AOL @SCHOOL

by The Datapharmer

As many of you may or may not know, America Online has been working on its AOL @SCHOOL project for quite some time.  It is currently in one of its last testing phases before mass release.

They claim that the purpose of this project is to provide all schools Internet access for their students in a safe, controlled environment including access controls that can be customized to fit the students' maturity levels.

In actuality, it is a way to censor the Internet and monitor student interests.  After all, AOL will know the ages of the students, their geographical locations, and their interests (based on email and Internet monitoring).  They use a proxy server to monitor all traffic through the program, and, in fact, this same filter is used on their regular users.

The noted purpose of this proxy is to determine whether or not to allow a website's content to be displayed.  If it is considered "unsuitable," the student is presented with a "blocked website" message.

The entire program is actually just a slightly modified version of AOL.  The sign on options are AOL @SCHOOL Member or Become an AOL @SCHOOL Member.  If you are already a member, it simply gives you a modified guest sign on screen, and allows you to use....  Well, I haven't quite figured that out yet what it lets you do.  Almost every keyword is blocked, all websites I would bother with are blocked (including anonymizer type sites), and Buddy Lists are not even available.

Or so it seems...

After getting pissed off that I had a T-3 hookup and couldn't do anything with it (they removed Internet Explorer and blocked access to about everything else in Windows), I simply went into My Computer, put in the web address, and it instantly turned into Internet Explorer.

That wasn't fun.  That is all I could think of, so I took a closer look at AOL @SCHOOL and grabbed a copy of the serial number/signon code (which is school specific).  When I got home, I installed AOL as bring your own access, and logged onto my service provider.  I then set up AOL for a new member, put in the serial I got from school, and voilà, I had an AOL @SCHOOL account.

O.K., now what to do: Let's look at the menus AOL provides for us (I have found AOL 5.0 easier to use in this situation than 6.0).  I managed to get into parental controls, as it was only restricted in a couple of ways, and changed all of my settings so it would allow me access to Buddy Lists, etc.  This was still really limited, so I created a new screen name, and gave it general access, made it a master account, and enabled everything.

I then managed to get into the Buddy List setup (you may have to play around with keywords and buttons a little but it isn't too hard) and put my own screen name on the list.  This ensures that it will show up when I sign on at school (since it isn't really available there as a feature, but is hidden within the legacy code of AOL's program).

I now have access at school (legitimately through the program the school provided me), access to any website, chat room, Buddy List, and almost every keyword I wish.  Keyword "news" is restricted, go figure.  Who would want to have news available at a school anyway?

AOL is still as terrible as ever but it kept me amused for a while at least!

I am sorry for not being able to provide the serial number but it would give away my physical location as it is in limited testing right now.  It should be widely used soon.

I hope that those of you who must submit to this cruel form of punishment will be able to take this knowledge and have a little fun exploring AOL.

Just remember your ethics.  Don't do anything to someone else's system you don't want done to yours!