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Porteus Kiosk in combination with Filezilla

Posted: 08 May 2015, 09:19
by Frank56
I am a teacher and I want to give a digital key (in PHP) to 200 students.

The students are not allowed to look at any other site than the site where they can see my questions.

The OS on the computers is Windows 7.

At home I have Linux Ubuntu. I have a download of Porteus Kiosk in my drive and I have seen all the options for Porteus Kiosk to control my own computer, but I don't see an option to control my site.

Do I have to install Porteus Kiosk on all 200 computers at school?

Or is there a possibility to control the 200 computers with my site (Porteus Kiosk in combination with Filezilla)?

Re: Porteus Kiosk in combination with Filezilla

Posted: 08 May 2015, 17:33
by fanthom
hello Frank,

do you want that your offline website was placed on every usb stick? it would be a hassle to update 200 PCs through ftp. maybe your site could be hosted somewhere and you would simply whitelist its URL in the wizard?

Re: Porteus Kiosk in combination with Filezilla

Posted: 08 May 2015, 17:42
by Frank56
Fanthom,

My website is hosted.

I am glad you give the possibility to whitelist the URL in the wizard.

But how can I 'communicate' with my host that the site only can be opened as a kiosk with Proteus?

I don't see how I can connect Porteus with Fillezilla.

Do you have a tutorial for this problem? I saw several videos, but no one gave me the answer.

Re: Porteus Kiosk in combination with Filezilla

Posted: 08 May 2015, 23:56
by brokenman
The OS on the computers is Windows 7.
Then your ability to control the traffic is severly limited.

If I am reading correctly you want that when someone turns on these computers, the only site available is an intranet site. The only thing a user can do is browse said site. Porteus kiosk is PERFECT for exactly this situation and I would suggest that you install it on all 200 computers. If there is a way to gain unauthoraized access, students will find it. Porteus Kiosk will nullify that problem.

Install Porteus Kiosk, whitelist your website only and remove the address bar and all ability to right click.

Re: Porteus Kiosk in combination with Filezilla

Posted: 09 May 2015, 10:52
by fanthom
@Frank,

please correct me if i'm wrong: you want to include FileZilla in Porteus Kiosk so users can connect to your site and upload/download PDFs/other documents from it. is this correct?
do you need firefox browser or just FileZilla?

if both then maybe i could create a custom build with FileZilla for you? please have a look on this demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J19K3hyj16I

you may download it from here:
http://porteus-kiosk.org/download.html#demo

you would get a bottom panel from which you could launch firefox, filezilla, or some other utility.

if you cant buy custom kiosk build then you could try to customize kiosk ISO yourself as described in documentation:
http://porteus-kiosk.org/kiosk-customization.html

replacing firefox with filezilla should be fairly easy if you know linux a bit.

Re: Porteus Kiosk in combination with Filezilla

Posted: 09 May 2015, 12:15
by Frank56
There is a misunderstanding.

I thought I could connect Porteus with Filezille so I had not to install Porteus on 200 computers. It would be great when I could control 200 computers only with my computer at home.

But that is wrong.

I have to install this programm on 200 computers.

I contact my helpdesk at school for the possibility to install Porteus on all our computers.

Re: Porteus Kiosk in combination with Filezilla

Posted: 10 May 2015, 08:38
by fanthom
@Frank,

please be aware that Porteus Kiosk in an operating system and not a program. if you install it on the hard drive then your Windows is wiped along with every data from this device.

if your PCs are connected through the ethernet (wired connection) then you could ask your IT department if PXE boot is an option:
http://porteus-kiosk.org/pxe-server.html
this way you would be booting over network and Windows installation would remain intact. PXE boot allows avoiding the hassle of installing the kiosk on 200 PCs and is very easy when doing upgrades (just need to update components in one place - your server).

if PXE boot is not an option then maybe kiosk could be installed on usb stick/flash card instead of the hard drive? i could prepare a preconfigured image for you (just tell me the kiosk options you want) and you could load the ISO on the device in Windows by using Win32 Disk Imager:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/
kiosk would be booting from the stick/flash card and Windows installation would remain intact. this method is also much faster than booting kiosk on every PC, configuring it and installing.

if removable media are not an option then you have to install the kiosk on the hard drive on every PC individually.

kiosk allows remote management but only for the kiosk system and not the content of your website:
http://porteus-kiosk.org/remote-management.html

please ask if you have some other questions.