Ok, so we're all familiar with the inherent dangers with VPNs, right? Especially if we as administrators don't have control over the remote PC. Who knows what viri / malware / spyware it might be infected with, just itching for the chance to have an open door into your LAN. Now granted, Windows 2003 let's us use VPN Quarantine, but it's not quite where we want to be with quarantine services.
Of course with us SBSers, this isn't that big of a deal since we have Remote Web Workplace. We don't need VPNs nearly as much as we used to, as users can simply access their XP Pro PC via the RWW website. However, I'm sure you've all noticed that little option users have when they connect to their office PC:
“Enable files or folders to be transferred between the remote computer and this computer“
Now I understand why this functionality was added - because I have used it once or twice. However, what if you're a little extra paranoid and want to err on the safe and not allow your remote users to have this option? Well - there isn't any easy GUI way to disable this - but we can hide this option with a few manual edits.
First and foremost - realize that this is not an offically supported hack - but it does work, and with a little fore-thought, we can get ourselves back to a supported config pretty quickly if needed.
1) On your SBS, navigate to c:\inetpub\remote
2) Find the selectpc.aspx file and make a copy of it.
3) Rename the copy you just made to selectpc_original.aspx
4) Open the selectpc.aspx file in notepad.
5) Find the following group of lines in the file:
<asp:CheckBox TabIndex="5" id="checkConsole" runat="server" CssClass="optionText"></asp:CheckBox><BR>
<asp:checkbox TabIndex="6" id="checkConnect" runat="server" CssClass="optionText" Checked="true"></asp:checkbox><BR>
<asp:CheckBox TabIndex="7" id="checkDrives" runat="server" CssClass="optionText"></asp:CheckBox><BR>
<asp:CheckBox TabIndex="8" id="checkPrinters" runat="server" CssClass="optionText" Checked="True"></asp:CheckBox><BR>
<asp:CheckBox TabIndex="9" id="checkAudio" runat="server" CssClass="optionText"></asp:CheckBox><BR><BR>
(watch for line-wrap. Each line should start with <asp:CheckBox )
What we want to do is move the middle line to the bottom, edit the TabIndex values on the lines so they're in order, and set the visible flag on the "checkDrives" line to false. The reason we move the "checkDrives" line to the bottom is that if we don't, we'll still see a blank line where this option normally appears on the Remote Web Workplace. So, you want this group of lines to look like:
<asp:CheckBox TabIndex="5" id="checkConsole" runat="server" CssClass="optionText"></asp:CheckBox><BR>
<asp:checkbox TabIndex="6" id="checkConnect" runat="server" CssClass="optionText" Checked="true"></asp:checkbox><BR>
<asp:CheckBox TabIndex="7" id="checkPrinters" runat="server" CssClass="optionText" Checked="True"></asp:CheckBox><BR>
<asp:CheckBox TabIndex="8" id="checkAudio" runat="server" CssClass="optionText"></asp:CheckBox><BR><BR>
<asp:CheckBox TabIndex="9" id="checkDrives" runat="server" visible=”false” CssClass="optionText"></asp:CheckBox><BR>
(again - watch for line-wrap. Each line sould start with <asp:CheckBox )
That's it! Save the selectpc.aspx file and try it out - no more option to connect drives. And of course, if we need to return to the original configuration, it's simply a matter of renaming the selectpc_original.aspx file to the default selectpc.aspx and you're good to go.
And before anyone asks, no - I'm not aware of a way to configure this per user :^)