parental control software?

snollup

Morning all,

I'm hoping that someone might be able to suggest some parental control s/w. Basically it's to try to stop a 15y/o accessing unsuitable websites (porn and the like). The o/s is Vista home basic.

Thanks.

minxie

find this quiet good
http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/

Thomas_S_Hunterson

If he's any way tech-savvy, then you probably just shouldn't bother.

Best solution in my humble opinion is to have the computer somewhere reasonably public in the house.

Overheal

you can try a free 14 trial of this: http://www.netnanny.com/

If your child is tech-savy they will always find a way around it though, sooner or later, in my experience.

Sean K hit the nail on the head though: keep the PC in a public area of the house. Bedrooms are a bad idea. Laptops even more so.

If it is a laptop you can confine its use to a particular area (like the living room couch) with this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BTO89Y assuming the laptop has a lock-slot.

as Minxie1 coyly suggests, sometimes the best and only thing to do is stop them from infecting the computer with crap and viruses altogether by installing an anti-virus package. Kapersky is good for that, as are Nod32 and Norton Internet Security. For free security there is also {AVG/Spybot/adaware} - i recommend the use of all three as a group.

snollup

Thanks minxie. I've just started to set the machine up, it's the bosses and it's the first time I've really seen Vistas. Just seen that there is parental control built in. Has anyone ever used it? Any use??? I see that the administrator can look at web activity reports for other users. Would I be right to presume that only the machine administrator can clear these???

Thanks again.

minxie

snollup wrote: »

Thanks minxie. I've just started to set the machine up, it's the bosses and it's the first time I've really seen Vistas. Just seen that there is parental control built in. Has anyone ever used it? Any use??? I see that the administrator can look at web activity reports for other users. Would I be right to presume that only the machine administrator can clear these???

Thanks again.

only on some....

Overheal

while i enjoy being a resident vista advisor here I havent had a need to toy with anything in the realm of parental controls or administration yet. I do know however that UAC (User Account Control) does a lot to stop the little buggers from installing or running crap they arent meant to. UAC wont do squat regarding web pages though.

edit: go to Star> Help & Support and read up the Article concerning the Content Advisor. Might be what you are after. Unfortunately the tool seems tied in to Internet Explorer, so you will need to disable the use of other web browsers on your child's account such as Firefox. UAC can already prevent him/her from installing firefox if you limit his/her account priveledges to basic level.

snollup

cool, hopefully if that part of uac works ok the parental control will also be ok.

Overheal

Assuming UAC is enabled:

Windows Help & Support wrote:

When you are logged on to Windows with a standard account, you can do anything that you can do with an administrator account, but if you want to do something that affects other users of the computer, such as installing software or changing security settings, Windows might ask you to provide a password for an administrator account.

did this to me on my dads effing machine: he had to type in his password for me no less than 2 dozen times while I installed what software I wanted for my account, but in the end as a parent it allows you to know exactly what theyre doing at every step because you have to be physically at the computer each time the system needs admin level access. He wont be able to install so much as a video game without your say so. Might be annoying but at least your being a good parent right?

Thank god they bought me this laptop a month later

calex71

Overheal wrote: »

If it is a laptop you can confine its use to a particular area (like the living room couch) with this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BTO89Y assuming the laptop has a lock-slot.

:eek: $32 for this lock , i got 3 for €6 in a euro shop in town only a few weeks back :pac:

PogMoThoin

What type of broadband have you got? Static or dynamic ip?

The reason I ask is that another way I use myself, is to block unsuitable content at dns level using OpenDNS. Its also free and easy to setup. Just add the opendns servers to your modem/router and create an account and set the type of content you want blocked. You can also add domain names to the block list...........bebo.com, etc

Overheal

calex71 wrote: »

:eek: $32 for this lock , i got 3 for €6 in a euro shop in town only a few weeks back :pac:

go for it. im not an amazon shill :rolleyes: