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Can anyone recommend parental control software (anti-porn)?


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Currently using openDNS as the filter which does ok when it works, but for some reason it resets every now & then & needs re-activating or something.

My brother is a bloody nuisance with the family PC. He's old enough to know better & should have consideration for others - he's not the only one using this PC. It runs laggy as hell with all the crap on it from all these porn sites.

So long as we're not talking ?500 software, what do you recommend?

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Netnanny has been around for years and is supposed to be quite good. Costs 40$ per year for 1 pc as per the website.

Have you also tried windows parental controls that is free and comes with windows . The windows 7 version of parental controls is supposed to be quite good when compared to previous versions. There is an article about this on wired.com , you may need to install windows live family safety for the web filtering features.

Also note that if you are sharing the same pc and using Windows 7 then the best would be to have a separate windows logon ID as well.

This whole process is free as long as you already have Windows 7 (as it is most effective on win7).

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I'm not sure how tech savvy you are. But if you are up for a little project you could build a firewall. Like http://www.pfsense.org/

Its a freebsd based firewall and it has a built in content filter that works really well. You can restrict sites based on their content and you can also block specific sites and restrict them to certain IP's within your network.

I have a PFSense firewall at home and love it.

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- regarding windows 7 ... it's a WinXP machine unfrotunately. The PC wont run Win7 well enough so buying Win7 is not an option either, and the same goes for upgrading. Thanks though.

- k9webprotection.com ... thanks, i'll have a look into that.

- netnanny ... We don't mind paying (a reasonable amount) but certainly not a 'per year' payment. It'd have to be a 1 off payment. I don't like these 'per year' payments at all.

- building a firewall ... sounds good, but unfortunately i'm not 'tech savvy' at all. Shame as it sounded like a good option

Then put the OpenDNS entry on that machine.

I refer you back to post 1 where i addressed this. It is setup & works well & then for some unknown reason, randomly allows access to the websites it was previously blocking & needs setting again. I don't know why. I want something that is ON and stays ON.
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Normally I would recommend a firewall with a content filter, or something like Dansgaurdian or Squidguard.

I have not heard of k9webprotection.com however it looks like it is worth a try.

Regarding your issues with OpenDNS. I'm guessing that you have a dynamic IP address? OpenDNS prolly stops working everytime your IP address changes. Do you have DNS-O-Matic setup? http://www.dnsomatic.com/

I know the following article is for a DD-WRT router, however the information in it might be useful to you.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/OpenDNS

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I've also asked on another forum & they suggest my IP changes each time i log on & that ther'es an installer from openDNS to work around this. Only thing is - i have this installer installed anyway.

I'll look more into the firewall thing & see if i can understand it.

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I've also asked on another forum & they suggest my IP changes each time i log on & that ther'es an installer from openDNS to work around this. Only thing is - i have this installer installed anyway.

I'll look more into the firewall thing & see if i can understand it.

Well best of luck to whatever solution you decide to go with. OpenDNS is the most popular choice around because it is free and easy. However it is not secure and easy to bypass.

There will be a lot to learn with building a whole firewall. And I do recommend it as the best, free solution however, If you don't have the desire to learn and get it done then don't do it. also if all you want is a content filter then a whole firewall is overkill.

If you don't do the firewall thing, but you like to tinker and learn. Then I would suggest building a linux box and installing Dansgardian or Squidguard on it. It will work just as well as a firewall would.

However, there is a lot to learn when setting these things up. If you want something that simply works, you need to look into why OpenDNS keeps breaking, or possibly k9 (i've have no experience with k9 so I'm unsure with it's ease of use).

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just because you setup openDNS on the router doesn't mean "your" computer needs to use the router DNS, you can still use yoru ISP DNS on your computer and have access to all that stuff you don't want your brother to have,

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Baseball bat is what I recommend!

Change router log-on key.

Then he will have to get his own internet connection and pay for it.

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Use the OpenDNS Family Filter on his pc rather than the standard OpenDNS with custom settings, this will eliminate possible IP changes from your ISP. OpenDNS Family Filter DNS servers are 208.67.222.123 & 208.67.220.123. Then set him as a limited user so he cannot change the settings and install Windows Live Family Safety http://explore.live....-programs?T1=t3 and you can block and monitor anything you want all for free.

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I went on the family PC to check to see if it worked still.

Tried a tame "page 3" site. Then something more extreme, then a gambling website.

it blocked them all.

I don't know how he was able to get onto the sites then.

just because you setup openDNS on the router doesn't mean "your" computer needs to use the router DNS, you can still use yoru ISP DNS on your computer and have access to all that stuff you don't want your brother to have,

How do you do this then?
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I have installed k9protection many of my client computer I have repair in the past as they request something filter out porn, malware sites etc... k9 does pretty good job at it.

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