriam Mann
Sandy and Kelso Schools
Sandy, OR 97055
mem@teleport.com
We love Foolproof... particularly after having many problems with AtEase.
Our middle school hackers have not been able to crack Foolproof as
quickly as they did AtEase. It is also terrific to have the Mac desktop
still look like a Mac desktop. We are not having the compatibility
problems that we faced when we used At Ease. All of our software runs
smoothly now. Highest recommendation!
Kay Peterson, Media Specialist
Fowler Middle School
Tigard, OR ckpeters@teleport.com
We have Foolproof on all our computers and I love it. We also have used At
Ease. While the At Ease screen is easy for students to use, it is also very
easy to get around it. Foolproof is great because you can lock the chooser,
control panel, keep kids from dragging and renaming disks and files, etc. It
also gives you flexibility for choosing locations to save. Since I allow
students to save on our hard drives, they save to one folder and at the end
of the semester it is easy to dump the contents of that folder.
The one disadvantage to Foolproof is that you cannot lock files or
folders. However there is a new companion piece of software by the same
company that takes care of that problem if you need that.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me.
Katie Williams
Los Cerros Middle School
Danville, Ca 94526
kwillia@aol.com
Peter-
We have standardized on FoolProof for all our Mac's in our district.
We are very pleased with the protection it gives us. We looked
at the rest and chose the best!
***********************************************
Ric Wiltse, Director of Technology
East Grand Rapids Public Schools
Grand Rapids, Michigan
wiltser@mlc.lib.mi.us
***********************************************
Peter - I am at an intermediate school, networked with 130 Macintoshes
and I could not have survived without FoolProof! I have used AT Ease and
nearly went crazy fixing new buttons everytime you added something to the
hard drive (besides the fact you couldn't access CDs easily without
getting out of At Ease). The fact that the desk top and most functions
remain the same, give students a much better understanding of how to use
the Mac. We have just ordered the Screen Saver for all computers and I
hope the product is as effective and easy to use (and keep kids from
changing the settings) as FoolProof.
*********************************************************
* Pat Sebastian Alief I.S.D. *
* Librarian 6900 Turtlewood *
* Owens Intermediate Houston, TX 77082 *
* pgs@tenet.edu Phone: 713-531-1444 *
*********************************************************
We've had FoolProof Desktop Security on our Macs for over a year and have
been extremely pleased. No more renamed files or folders; no more trashed
files or applications; no more meaningless new folders; no more folders
within folders within folders. I have access to these features either by
turning off FoolProof with a password or "hot keys." And the look of the
desktop does not change. FoolProof has saved me hours of time and
aggravation that I had to spend "putting things back the way they belong."
I have not used At Ease, but am so happy with FoolProof that I would
reccommend it. I have not used the screen saver or the file security
program, but based on the performance of the desktop security program, I
would try it.
Romona Greeno
Cascade Middle School
Bend, OR
Romona_Greeno@bendnet.com
At Canterbury we have been using Foolproof and Screenplay for our Macs. We
love the program and have not had any trouble with student hackers or in
managing Foolproof. I don't know anything about Undercover. Our Macs are a
combination of LCiis and LCiiis, with one LC475 and one Quadra, all running
system 7. Foolproof works fine on all of them. I recently purchased a
Performa 630CD for the library running system 7.5 and have run into a few
quirks running Foolproof on that. Some of the features of Foolproof work but
not all of them. There may be command conflicts with AT Ease which came
already installed on the Performa. I haven't contacted SmartStuff yet so I'm
not sure how this will resolve.
P.S. If you check the LM_NET archives there have been a few pieces concerning
FoolProof which have appeared in the last months.
Kathy Bolster, Canterbury School, New Milford, CT 06776
katacant@aol.com
kbolster@csunet.cstateu.edu
We are using Fool proof on our MACs and they work great. We tried another
security program but it slowed down our individual CD-ROM drives to where
they were unuseable. One comment - in a non-networked environment, if
several people need to know the password, keep it _simple_.
Sharon Hutchinson
Howard County R-II
Glasgow, MO 65254
We have had a site license for Foolproof for about a year. We added
Undercover this year. Everything was going great until we got new
computers with System 7.5. Foolproof did send us an upgrade but we
are still having problems Writing Center{, a word processing program
for kids. Writing center thinks Foolproof is causing the problem.
I'm not sure. It just may be a combination of all three things
together. I hope we can work this out because both programs are very
good.
Hope this helps. We are a K-5 school with 1030 students. At this
point we are not networked.
Roberta Mann
mannr@freenet.fsu.edu
I am the computer coordinator (as well as the librarian) at a private
school of 350 students, K-8. We bought Foolproof from one of our parents,
who works for SmartStuff here in Portland. I have it installed on our 10
Mac lab networked machines, on the CD ROM machine that is also in the
library (along with the lab), and I installed it on the classroom Macs as
well. This after several years of reinstalling HDs, etc. I LOVE IT! I got
UnderCover as well, but haven't had much time to play with it. I'm waiting
for the screen saver brcause it will work with networked machines. I like
it that you can set machines differently according to need. Write me at
melisa_r@ppinc.com if you need more info.
Our libraries had either At Ease or no protection until recently, when I
installed Foolproof. We love it! Everything on the hard drive is visible
to the kids, but nothing can be moved, trashed, or damaged. It's a simple
matter to turn off the protection when I need to, and then turn it back
on.
We especially noticed the difference when kids used the CD-ROMs. With At
Ease, it was necessary to create an icon for the CD-ROM, etc., which could
be a pain because we used so many different ones. With Foolproof, the
desktop looks just the same as it does without Foolproof, and kids can
click either the folder or the disk. The kids also can't beat Foolproof
by holding down the shift key while booting up (which CAN beat At Ease). I
guess you can tell I'm sold on Foolproof. I haven't seen the rest of the
package. Hope this helps. Sylvia Adair, Library Media Specialist Lomira,
Wisconsin PaulAdairS@aol.com
It's interesting that this should come up, as our city has a license for At
Ease and I just helped a teacher load Foolproof on 15 computers this week.
All in all, Foolproof looks like a dream. It runs on sys. 6.0.5 or better
(At Ease need 7.0 or later), gives options for access and saving to disks,
etc. It gives the user a look at a real Mac desktop while maintaining the
integrity of file and folder names and their contents. Management of the
system is also easy--no adding aliases like At Ease. Hope this helps.
Tom Doering
Teacher Specialist
Instructional Techlogy
Norfolk Public ools
Norfolk, VA
I have just written a review for Technology Connection on the Foolproof
program from SmartStuff. I twill appear in the April 1995 issue i hope. In
the meanwhile I have been using it on all my computers at school and highly
recommend it. It allows students to see the desktop on the Mac but no
changes can be made in file names. Students can be allow to save to disks or
the hard drive according to the desire of the library media specialist ot
computer teacher. It allows for easy acccess to CD ROM that can be put away
with the open apple Y command. I would recommend a good password and not
allowing any students to know that password. I have a couple of kids that
I've allowed to know the password and it only has resulted in violations of
trust. It you would like a copy of the review I can send it to you. LEt me
know. Highly recommended.
Catie Somers
De Portola Middle School San Diego
SomersC@aol.com
We have tried the Foolproof desktop security software in several of our
buildings. The elementary schools have decided to keep it. However, our
middle and high schools have decided to go with "Mac Control" from BDW
software (800-726-5462). We like being able to see the desktop and let
students have access to their disks. Our students were able to break
Foolproof easily. We also tried At Ease but liked Mac Control better.
Gayle Collins
Northfield High School
Northfield, Minnesota
0659gac@informns.k12.mn.us
Foolproof works and is easy to install. It can be used in conjunction
with At-Ease for Workgroups. (I have not tried with with regular At-Ease.)
When a user is allowed into the Finder, they are in a limited Finder.
Foolproof works well with CDs because the user can see the CD drive
contents. Consider a district license for $500 for 50 copies with
additional copies just $10. I have not tried the SmartStuff screen
blanker. Michael Johnson
We have used fool proof at my school all year, both in the computer center
classroom and the 26 unit mac lab in my library. Overall, I've been
pleased. There have been minor problems; besides preventing students from
tampering with system files, it also prevents them from trashing their own
work, meaning I have to do it for them. It also must be unlocked when
installing new programs or upgrading, as we did to our old classics this
year. And you have to teach your students a new way to eject their disks.
It has been worth the minor irritations; last year I had to reinstall two
system folders! Good Luck with it! Mary Anne Schwartz, Louisville Middle
School, Louisville OH m_schwartz@sparc3.sparcc.ohio.gov
---------------
Whew! That's it! Looks like FoolPoof knows how to make school
librarians happy! Thanks again for your responses!
Best wishes,
Peter Milbury pmilbury@cusd.chico.k12.ca.us
....................................................
Web Page: http://www.cusd.chico.k12.ca.us/~pmilbury
Library Media Teacher / Mentor Teacher / Regional Telementor
Pleasant Valley High School, Chico, California 95926 Voice: 916-891-3060
Co-owner of LM_NET: Discussion Group for School Library Media Professionals
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