Software : Kidswatch Internet Security Parental Control V5 |
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Rating:  - * Dissenting Point of View ... This product is very easy to install and configure. While the graphical interface is quite archaic, the functions are well placed and simple to use. For monitoring the amount of time someone spends on the internet or computer itself, the software excels. The reason for the 2 star rating is the fact that the company claims to have an effective system for protecting kids on the internet. This is a false claim and I will explain why. The software claims to have 2 systems in place for disallowing the computer user to surf to smut sites. One of them is general categorical site blocking, the other blocks everything except URLs the administrator manually inputs. The problem with the former system, blocking sites by category, is the it is too restrictive for general use if set to be safe, and not restrictive enough if set to be useful for general internet use. The second option is the one I was most interest in: the ability to block everything on the internet except sites manually placed into a "trusted sites" list. This is exactly what I did. I blocked everything except this list and made the list using young childrens' sites. Problem?? It doesn't work!!!! The software blocks everything and ignores the trusted list of sites. Very, very frustrating. Bottom line, this software is excellent if you want your kids to have limited time on the computer, it is completely ineffective for making sure your kids are safe while online. Thanks for reading! : ] Rating:  - * Useless ... The product was impossible to set up and ridiculously cumbersome to use. I returned it. Rating:  - * Does not really improve much on Vista parental controls ... good idea and easy to install and configure, but i could never get the remote admin feature to work, and too many normal websites like google and yahoo got blocked, and the limit on total hours feature assumes you login logout each time pc is used, it cannot detect actual pc activity, so if you leave the pc on, but dont use it, you come back to find out you are locked out. I have reverted to using only the Vista builtin parental controls which cover most of the bases. Rating:  - * Better Than Being the \"Screen Police\"! ... The kids can argue with you all day long about more computer time, but when the computer shuts down automatically after a pre-determined amount of time, it's final! I love this program. It's not quite as intuitive as I had hoped, but then again I'm no computer genius . . . Rating: - * Sounds good in theory ... This product probably works great, but I've not actually gotten it installed/set-up completely to thoroughly try it out. I want to use this on my Vista machine, and Vista is a bit foreign to me to begin with. I procrastinated in installing it after it arrived, and then when I did I can't say the installation screens were too clear on what exacty I was doing. Shortly after the install we started having problems getting to the internet. The computer would just chug and chug and chug. I'm not sure if this product was the reason, but I ended up uninstalling to try and remedy the problem and haven't gotten around to re-installing. I have two children ages 8 and 5. During the set-up I was prompted to set-up a password for each user. I'm not sure if I had to, but there weren't clear instructions on what the purpose of each field was, and whether it was required. Needless to say, the 5 year old was confused and required assistance each time he wanted to just use the computer to play a CD game. This became a bit frustrating for both of us. I'm sure this product is great-- I was impressed by previous user's reviews. I've just not been successful in understanding how to properly set this program up. |
A book that binds readers of great literature, The English Patient garnered the Booker Prize for author Ondaatje. The poet and novelist has also written In the Skin of a Lion, Coming Through Slaughter and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid; two collections of poems, The Cinnamon Peeler and There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do; and a memoir, Running in the Family.
