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Blue Coat Free K9 Web Protection Parental Control Web Filtering Software Review

K9 web protection logo
I have been using Blue Coat Free K9 Web Protection Parental Control software on Windows 7 Home Premium (K9 is also available for Windows XP, Vista and Apple Mac OS X) for a few weeks to filter out unwanted content related to adult entertainment, gambling, phishing, malware, spyware, and other categories which I am not interested in when I’m online. K9 Web Protection is a very easy to use program. K9 is the first parental control and web filtering software I ever used and installed on a home computer running Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium.

It only took me a few minutes to fugure out how to use and configure K9, so my web surfing experience is safer for me and everyone who uses my computer. If you know how to use Facebook privacy settings, or other social networking privacy and configuration settings, setting up Blue Coat’s K9 Web Protection Parental Control Software should not be too hard for you.

K9 does not slow down my internet or computer to a noticeable level while protecting my computer from malicious and unwanted content.

Best of all, K9 does not require you install a toolbar on your browser which takes up space on a browser.

K9 is very easy to use, you make changes to the settings via your favourite web browser like Internet Explorer by launching K9 by clicking on the desktop icon which gets created after you installed K9 on your computer.

main menu

Navigating K9 is also very easy with the built-in sidebar on the control panel after you log-in to the Control panel.

Changes Sidebar K9

It is very easy to block categories by using the default configurations like High, default, moderate, etc or you can set it to custom and make changes to how K9 blocks categories.

web categories to block

It is possible to block keywords in the link, so you would not be accessing links with specific keywords like “violence” which may contain violence or other tasteless content.

url word blocker

K9 Web Protection has been working very great as an extra layer of protection for my home computer. K9 works for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Chrome when I tested it on my computer. It is also very difficult to disable K9, if I use Task Manager (Ctrl+ALT+DEL) to stop K9 the whole internet does not work until I restart K9 or my computer. I also need a password in order to uninstall K9 or make changes to the parental control filtering settings. I also recommend blocking proxy avoidance category since savvy users can use proxy sites to go on blocked websites.

The user would be greeted with a Category Block message on their web browser if they try to visit a blocked category.

The User would need the password to unblock the site or category.

password

You can also choose how blocked websites are block. You can tell K9 to make a bark sound when a website is blocked, display the password protected administrative control panel, time out the internet when someone tries to visit block sites too many times.

How pages are block

You can also change your password and password recovery e-mail very easily within the K9 program, so you can easily change your password or recovery e-mail if a user hacks your password or recovery e-mail address.

change password and e-mail

K9 also makes all popular search engine only have safe search, so it is harder for users to use Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc to search for inappropriate content not suitable for their age.

Force Safe search

It is also possible to always block a website address, or always allow a website address like facebook.com .

allow and block website

K9 Web Protection also keep tracks of what website you or anyone else who uses the computer access or tried to access, and if the site got block or not with its logging features.

k9 stats log

You can also restrict the time spent online by turning off the internet at night or at scheduled time by just clicking the times you want to block with your mouse.

Time restrictions K9

K9 also has a lot of support if you do not know how to use it, there is a forum, FAQ, and Instant Support on their website at k9webprotection.com where you can also download K9 Web Protection free internet parental control and content filtering software.

The Links to help you use K9 better can be found in the help section of the program.

help resources

It is also very easy to check for updates for K9 since all you have to do is click the “K9 Updates link” on the sidebar in the Control Panel of K9.

K9 is a great if you or someone who uses have self-control problems, and waste too much of their time on social networking sites, or view content not suitable for their age.

Using OpenDNS to speed up your Internet and Filter unwanted content may also be another good option for you since it can block sites via DNS, so if someone uses their cellphone, laptop, Linux computer, Apple.

What is most important is to talk to your users on the computer on why you do not them to use your computer to view certain categories of content on your computer, and hopefully they can respect your decisions, and not use your computer for viewing inappropriate content.

You also should make sure you are running an updated antivirus, firewall, and anti-spyware program to protect you from harmful files and sites with have not been block by K9 for malware, and spyware because the site is too new to be categorized as unsafe.

2 comments… add one
  • erikhornung11 May 15, 2012, 5:19 am

    when the internet becomes your child’s playground, a lot of things you should consider, including activities in the Internet, whether the web is open every day, who is a friend frequently interact in a social network account, it is important to keep your child safe and comfortable play on the internet, many pornographic websites or websites that can disturb the mental and attitude of your child, make you afraid to let your child alone to play a computer with internet connection. There is a need of Internet filtering software which prevent child from unwanted email’s and websites.
    internet filtering software

  • Johnson Yip May 15, 2012, 1:35 pm

    I agree with your point. I feel in the future, or even now Children will use Apps rather then websites since it is harder for them to get redirected to an adult or violent site compared to a website with links, or a typo. Plus, Apps are safer because they are more closed off from the rest of the internet.

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