Filtering software

Here's another option for filtering software on your computer - McAfee Family Protection.
http://home.mcafee.com/store/family-protection
https://home.mcafee.com/secure/cart/?Ba ... cPriceID=0

There is a $45. discount available until 12/31/2011. Use the promo code: familyprotection. After discount the price drops to $5.

I've never used this. For $5 it may be a good option for someone who wants to try it out. They also have a version for mobile devices like ipod/iphone/android.

I would recommend http://www1.k9webprotection.com/ it's free, and very flexible. We have used it for about a year, and several ward members are now using it. I heard about it from a Seminary Fireside. It's fantastic.

I tried k9 for a while and it didn't seem ready for prime time. Maybe it has improved. The best and easiest way, in my opinion, is to use opendns.com. Has good filtering capabilities and if you set the DNS on your router, all the computers in your house are covered - no software to install.

I've found K9 to be more reliable than any of the other home products, including any that may be from Websense, in fact, Websense overblocks sometimes, especially if they find a lot of problem content sites on the same IP, they'll block the whole IP, even if there are some good sites on it.

But K9 goes on a site-by-site basis. And one other thing, if you have only used it a short time, it is possible you are hitting a few sites they have not rated yet, since the web changes rapidly, and since it is user-driven that way, after using some sites for a short time, they will rate them and the whole community, 75 million total between business and home users, will benefit.

You want to be sure to choose to use the dynamic rating upon setup, as it will catch a lot more than they have already rated in the way of problem content. That is a feature that none of the others have, so unrated sites will either be unrated or get a dynamic rating before you get to them and you can also choose to block unrated sites.

K9 works good but requires installation and maintenance on individual machines.

OpenDNS has a nice online interface but changes have some lag and it only protects your network.

MobiCip for iPhones works well. Unfortunately, Apple does not make any provisions for replacing your default browser so the total user experience takes a slight hit. Settings are per user/device and are maintained centrally online.

Norton Safety Minder is another nice option with support for Mac and PC. Administration is located centrally online and can be accomplished via iPhone App. Options range from filtering to monitoring only.

nbflint wrote:OpenDNS has a nice online interface but changes have some lag and it only protects your network.

Assuming that no users have manually entered another DNS for their system. Good for "oops" protection, but not against a determined teen.

Anti-Porn 17.2.1.11 (for Windows) Anti-porn parental controls -- A very poweful and effective software to protect children from porn web. Anti-Porn filters out adult web sites, which with objects not fit for children, and even filters out chats when offensive and predatory language is used.
google: Anti-Porn 17.2.1.11. (download available thru CNet .. 14 day trial free; and Paid less than $30.)

My experience with this comes from being a programmer and having callings as internet safety specialist. If I've missed something, it is because I don't know much about networks other than setting them up.

Currently I use a combination of OpenDNS and a custom host file.
I like OpenDNS because I can point my wireless to it and now anything that connects to that router is protected. The host file hides most of the ads that show up on the side of the browser window many of which I find offensive. Host file modifications are more advanced (Windows) stuff.

Tried NetNanny for a while and it seemed to work pretty good, but cost money and can be gotten around by installing a virtual PC.

Tried K9 for a while and it didn't seem to do anything. Better than nothing though.

Anything can be gotten around by a determined person. The idea is to throw enough barriers in the way, that getting through them outweighs the so-called benefits. Use a variety of systems concurrently. Change passwords often, don't write them down.

brandonrobertgriffin wrote:I like OpenDNS because I can point my wireless to it and now anything that connects to that router is protected.

Well, anything that uses the DNS suggested by the network. If the device has it's own DNS settings, or if the user connects via IP instead of a name, there's no protection at all.

That's where good third-party filtering software comes in and any is better than none although I've found K9 to be the best for blocking inappropriate content. Others may be better for blocking malware or other nasties, but most are relatively good.

Outside of K9, some of the 'free' ones are known to have a lot of holes, and those that speak about web filtering do not recommend those due to that, since they don't have a team usually that can trap the bulk of the bad sites and add them to the databases, but K9, since it is built on another enterprise-class product, does trap a whole lot more than most of the 'free' ones do.

For antimalware, the same rule applies for the most part, but for that, there are many good solutions, one good free service I've heard about is Cloud Antivirus, you can actually see what malware has been caught most recently on their website, but can't quite remember the URL for that. AVG Free and a couple others also work quite well too.