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K9 web protection not working7/12/2023 ![]() 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. Pros: Simple to use wide range of categories.Ĭons: Limited functions not multi-user customizable.Ĭonclusions: Worth a look for parents unsure about filtering software.A year ago, Blue Coat's K9 was the only free parental control software other than the beta version of Norton Online Family. The biggest drawback is that the system doesn't allow separate user accounts, meaning it isn't much use if you have children of different ages. ![]() For example, you can allow a child overall access to social networking tools, but block it when they are supposed to be doing homework. ![]() One particularly neat tool is the ability to automatically set different controls at different times. They can also block any sites that contain particular words. Parents can manually add specific websites that they want to block. Though working with "block lists" such as this can give mixed results, there are some additional tools for extra protections. These categories include certain types of pop-up advert, so parents can use the program as protection for themselves! It works in a simple format, categorising websites into 69 different categories and letting the parent decide which categories should be blocked. Unlike some parental control software that works on applications such as chat rooms and instant messaging, this is solely a website blocking tool. That's not the case with K9 Web Protection, however: it doesn't do a great deal, but what it does, it does well. When it comes to free software, something isn't always better than nothing: "freebies" can clog up system resources and slow down machines.
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