Hey guys,

So there is a member in our house who is looking up porn on one of our brand new computers. Just like a "Lady of the Night" these are good places to pick up bugs. Do any of you know of a good program that is free for download to block such sites, Thanks in advance fore your help!

Try https://onlinefamily.norton.com/familysafety/loginStart.fs
This is a free download from Norton I use it on all our home computers, works with Win & Mac

Mike

Your Broadband Router may have a URL content filter access setup page on its Firewall. This will allow you to remotely control content on all/individual clients on your network.

The BEST thing you can do in that case is to use a different browser, anything other than Internet Explorer and Firefox. And make sure you keep everything up-to-date (especially Flash). Most of the anti-virus software out there is useless against the current spyware/malware threats that are the most common. They do nothing but waste PC resources. Using a different browser (Opera for instance) will keep any of the browser specific bugs (those that target a specific vulnerability in a particular browser) from affecting you, as the people writing these things generally target IE, and Firefox.

If you really want to stop it, download a Linux LiveCD, confront the porn viewer, and tell him to use the LiveCD to boot into linux to view his porn.

Blocking the "popular" sites will only stimulate a lot of creativity in finding workarounds or other sources of the material. Which do you want - someone who visits a few sites on a regular basis or someone who visits A LOT of different and NEW sites to find what you're trying to block him from finding? To me, at least, it would seem that the risk of infection is proportional to the number of new sites visited...


Either take the bullet by the horns (actually talking to this person...) or find a way to lower the risk (securing the browser, system etc). Porn is not the only source of malware/spyware/grayware/adware/whatever-ware, so any steps towards increased security is well advised anyhow.

free to download, i use avast. its security but it does not replace common sense. helps when i am trying to find info for a paper and catch one of those interesting links. to lock the sites for free i would use the firewall settings. but i would only allow access to sites that i had approved.

if you are looking for a better firewall than the tissue paper windows version i would look here and search for "firewall" its free.

standard disclaimer. not affiliated. just am happy with the site.

Ditch windows, go Ubuntu, rest easy.

I would suggest that you use OpenDNS
http://www.opendns.com/solutions/household/

Also consider creating a hosts file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm


How would that stop anything? Only "advantage" using a Linux Live CD in this context is that it will not leave any trace of the surfing history.

The spyware/viruses/etc won't run under linux the few that do its easy to prevent them from doing so. Thats how it will stop it.

Thats depends on the level of filtering on the Routers Firewall and the feature set. My Vigor 2100 router has the ability to deny web based requests for ActiveX, Executable files, Mulimedia files, Cookies, Java, Proxies etc as well as key word denial and accepting IP subnet ranges. Along with the time scheduling a reasonably robust filter can be setup which will be more tricky to disable if physical access to the router is denied. As with any filtering even with the programs which run in the PCs background the same issues apply, the end user of the PC will be just as creative in finding a workaround (and will have physical access to the computer) The user of the PC may have admin rights (or have the ability to gain admin rights, if they know what they are doing) and will quickly be able to disable or modify the web filtering security software. BTW no web filter works perfectly, far from it. Opera browser is also a good idea, which is what I use.

Good video showing the security features of the Draytek Vigor 2820 router.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6qIiYk6Lkc

I missed the part about him wanting to block access to the sites. I was only referring to stopping the spyware/malware threat.

Porn sites are no more likely to have malware than a lot of other sites. Most anti-virus software does a good job of protecting you against such threats as long as they are regularly updated.

Chances are any attempt to use technical means to prevent access to porn will fail. Your 12 YO kid has more time to learn how to get around those means, then you have to learn how to block him.

I think you need to look at this the same way you would look at him bringing home a "men's" magazine. You can't prevent that either.

Are you willing to subject him to regular humiliating and degrading searches (electronic or physical) to prevent him accessing these kind of materials? If so, feel free to proceed. But know up front you will almost certainly fail, and you need to figure out what you are going to do when you find out just how bad you have failed.

Here is a freebie that works OK to block porn and other categories of websites:

http://www1.k9webprotection.com/

Just how does such a piece of software prevent accessing porn, when it is trivial to bypass it?

Think booting from a USB or other drive, so this kind of software never gets a chance to even startup.

And what is to prevent a kid from spending $79 on a netbook that you don't even know about?

I can't tell if you want this person to stop visiting porn sites or not: if you don't want porn sites visited from your PC, create user accounts for each person who uses it, and require passwords to logon - don't leave an account open without a password requirement. If this is your PC, you control who logs on: if its a common PC intended for random logons, set some new rules for use. Either you want the porn visits or not, just decide. fwiw if you don't object to the visits, I think a $79 netbook or a $249 desktop for your little diddler would go a long way towards addressing this issue: let the person mess up their own PC, not one used by others.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys and gals. We are going to go with and easiest/stricter approach. NO unsupervised pc time. ie, pc password changed and will stay locked unless someone is home. The pc in ? is already in the living room so it being unlocked only during hours of family occupation will solve the problem right quick.

And to touch on what a few of you had said, previously there was family trust so only 1 master account for everyone. I have to set up the computers in the house and am by know means a master at it. I dont feel that one bad egg should make me have to set up user accounts for each person (I then have to go in and help each person set up their individual settings, etc) So the bag egg just loses the privelage. Had to step back to think about it, sometimes the easiest solution just works.

Off topic:

Where can I get a decent netbook for $79 that you all keep talking about?

Long gone are the days when a photograph of the Duchess of Arbroath without a hat on was enough to maintain not only a stiff upper lip, I'm afraid.

Great advice. On my 'serious work' PC I have gone that way. Takes some getting used to but once set up it is pretty much bulletproof and so reliable and trouble-free, compared to Windows, that it is scary.

If rally must use Windows, my online beater PC is running Windows, I recommend you start by switching browsers to Mozilla Foxfire. That alone stops a lot of problems. Fortify Foxfire with Adblock Plus, Better Privacy, and Request Policy as ad-ons for added security. Also set Firefox up to clear all, cookies, cashes, history when shut down.

Of course the PC needs protection from a firewall, I used Zone Alarm but the free version has become nerfed to the point that it is not much better than the firewall included with Windows. Comodo firewall is both free and highly rated. It does more than most.

A good anti-virus program is vital. A decent free one is Avast Anti-virus but there are others. If you are wiling to invest a little money you can get better.

Spybot Search & Destroy and SpywareBlaster are Anti-spyware/malware programs that are well rated and free. When checking them out be careful of the spelling. There are programs that sound-a lot like Spybot Search & Destroy that are malware.

As I understand it porn sites are not the greatest source of viruses and bugs. Porn site owners have a pretty powerful incentive to keep their sites free of viruses and malware. Any site that gets a reputation for being infested tends to get blacklisted and loses traffic. It isn't good for business.

Many viruses and nasties get spread through e-mail and downloads. Particularly small downloaded Flash games and widgets that claim to improve PC performance, check for bug, and ironically, scan for viruses.

Do NOT take any recommendation at face value. Not even my own. Check any recommendations against sources you consider reputable. CNET and, other online magazines with well known authors are generally reliable. You may not like the programs they like but they are not likely to steer you into a trap. Generally a Google search of any program and a bit of digging down will make it clear which sources are scams and which ones gold.

If your intent is simply to protect your computer from damage, but still allow Mr. Porn to view his websites, boot from a Linux LiveCD and do not mount any harddrive partitions.

If you want to block Mr. Porn and turn him into Mr. Family, I hate to say it, but nothing much is going to work for you. Unless Mr. Porm is exceedingly computer-dumb and you are exceedingly computer-smart. It would be trivial to bypass anything you might set up. Mr. Porn could simply choose to boot with that same Linux LiveCD mentioned above and go surfing away, no matter what you set up on the computers harddrive.

If you want to allow Mr. Porn to view his websites, and you want to protect your computer, and you want it to be running Windows - sorry Charlie, no way on that one. You can add a ton of software, causing all kinds of conflicts and slowdowns, and end up not much better than you were in the fist place.

Well... You could install VMware and then install a linux guest. You could surf away with impunity on the guest with no risk to the host machine. Maybe a little more work than its worth though.

But I do agree with the general fact that adding all the spyware blockers/av software and so on is counter-productive to the point of ludicrous. The amount of resources that most of these products use is higher than than most spyware. You can stop most all threats by not using IE, not using an email client and using a web email interface, not opening attachements unless you are expecting them, and only downloading stuff from reputable sources.

Back to Ubuntu - I love the actualy multi user setup. EVeryone can have their passwords saved, etc, but since everyone has their own user account it is all encrypted. Whoever is looking at porn could save all their porn in their encrypted home folder and no one else could even see it (even an admin!) unless they have that users password. Beautiful, technically.

Security on a good router.

AVG Free for Virus.

AdBlock plus on FireFox, and disable IE for their user account.

MalwareBytes to clean it out/maintain.

I`m sure youcan do more those were just on top of my head.

Not totally true. A good admin - who knows how to use /proc to access memory directly, and the dd command - can catch you in the act. You may have things encrypted on disk, but they are unencrypted while in memory. Also, a good admin can access every keystroke you make and gain your password that way.

Basically, it's tough to unencrypt something static (on the harddrive). So you wait for the user to do the unencrypting for you and then pounce on the unencrypted data while it's in ram. Or you use keylogging or man-in-the-middle techniques to covertly steal their encryption key and then have your way with them.

You are never safe from a good admin!

And yet one of the first things I do on Windows boxes that are running slow is to do a simple cleaning. CCleaner is pretty good and it is free. Followed by install a few select programs. Even after the cleaning it is not uncommon to end up dumping a good amount of malware, viruses. Invariably once removed the machines are much faster. The actual overhead of most of these programs is minimal, often little more than the space used on the HD. This is because they are not active until activated for use. I usually even turn off the auto update features. It means you have to remember to update them, once a week is usually good enough.

The burden of running a Windows machine is that it is vulnerable to this sort of thing. And always will be. And IE cannot actually be entirely disabled if you're running a current Windows OS. You could do it in Win95, perhaps early incarnations of Win98, but it was subsequently integrated so it could be claimed to be 'part of the OS'. Thanks MS. You can restrain it and keep it from doing certain things but it is always there. An endless series of back doors that can never be entirely sealed shut.

I was going to suggest getting a subscription to a reputable porn vendor. The porn will be better quality than what can be found for free, and the risk of malware is negligible.

Worked for a small company where I was one of the two IT people. Boss came in one morning and said he got some malware on his computer, where does that come from and we both said porn sites at the same time.
I've actually had to clean more crap off from people who use yahoo services than anything else.

Do you want to block porn? nannyware
Do you want to resist malware? Anti-virus. ( the free ones are often just as good as a subscription)

and then there's mac.

[quote=TeacherRO

and then there's mac. [/quote]

^^THIS^^

Once you go mac, you never go back.

Don't fall for the buy a mac stuff, for one thing the cost is still too high, the limitations too great and service and company still treat you like crap. Despite all the magazines rating them so much higher those of us in IT see that they have just as many issues, just different ones. The surveys where they get their information are flawed because when they survey people they usually get the home user who bought the cheapest pc the retail store had and don't hear about the thousands of them in the corporate world.

Yeahhh maybe they're priced a bit high..... but they're so much more fun to use!

In all seriousness though. Of course Macs have their own issues that are different from PC. I haven't seen any of the yet *fingers crossed*, but it only makes sense that they ARE there. And I'm sure that a very large portion of PC problems are actually USER ERROR, not pc error.

*Macs are prettier
*Macs are great for the home user (I have no idea about office job people, I guess not really.)
*Macs are fun

I used PCs for years, until recently. I don't regret the convert. It's just so much more interesting.:) For me, anyway. I don't do much with it besides schoolwork, internet, photography, music, etc.

I'm sure pc will continue to dominate the market, though. It's perfect for you IT and corporate types.

I really dislike the Apple vs PC debate since people always end up making odd comparisons (on both sides). I won't convince Eugene, but I will at least try to present a balanced view.

Cost: Apple does not offer a system at every price point. They are a single company and their focus is not on selling the most units and fitting every possible niche. For systems with similar capability (Hardware and included software) and characteristics (the ever nebulous quality - see below) they are very price competitive. Of course if you are already invested in windows SW, there will be more cost jumping to a different SW ecosystem. Similar debates come up on knives, flashlight and other HW, usually without as much "heat". It all boils down to what is good enough for you.

Limitations: In general, Apple hardware and software has very few limitations and the argument can easily go the other way in some contexts since many professionals rely on software that only runs on Apples MacOS. As I noted above, Apple is not interested in every possible niche so will not be addressing some perceived needs. Vague statements don't help others make decisions so if T_co or others have specific questions/concerns about limitations I will try to pass along what I know.

Company reputation / Customer service. Anyone can have a bad (or good) experience with any company. Personally I, and the people I know have all had good experiences the few time we have needed support from Apple. While not proof in any way, it does at least align with all the various surveys of customer data. Keep in mind, Apple is primarily a retail provider of computers (well electronics) to the public, not businesses. The quality of Apples support to businesses (which is not where they market or make money) is not really relevant to discussion of how they support retail (home) customers.

I also think it is unintentionally ironic that you state that apple is higher priced, not worth it in on statement and immediately follow it up with noting that most people buy the cheapest thing possible at some big box store while talking about support and quality.

I have worked with a lot of PCs in a corporate/engineering environment. The best built (non Apple) PCs, the ones we buy for labs and server farms, are designed (and built) as well as the Macs I have taken apart. They use lots of custom designed internal components, from circuit boards and Flex circuits to structure. Lots of attention has obviously been paid to thermal issues along with design for assembly and maintenance. The stuff we pass out for office equipment is closer to what the typical home PC would be like and the hardware quality (a combination of design, parts selection, attention to detail in assembly) does not come close to what Apple offers. Both approaches produce working hardware platforms (most of the time) but their is a real difference in value between the approaches (at least for me).

There is no winning the Mac vs PC debate, since choices like this are personal, just like choosing a knife or a flashlight. All we can do is provide information to others about our experiences and let them make the best decision for their circumstances.

oh, and trying to stay at least loosely on topic. Firewalls/routers won't solve the problem since you will need to put a lot of effort staying ahead of the surfer. I like the idea of limiting hours of access (there are software solutions that do this for windows, and built in to MacOS) and keeping the computer in a public place. User accounts with logging would be another good way to at least have some objective records of use for future discussions on what is and is not appropriate behavior.



- Eric

Disclaimer: I don't see myself as a Mac or a PC person. Think back to the old Dilbert cartoon about the UNIX guy. I keep waiting for everyone to get a real computer (and yes this does date me pretty badly).

I was trying to be somewhat brief by not going into too much detail but trying to post a little info to show that the grass isn't always greener.
I myself don't like Windows or Mac, my "pc" hardware runs Linux.

Understood. Looks like I am a bit challenged with "brief" today.

- Eric

A live CD will also acquire no malware - a virus vanishes when the surfing history does.


That's what the HTTP CONNECT method (secure https:// pages) is for: to keep a router from sniffing for malware.


This is my approach to security now except that I use VirtualBox instead of VMware (VirtualBox is free for noncommercial users).

In addition to malware this also helps prevent "barnacles": various software like drivers, plugins, utilities, updates, etc, that you maybe tried out, or maybe got downloaded by some program anyway. My host system only has four programs installed - VirtualBox, SpeedFan, PuTTY and TightVNC - and about 20 VMs where the action is. Internet Explorer is disabled in the host.

Unfortunately you need a high degree of nerdhood in your soul for this to be practical.

Just wondering ... why did you choose Windows as your host rather than Linux or some other *nix variation?

Virtual box works well. I used vmware workstation back when I transitioned to Linux and now vitrualbox if I need a windows OS. Linux does make the better host, the difference in memory management becomes noticeable.

Windows makes a very good dumb graphics terminal.