Those interested in applying a web content filter to their home computer should check out BlueCoat’s K9 Web Protection. It is a tool I’ve used myself for several months now and I couldn’t be more pleased with it. Best of all, it’s completely free for home use.
There are several levels of security you can set. Their preset levels tend to be a little too constrictive but they’ve thankfully provided custom settings. You can tell it you want to block out adult/mature content, hate speech, illegal/questionable activity, and a variety of other topics just by clicking a few boxes. You may also enter in keywords you wish to block. Don’t want guests who use your computer to install a specific program? Simply type it in to the keyword blocking section, apply it, and save. Now access to the site that hosts that particular program will be denied.
The major negative aspect of the program is the same with every web content filter. It’s not an exact science. There are words and phrases that have both good and bad meanings which means a filter will sometimes block something that is harmless. If that ever happens K9 Web Protection provides a blank to enter your administrator password on the page it displays when something is blocked and allows you to unblock a specific site permanently.
This program does require a minimal amount of set-up after installing. Right away, you’ll be given a strict level of security and will be unable to browse very many websites before logging in to K9 and tweaking the settings. I’d recommend doing that immediately after installing the program.
To download the program or read more about it visit BlueCoat’s official website by clicking here.
November 25, 2008 at 7:55 am
A word of warning about this program. Everything is fine until it blocks the first website. After it blocks the website then it slows your computer down to a crawl and you can’t do a thing about it. Sometime you can get it back up to regular speed by restarting but not always. It will go back to regular speed in a few days without doing anything.
December 3, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Interesting. I have yet to run across this problem on my machines. I’m running it on several XP boxes and around 8 Vista laptops. So far, so good.
What kind of set-up do you have?
January 2, 2009 at 8:05 pm
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