Web Site Protection

My previous posts have been about how to protect your device from malicious software. The web also contains content that is also inappropriate for children. We do all we can to teach our children how to avoid it and what to do when they come across it. This isn't always enough. Accidents happen and search engines sometimes return inappropriate content. To help fight this there is an impressive technology called Web Filtering.

A common Web Filter and one that works well is called K9 Web Protection. It is a free application that is easy to install and configure. There are versions for Windows, Mac, and iPhone/iPod/iPad. I have tried the Windows version and it works well. Their site says that they are working on an Android version. The install guides you through step by step. At one point it asks for a password which you make up. Remember this password because you will need it to make any configuration changes or to temporarily bypass a website if you need to. Once the program is installed you can open the configuration by going to Start->All Programs-> Blue Coat K9 Web Protection->Blue Coat K9 Web Protection Admin. This will open up in a web browser. From here you can look at the Internet activity or modify any settings by selecting SETUP. With in SETUP you can select what types of web categories to block including Nudity and Pornography. You can also set Time Restrictions on when the computer can be used to access the Internet. When a page is blocked, K9 Web Protection displays a page that says it was blocked and gives you the option to Allow this site for a specific amount of time as long as you know the password(you created it when you installed the program). There are many more options that can be configured and if you need any help setting it up, feel free to comment or message me.

As I mentioned earlier you can also view Internet activity for the computer. When you first click on the View Internet Activity link it takes you to a summary window that lists the categories that have been visited. By clicking on the category you can see what sites were visited and at what time it was visited.

This program is a computer wide program, not user specific. So if you have one account that Parents log on to and one account that Children log on to, both accounts will have the same access to the websites. The only way around this is to know the password you use to setup the program and input it to bypass the blocked web page.

If anybody has used other solutions or have any other comments on this topic, please comment.