[Nolug] Unsecured wireless networks with everybody's favorite OS

I have an issue with a client, I was wondering if any of you have ran
into this before, and if you know of any way to prevent it. I've done
a ton of research, and have gotten nowhere.

My client has a secure internet connection. A lot of their employees
have laptops. They have a filtering device that blocks viruses,
spyware, spam, etc from getting into their LAN, plus it blocks the
users from accessing inappropriate sites from work.

The problem is they have a neighbor with a wide open wireless AP, so
the employees just get on that and can then do whatever they want.
I'm not sure if they're doing it intentionally, or it could just be
Stupid Windows (TM) being insistant on connecting to SOMETHING. The
fact that they can spend all day on myspace or looking at porn is the
minor issue, the major issue being that it is an opening for malware
to come into their network, not to mention that it's possible for a PC
to route traffic between its WAN and LAN ports, so it could possibly
become a security issue as well.

>From what I can see, there's absolutely no way to do it, which is
insane. Windows has a group policy that can block acess to ad hoc
networks, but that's about as far as it goes. Apparently MS believes
that an AP is far more secure than an ad hoc network.
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Received on 07/29/09