Re: LYNX-DEV Chatting with Lynx

[David Woolley]

Firstly, your From: line is illegally formed.  Domain literals are generally
discouraged, but if present should be in [].
> 
> patrons are using our terminals to "chat" rather than searching.  Sometimes
> they'll chat with the person at the next terminal.
> 
> My question is, can we disable the chat feature, and if so, how do I do it.

There isn't a chat feature, so we need to understand exactly how the system
is being attacked.

Three possiblities spring to mind:

- They are using a chat service on the web, such as that provided by 
  geocities;

- they are abusing the email sending capabilities of Lynx to send mail;

- they are escaping to the operating system and using an operating system
  feature.

The second seems unlikely, as Lynx isn't a mail reader, and you shouldn't
have individual mail accounts.

The solution to the first is to filter out those services in a proxy -
almost certainly you will benefit from using a caching proxy in any
case, although the level of benefit will depend on the extent to which
certain sites are popular, and the extent that the popular sites don't
frustrate caching (some outright commercial sites do this and so do some
ISPs providing "free" web space - academic sites are very unlikely to
do it deliberately).

The solution to the last is to make sure you have a good kiosk type 
installation that doesn't allow them to escape from Lynx - in extreme cases
you may need the latest development code to get round known security problems.
This case really needs more detail, although be a little circumspect as
you may be teaching people how to break the security.
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