![]() ![]() (If such inspections cannot be carried out because the password has been changed, there is obviously a problem.) Inspection every three days, or perhaps at random, should deter any such actions by users who have somehow gained control of the This includes enabling specific or general access – and any sites visited during all-access sessions. The last 3 days of administrative actions in K9 cannot be deleted (unless perhaps one can locate the file they are stored in – I don’t know). Internet access in another location, the purpose of having a filter may be somewhat defeated, especially considering the possibilities for saving or creating access to objectionable content.)Ģ. Failure to do so is failure to properly filter. Categories including sites that might inform one as to how to disable their filter should be blocked. I found out how to break thru on the internet, but if you think whoever it is won’t go through the required steps to break through that took a half an hour, go ahead and install it.”ġ. “Well, I can first hand tell you that I had K9 and I broke through it so well that it was under my own password and I could unblock any site for like an hour and no one would know. Have someone else – TAG, perhaps? – set the password (K9 has an option to allow you to block specific sites without needing the password).įilters are not foolproof, of course, but that hardly seems a con – I don’t know if anything is absolutely foolproof. ![]() Speaking of which, you obviously cannot have control of your filter. (You can get many filters – K9, for example – for free*.)Ĭons – Your access to something necessary may be restricted, and at times, it may not be possible to reach a technician to allow the necessary access. Neither of those is fully prevented from occurring by a monitoring system, and I assume this is important from the viewpoint of halacha. Pros – You are forced to define your standards before any use of the Internet, and cannot access anything problematicĪ) accidentally or, for that matter, B) intentionally. As such, it's fine for younger, less tech-savvy children, but not for teenagers.Filter (K9 is an example, and in my experience has the best, though not foolproof, information about and detection of inappropriate sites): However, although it blocked access to proxy software websites, it was defeated by proxy software already on a USB stick. K9 forces the use of search providers' safe searching option, successfully blocking inappropriate searches, and it also prevented us from downloading an instant messaging client. It's a good idea, but it underlines the importance of choosing an administrator password that can't be guessed by your kids. Here, it’s possible to provide the administrator password for access to either that site or the entire blocked category for a limited time. At these settings, its blocking performance was good, although it did allow through many of the self-harm websites on our list.Īs with all parental control software, accessing a barred site causes a notification page to load in your browser. Other than this limitation, its web interface makes it easy to configure, and allows you to set the categories of site to block, to schedule web access and enforce safe internet searching, but the defaults are quite sensible. As such it's not particularly well suited to a shared family computer. K9's filtering settings are global, affecting all users of a given PC. Once installed, the software is administered through a password-protected interface that's available to any user – we'd prefer the extra security of limiting access to computer administrators only. There's no facility to block other programs or limit whole-computer use according to a schedule, and although the Blue Coat website suggests that a future version will include filtering for chat rooms and instant messaging, the features weren't included in the version we tested.Īlthough K9 is free, you still need to register to receive a licence before you can use it, and you need a new licence for each computer you want to protect. It's immediately at something of a disadvantage because, unlike the other two free packages, K9 protects users only against unsuitable web pages. Its impressive web filters helped it win our Budget Buy award, but it now competes with two other free packages: the release version of Online Family and Microsoft's Family Safety. A year ago, Blue Coat's K9 was the only free parental control software other than the beta version of Norton Online Family. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |