Free Net Nanny/ Content Filtering Software ?

JonathanAnon

Hi guys,

One of my friends has a kid who's been doing a bit too much "exploring" with Internet Explorer. Is there any free content filtering software that I could install to curb his porn viewing..

thanks..

As far as I know, K9 is one of the best (I'm open to correction on that). I friend of mine used it during his exams, and once he didn't know the password, he found it impossible to few anything he had blacklisted.

phill106

http://www.opendns.com/
New! Block adult web content with our free family web filter
The single easiest way to keep your kids safe online — and away from adult websites — on your home Internet for free. No software to install.

Learn more about FamilyShield or get started now

Lot of companies and home users use it now. Free and easy to use.

JonathanAnon

phill106 wrote: »

http://www.opendns.com/
New! Block adult web content with our free family web filter
The single easiest way to keep your kids safe online — and away from adult websites — on your home Internet for free. No software to install.Lot of companies and home users use it now. Free and easy to use.

What a great idea, filtering by safe DNS servers.. easy to configure a router as well... thanks Phil.

Capt'n Midnight

are there extensions for firefox too ?

also make sure they don't have admin rights on the windows box

is there a way to disable private browsing ?
or at least let them know that the internet history is being recorded


Also the simpliest way is to keep the computer visible, if they are alone in their room then you have no control, because they or their friends will find a way,

Fysh

This might sound like overkill but set an administrator password in the BIOS.

You don't need to restrict startup (though if the option exists you might want to consider it - means you'd know every time the computer's switched on), but you do want to restrict what devices can be used as boot devices. After all, it only takes a Ubuntu live disk or a Windows Password Reset disk to get around whatever restrictions you've enforced on the installed OS.

You should also check out this Mozilla KB page about Parental Controls for Firefox, which links to Microsoft pages about parental controls in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

homer911

All have their advantages and disadvantages:

K9 is great, but if you have multiple user accounts on your PC you wont be able to tell who has looked at what. You have unlimited over-rides, time based over-rides, over-rides by site and category and addtionally, time limits on internet access (MS Family Safety time limits apply to the PC, not internet use)

OpenDNS is great, and also applies to all wireless devices using your router, but if you have a dynamic IP address, you need to install the ip updater on the most commonly used account - it cannot be installed as a service - in which case if multiple accounts are in use, the IP address registered with OpenDNS may not get updated and you may not be protected when you think you are. You have a limited number of over-rides and no temporary over-rides

Microsoft Family Safety requires installation on each machine, but allows remote management and log viewing. There is no categorisation other than adult filter on/off

You could consider any combination of these, or even all three!

Ghost Train

I wonder can you get host file lists of porn sites and redirect them to local address so they go no where

would need to keep it updated though

JonathanAnon

I've actually been trying out the FamilyFilter from OpenDNS (link from the homepage at www.opendns.com), which just changes your DNS servers to 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123 ... BUT so far it hasnt worked.. The DNS servers work for domain name resolution, but not for filtering out the bad stuff..

Have a thread running on their site but nothing conclusive in solving it so far.

JonathanAnon

Ghost Train wrote: »

I wonder can you get host file lists of porn sites and redirect them to local address so they go no where would need to keep it updated though

Certainly a valid suggestion, and a method I used to get rid of the annoying ads on particular sites (by puttinh fake entries in the HOSTS files for the ad servers).. But updating the HOSTS file would be a lot of hassle for this purpose.

Capt'n Midnight

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Certainly a valid suggestion, and a method I used to get rid of the annoying ads on particular sites (by puttinh fake entries in the HOSTS files for the ad servers).. But updating the HOSTS file would be a lot of hassle for this purpose.

you can use a script instead of a HOSTS file
http://www.schooner.com/~loverso/no-ads/

JonathanAnon

Can any of ye try the above DNS servers lads, and see if they do the job for you.. I'm not sure if it's something to do with my provider and it intercepting DNS requests or something... that is preventing this from working..

It's meant to be as easy as simply a) setting the client DNS servers to 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123 or b) setting the router (with DHCP) DNS servers to 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123.

Doesnt work properly for me, All porn sites are resolved to the same IP address, but they all still come up in the browser.. (as if the IP address was acting as a proxy server for just the porn sites).

homer911

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Can any of ye try the above DNS servers lads, and see if they do the job for you.. I'm not sure if it's something to do with my provider and it intercepting DNS requests or something... that is preventing this from working..

It's meant to be as easy as simply a) setting the client DNS servers to 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123 or b) setting the router (with DHCP) DNS servers to 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123.

Doesnt work properly for me, All porn sites are resolved to the same IP address, but they all still come up in the browser.. (as if the IP address was acting as a proxy server for just the porn sites).

Have you created an account with OpenDNS, configured the filtering for the relevant categories and registered your IP address? Have you installed the IP updater? All of this is needed for porn site filtering. The IP updater will also tell you if you are successfully using OpenDNS.

JonathanAnon

homer911 wrote: »

Have you created an account with OpenDNS, configured the filtering for the relevant categories and registered your IP address? Have you installed the IP updater? All of this is needed for porn site filtering. The IP updater will also tell you if you are successfully using OpenDNS.

I'm using the FamilyFilter (linked to from the homepage) which is meant to work by just changing the DNS servers. And you dont have to set up an account.. This is the "version" that I want to run.

JonathanAnon

Hi lads,
just to let you know.. on my Three 3G broadband package, they seem to use some sort of proxy DNS which means that this wont work... My IP shows up as 92.251.255.13, yet all my DNS requests appear to come from 92.251.255.5.

Gonna try JammyDodgers suggestion instead.. K9

PorridgeHead

If you are just trying to Prevent kids accessing dodgy content, then a freebie filter like K9 might do the job.
If on the other hand you want to see what each child has been doing on the computer, without being a complete and utter Lurker, so that you can then discuss their activities with them (and set Parental Boundaries), the main children's charities in Ireland are all involved in the ReassureMe Parental Supervision Initiative.
There is a link on the Home Page of www.templestreet.ie which will bring you to the site.
It is a Hosted Parental Control system, which can be installed on up to 3 separate computers or Laptops, and Mum or Dad can see the activities of each user, and set the Content Filtering and Internet Access Time Controls for each user.... without even having to turn on the PC or laptop which the Kids use. Access it from any PC with an internet connection.
I check the browsing history every couple of days, from my office. Then I can ask the kids about This new site or that new game when I get home.
When they knew there was a Special Service there to protect them, then they started to listen when I asked them NOT to go giving out personal information on the internet.

By the way. It costs €49, and the Charity gets up to 44% of it (after Mr. VATman).

Simple and convenient. Highly recommended. and we are supporting Irish Children while protecting and teaching our own.

Capt'n Midnight

PorridgeHead wrote: »

If on the other hand you want to see what each child has been doing on the computer, without being a complete and utter Lurker,
...
By the way. It costs €49, and the Charity gets up to 44% of it (after Mr. VATman).

Actually the charity gets less than 20%

http://www.reassureme.com/?partner=templestreet

ReassureMe.com was founded to support children’s welfare. Should you purchase any Parental Supervision or Internet Security through this fundraising Initiative, 20% of the ex-vat price will go directly to our charity of the month to help fund their essential services.

Norton Safety Minder is free https://onlinefamily.norton.com/ so you can set limits per username (for defaults give the childs age) and donate 100%* of the price to the charity and monitor usage

*actually if you are a top rate tax payer and donate over €250 then the charity can claim back your income tax too so it's more than 100%

BopNiblets