Program to control what others do on pc?

[t_jay17]

Is there any programs that can control what people can do on my pc like blocking certain sites and stopping them from downloading things or installing things?

[guns1inger]

Yes, although most can be worked around by anyone with any knowledge.

You can stop them installing most things by giving them their own account without any administration rights. They can still run things that don't need to install or access other areas of the system, but it limits the damage they can do. If you want to block access to certain websites you can either install a local content filter like bluecoat k9, or you can look at doing something at the router level. Many modem/routers support blacklists so you can nominate sites to block, or block messenger access etc. Limited, but it may be enough. Or you can use a service like OpenDNS. The advantage to these options is that you cannot bypass them at the PC. The disadvantage is that they affect everyone using the network.

[t_jay17]

Are there any that block by profile on the pc and not by the whole pc?

[guns1inger]

If you are happy to install something locally, then some of them do it. You would be looking for something like net nanny or similar. Some only do content filtering - website blocking - others also allow for time controls and program controls. The range is much lower than a few years back. They all had different issues. They were either difficult to set up properly across multiple accounts, too much of an effort to maintain, and all of them slowed browsing down - in some cases by a lot.

This will get you started : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_content-control_software - search for "Parental Control Software" to find more

I looked at a few a while back, but as we now have multiple computers in the house, I have settled for OpenDNS so I don't have to manage software on every machine.

[computeguy]

try this www.safeeyes.com

very good program does it all an does it well

[Safesurfer]

Norton Online Family lets you configure online use by profile and is free to use. https://onlinefamily.norton.com/familysafety/loginStart.fs

[t_jay17]

Do these filter by profile on the program or on the PC?

[Safesurfer]

The Norton app is by PC user logon, so you would need a separate logon for each person you want to control.

OnlineFamily.Norton identifies who is using the computer based on which account is used to log on.

[guns1inger]

Hopefully Norton have improved their product a lot. I used it for a while, and found it to be OK, but a memory hog and it slowed down browsing. Then they changed the way it worked in the next release, and things like content filtering were across all accounts. Obviously they responded to the crap they caught for that stupid decision, and have gone back to account level control, which is an improvement.

However, all the software only based solution I have looked at either had an adverse effect on the system, slowing browsing and making internet use too painful to bother, or were simply a pain to manage. Some also have unforeseen interactions with other software. Example : Some versions of Net Nanny break some versions of Outlook, stopping Outlook from properly closing, and therefore stopping you from opening it again without using task manager to kill the original instance or rebooting the machine.

I am also dubious of many of the companies that produce home content filters. While those that have large corporate involvement (Norton etc) are reasonably objective, most of the smaller, domestic products come from companies that have specific ideologies behind them. You should carefully investigate the background of these companies to ensure that these ideologies fit with your own. In the early 90's there was a quite a stir when some of the major players in the then very early market place went to war on each other, accusing the opposition of putting their sites in the blacklist, thus restricting potential customers. It all became very ugly and left a lot of doubt as to just impartial and objective these blacklists and whitelists were.