K9 Web Protection for Mac

Pros

Effective filter, very customizable. Can limit hours, can cut off internet access if tomm many prohibited sites selected, Can set to bark loudly for filtered site. List of filtere sites always current. Hard to sneak around.

Cons

Stopped working with AOL browser 6 mos ago. Had used for a year, and suddenly it didn't work with AOL. Still works fine with IE. A problem is random barking if computer is in use or not. No remote reports or keyboard logging if you need those.

Summary

This seemed to be an outstanding product almost two years ago when i first started using it, particularly since it was free. I had started with NetNanny, which was great for censoring everything an enterprising child might search for, including covering up sexually related pictures anywhere in the computer's files. But NetNanny was too aggressive and even blocked the Wall Street Journal.

Then I tried K9 and really liked it. OUr setup is that grandchildren occasionally visit and use our computers, We don't need remote monitoring or keyboard logging, which K9 doesn't have. We wanted a good filter. And K9 is highly customizable. If you don't want the search engines to look for "panites", for example, you can block that word and as long a list of words as you like. You can also block categories like gambing, or terrorism, or whatever you wish. You can set it to block internet access at whatever hours you wish. The list of automatically blocked websites always seemed up-to-date.

Negatives: As noted above, K9 no longer blocks the AOL browser, meaning it is useless for us now. There is no way to engage is a dialog with the maker about this. (After all, you are getting it for free, but it would be most helpful.) And the random barking is annoying.