Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Decent, low-cost web filtering software.

I was wondering if anyone here had any insight as to a good, low cost web filtering software package for home? My kids have been stumbling on to sites, with me sitting right next to them, that aren't "kid friendly". It seems like it is happening more and more, even with a Google search, a simple mis-spelled word can send them to a "bad" site. I honestly don't think that they are looking for things, it is just that some of the searches return sites set up by people who like using their freedom of speech to spew swear words and post adult images on any and all topics. My 14 year old sees it most when researching current events for her government class. So much "hate talk" surrounding politics and government.

Anyway, we've got a few PCs so I would hate to have to buy a package for each PC if possible (like a site license), but if it was cheap enough, that would be great!

Thanks!

Hi Nick, this is just a comment rather than a software recommendation. I agree with you on the fact that there are a lot of questionable articles/pictures on otherwise 'innocent' websites. On Yahoo's homesite, and I've seen many such articles, were rather graphic articles about what pleases the opposite sex...no warnings about content ect. We all know how many kids go on these sites, I really don't know how one would control such things from their kids when sites like Yahoo are doing this. There were, by the way, a lot of complaints directed at Yahoo over that, but I can imagine young kids who read these articles, asking their parents...what does it mean when...? Hope there's something out there that can help you though.

I am going to give K9 Web Protection a test drive today. It is free for home use, and gets decent reviews on C|Net Downloads...

Scratch that. K9 Web Protection doesn't work with Windows Vista 64... I even tried running in XP compatibility... Dang...

Are you running Vista? If so, have you tried setting up the parental control features? There is a Windows Vista Web Filter in there that you can setup. Assuming you aren't letting them run as admins (you do have them as standard users, right?) You can either set a medium restriction level for them, or you can do your own custom filter if you want to pick certain areas they can't get to. I haven't used it much myself, so I can't vouch for how good of a job it does, but it certainly fits your low cost requirement, since it is free/included.