Gallery: Protect children from unsuitable websites

We’ve created a link to the K9 Web Protection homepage at our own website. So, launch your web browser, type www.computeractive.co.uk/2203987 into the Address or Location bar at the top and hit Enter. When our website appears, click the link to be transferred to the registration area of the K9 website. To obtain a free licence code, enter your name and email address and click Request License. Click the ‘Download Software’ link and click the Download button underneath your version of Windows (2000/XP or Vista). Save the file to the Windows Desktop, then open your email application and check for the licence key sent by K9. If it hasn’t arrived within around 10 minutes, check your spam or junk folder.

Once the file has downloaded, close the web browser window double-click the installation file. It will be called either ‘k9-webprotection.exe’ or ‘k9-webprotection-vista.exe’. Click Run followed by Continue if prompted. At the first screen of the Setup Wizard, click Next. Read the licence agreement and click ‘I Agree’ to continue. Leave the default installation location as it is and click Next again. Enter the licence key from the email retrieved in Step 1 and click Next for a third time.

The program will ask you for an administrator password. This should be something only you know, and is difficult to guess. Use a mix of numbers and letters (consider substituting the number 1 for the letter ‘I’, or 5 for the letter ‘S’, for example). Click Next. Choose where you want shortcuts to the program to be placed and click Install. Once complete, leave ‘Reboot now’ selected and click Finish – the computer will restart. Once you’ve logged back in, the program shortcut will be on the Desktop and K9 Web Protection will now be protecting the computer from unsuitable web content.

To test the program, launch a web browser and use a search site such as Google (www.google.co.uk) to try to find web content that you consider unsuitable. If the program is set up correctly, you should see a message like this one appear. It explains why the site has been blocked, and allows the user to report the site if they think it has been mistakenly blocked. The override options allow you – the administrator – to view that restricted page, all restricted pages in the current category or any site regardless of its category. This can be a temporary measure – for 15 minutes – or a permanent one (not recommended).

To tweak the program settings to your individual needs, leave the web browser open and double-click the K9 shortcut on the Windows Desktop or Taskbar – the K9 Web Protection Administration screen will appear in the browser window. Click the Setup button. You’ll be prompted for the administrator password you created Step 3. Enter it and click Login to go to the main configuration screen. There are seven options to choose from, mostly concerning how websites are screened and which types are restricted (such as pornography, hate crimes or dubious sites known to harbour viruses and spyware).

The main section is ‘Web Categories to Block’. Pick one of four basic settings (Default or High should suffice), opt to simply log what sites are visited or click Custom to define exactly what websites are blocked based on a number of categories – just tick those you want to block. Click Save Changes to finish. To block or permit individual sites regardless of their site rating, select Website Exceptions and enter the site’s web address before clicking Add followed by Save Changes.

You can also block sites based on specific keywords – select the URL Keywords option from the left-hand menu, then enter each word in turn before clicking Add to add it to the list (words can later be removed from the list by clicking the blue cross next to them). By default, these words are listed as the reason why a particular website has been blocked – to suppress this message, tick ‘Do not show keywords on Block Pages’. Click Save Changes to finish.

K9 Web Protection also enables you to limit the time people spend on the internet. Choose Time Restrictions from the left-hand menu and a weekly chart will be presented, with the time split into half-hourly intervals. Select individual blocks by clicking them – to select a number of blocks, hold down the Ctrl (Control) key on the keyboard while clicking on each in turn. If you want to block off an entire region, click and drag the mouse button over the area you wish to block, then click Deny when prompted. Click Clear All to start again, or Save Changes to finish.

The Blocking Effects section enables you to customise the page that appears when someone attempts to connect to a blocked site. To prevent your children from trying to override the settings by guessing your password, untick ‘Show admin options on block pages’. K9 can make a warning sound when someone tries to access a restricted site by ticking ‘Bark when blocked’. Finally, tick ‘Enable Time Out Settings’ to penalise repeated attempts to access banned sites by prohibiting all web access for up to an hour based on the number of attempts within a set period you choose.

You can see what websites have been viewed by clicking View Internet Activity. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on this screen to see what category of sites people are visiting or attempting to visit. To find out more about the sites in a particular category, click that category’s name. Once you’ve finished, click the Logout button; note that if you leave the computer unattended for five minutes, K9 Web Protection will automatically log you out too – you’ll then need to enter your password to return to the last screen you were viewing.

You can see what websites have been viewed by clicking View Internet Activity. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on this screen to see what category of sites people are visiting or attempting to visit. To find out more about the sites in a particular category, click that category’s name. Once you’ve finished, click the Logout button; note that if you leave the computer unattended for five minutes, K9 Web Protection will automatically log you out too – you’ll then need to enter your password to return to the last screen you were viewing.