K9 Web Protection

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET Staff on November 07, 2008

For a free Internet filter, K9 Web Blocker does its job well, providing a broad collection of options for customizing your remote Web supervision needs.

To run the program, you must register on the Web site to get the free activation code. The control panel is accessible only through the Internet. Uninstalling requires removing the app from the Task Manager, then using its password to delete it from the Windows Control Panel, and finally, rebooting. Because the password gets sent to the e-mail account of the person who registered the program, it's possible that an enterprising user could disable K9 on a shared computer.

Despite those drawbacks, K9 comes with a handful or so of predesigned filters and an option to customize. With more than 50 categories for organizing Web sites, and the keyword-free proprietary K9 rating system, the Web monitoring and blocking aspects of the software functioned well. K9 also has categories for blocking sites that have been detected as potential malware threats. Equally impressive, and a little bit scary, was the log that detailed not just blocked Web sites but also every Web site visited.

K9 Web Blocker is a good, free program for those who are concerned solely with Web surfing, but the lack of a chatware filter leaves some holes for predation.