Blocking Chat programs

[Lumpy II]

Anyway I can completely block chat programs such as MSN msger, Yahoo, AOL??

mostly worried about msn but when they realize they cant use msn they might move on to yahoo and/or AOL

[lufbra]

Your question is a little confusing, what do you mean by "blocking" them, blocking them from what?

[oracle128]

There are hundreds of instant messengers. There are several websites that will allow chatting on these networks without installing the software. It's not possible to block all of them, but there are a few tools around that will let you prevent any application from installing. Limited Accounts in Windows XP theoretically prevent any software from being installed, and will probably block the major ones like MSN/Live Msssenger or Yahoo IM, but it doesn't work all that great, and many instant messengers can run without installation. You might even look into making them use Guest Accounts. But either way, there's still the web-based IMs to worry about - blocking all of them is impossible, and a black-ban-with-opt-in system doesn't work as effectively regarding viewing/blocking websites, as it does with installing/preventing installing applications.

There are software packages around that will do a decent job of restricting and/or monitoring PC activity (Net Nanny and the like), but these usually cost, and nothing is 100% effective. As always, the best system is to monitor children manually, like you would in any other activity.

[Lumpy II]

Your question is a little confusing, what do you mean by "blocking" them, blocking them from what?

blocking from being used

in other words I dont want MSN on my computer

[Brian Stevens]

You can always uninstall Messenger. Trouble is they can always download and reinstall unless you:-

Give them a seperate "Limited account" on the machine.

Password protect access to your or any other "Computer Administrator" user accounts.

Block Messenger etc in your firewall settings.