How to block Internet web sites with free parental control software
Posted on August 30, 2007 at 9:09 am
Are you on the lookout for a free web filtering and parental control software that you can use on a home or school computer to block access to porn, gambling, social networking, or spyware web sites? For most parents, controlling the time children spend on the Internet and the content they view is a real necessity to ensure a safe and clean browsing experience.
One great piece of software out there is Bluecoat’s K9 Web Protection, a very easy to use Internet and Content filtering solution for home use. The technology is based off their enterprise filtering technology used by Fortune 500 companies across the world. K9 basically divides web sites on the Internet into 55 categories based on the content of the site. You can configure which categories you want to allow and which you want to block.
K9 is also always up-to-date because it accesses Blue Coat’s large online database of over 8 million web sites with ratings. This service-based type of filtering means that K9 receives over 50 million requests per day, making it very accurate and very quick to pick up any new inappropriate sites. With the proliferation of porn and spyware sites, it’s essential to use a service that has a constantly updating database.
If K9 comes across a web site that it does not have in it’s database, it uses it’s patent-pending dynamic real-time rating technology (DRTR) to determine the category and rating of the web site using statistical analysis and artificial intelligence algorithms. According to the site, the technology is really good at blocking porn and adult-related web sites.
Finally, since this was taken from a enterprise product, K9 uses high-performance caching technology to ensure that web pages load as quickly as possible while keeping you safe at the same time.
To get started with K9, click on Get K9 Now at the top menu and fill out the information in order to receive a license key. The license key is free. Next, click on Download software on the left menu and install the software. You’ll be asked for the license key during the install. You’ll also be prompted to enter a password for the admin panel and to uninstall the program, so don’t lose the password!
Restart your computer and open K9. From the main page, you can View Internet Activity, change the Setup for blocked categories, or get help.
Click on Setup to choose the level of security appropriate for you. By default, there are about 20 categories blocked including social networking sites like FaceBook, MySpace, etc. If you click on show details, you’ll also get the recommendation for the which setting is appropriate for children of a certain age. For example, High is recommended for kids under 10.
Under setup on the left menu, you can also setup other restrictions such as Time restrictions, specific web site restrictions, blocking effects, keyword blocking, and emailing preferences.
Blocking effects is an interesting setting in that you can choose to “bark” when a site is blocked, show the admin panel to override a blocked page (useful for yourself), or block all sites if too many sites were blocked in a specific amount of time! 
Finally, click on View Internet Activity to get a detailed report of all web sites browsed and which categories they belonged to.
You can easily see which web sites were blocked and at what time by clicking on the red categories. You can do the same for the green categories.
When a site is blocked, you’ll get a short reason why and if you set the option to override, you can enter your password and choose to unblock it permanently or for a certain period of time!
Overall, K9 is a really nice web-based filtering solution that can keep your family computer safe from harmful viruses or spyware and keep kids from accidentally ending up on a really nasty site!
Enjoy!
[tags]how to block a website, block website at school, website filtering, internet and content filtering, site blocker[/tags]
» Filed Under Computer Tips
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hi this will very good for computer labs
they need to unblock myspace.com because we need to get in contact with our freinds I really need to check my myspace.com…….
thank you very much, your web site is great…..I needed to block any kind of porn!
@kayla
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Unblocking a blocked site by K9 Web Protection is easy. Just download “Baypass K9 Web Protection V4.0.XXX” from spyrozone.net. It can unblock all websites filterd by K9 without logging into the K9 Admin Panel.
is it possible to block all websites.. during a specified time..?
thank you so much!
This software is great for parents like me!
Wow this looks like great software. It covers all the bases for parents. How much does it cost? I have been using Open DNS for my filtering and I like it very much. It is free, you have no software to install, and you have a lot of different content options you can block. Plus you can use it on just one PC or you can filter ever PC that is behind your router. I even made a point and click instructional video on how to configure and use it. It is here.
http://www.helpviavideo.com/watch.php?vidid=38
Hello,
Can we change the blocking effects page in K9 other than the three given options?
I’d recommend TUKI (The Ultimate Kid’s Internet), a free parental control software for kids.
http://www.TUKI.com
Re: K9. Is there a way to block facebook or other sites using K9 after a certain time of day? One problem we have is that our 14 year old is starting to stay up later than we are and we’ve tracked him on facebook up until midnight! we don’t want to block it all together just after 10pm. Thanks!