linux to windows access
 

hello there,
I wanted to enquire if its possible to access a client PC having windows OS from a server PC which has got LINUX OS installed.
i.e say If i have 3 PCs in a standalone LAN in which the server PC has LINUX installed and the other two client PCs have windows OS installed. To disable the use of mass storage devices on the server PC i execute commands which successfully disable use of USB enabled peripherals(mass storage devices). Now since i'm on a LAN i want to log on to the client PCs and disable the USB for forbidding use of Mass storage devices. Will these client PCs running on windows allow me to do so? Is there any method of accessing windows environment from a LINUX environment in a LAN to disable USBs. I was told a method hacking is possible.
Please help!!!!

...no offense meant, in any way; that has to be the most difficult, convoluted way to disable a mass-storage device on a network.

On the Linux server, you would set up Samba to allow networked Windows shares from the Linux box. Share the mass-storage device, and when you don't want people to write to it, unmount the drive, or close off the Samba share.

Disabling the USB interfaces is not only ridiculously tricky but could be somewhat dangerous and might piss off the clients if you do not re-activate their USB ports.

Yes, you can do such things with remote desktop software - for Windows to Wndows connection there also is a tool preinstalled into Windows (Remote Desktop Connection).

Here are some programs that halde more platforms (ie. connections from Linux to Mac or Linux to Windows): RealVNC, FreeNX, rdesktop and ThinLinc. Altrough, these are grapichal applications so you will ned a desktop enviroment installed to your Linux server.

Regards,
BIG_Yack