My sister recently received her own laptop for Christmas and I'm already going to hook her up security-wise (antivirus, scheduled daily scans, etc.). But most importantly, I want her stay away from inappropriate websites and such. Does she need a filter + what is the best thing to put on her PC dealing with this? I'm the most tech-savvy in the house so I'm the go-to guy for security and I just want to keep my sister safe. Thanks
K9 Web Protection is good choice in my opinion. Has alot of choices so it is easy to set for custom use and the history of what it has blocked could be a plus.
Like @Chromatinfish 123 suggested, I would go with Adguard. However, another idea would actually be going through certain sites and blocking them through use of the Hosts file. If you wish to know how to block certain websites using the Hosts file, follow the on-screen instructions I have written out for you:
METHOD 1: MANUALLY BLOCKING WEBSITES
On Windows there is a file called the "Hosts" file located in a folder, organized with all the other Windows files. Any URLs specified with the localhost IP address, will be blocked. When you encounter a website which is in the Hosts file, all you should get is a empty page. That's it. No alerts or warning... Just a empty page. This also helps prevent the user from discovering why the page is being blocked. For example, if there is a warning about a product blocking it, they could then continue to Google a way around this. However, by default a normal user with no experience to computers and this sort of stuff should be clueless to getting around this, hence there being no clue to why the site is blocked. Works great! You could also check if the file has been modified, once in a while.
Tap the Windows Key + R at the same time.
When the RUN dialog appears, paste the following without the "" "c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc"
Open up the "Hosts" file in Notepad++ or any text editor.
Starting from the bottom line available, you can start to blacklist sites (one site for each line) by 127.0.0.1 followed by the web address. For example, you could add:
Code:
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.com
Ad.Doubleclick host advertisements. You may also have to add the other domains such as .be, .de for ad.doubeclick too as they host on other domains representing the country domain, too. However, you can replace that "ad.doubleclick" with another website. "inappropriate" websites you want blocked, basically. You can do this line by line. However, this method would mean finding the sites yourself.
METHOD 2: USING GOOGLE SAFESEARCH
Assuming you are using Google (she is using Google and not another search engine) you could also try a method AS WELL as other methods as this is not as good, but enabling a feature on Google called "SafeSearch". This will basically attempt to re-filter results, removing the explicit sites it can filter out from being displayed on a search.
Once it's loaded there should be a check box "filter explicit results". Tick it.
After this, there is a feature which allows Google to use a cookie to try to prevent someone from turning this off unless they are signed into the Google Account (profile) which enabled it. Therefore, make sure you're now signed into your Google Account. Then, tick the box. Then, next to the check box (or you may call it a "tick box"), hit the "Lock SafeSearch" link.
After doing all of the above steps, to finish off, scroll down to the bottom of the preferences page and hit "Save". This will save your settings and maintain your configuration for SafeSearch.
Explicit/Sexual results should now not be listed in Google. You can do some tests yourself, it works well.
NOTE: If you use Bing or Yahoo! just say and I can give instructions for using their safe search on those search engines too.
Thanks, hopefully you find the correct solution! [/SPOILER]
Like @Chromatinfish 123 suggested, I would go with Adguard. However, another idea would actually be going through certain sites and blocking them through use of the Hosts file. If you wish to know how to block certain websites using the Hosts file, follow the on-screen instructions I have written out for you:
METHOD 1: MANUALLY BLOCKING WEBSITES
On Windows there is a file called the "Hosts" file located in a folder, organized with all the other Windows files. Any URLs specified with the localhost IP address, will be blocked. When you encounter a website which is in the Hosts file, all you should get is a empty page. That's it. No alerts or warning... Just a empty page. This also helps prevent the user from discovering why the page is being blocked. For example, if there is a warning about a product blocking it, they could then continue to Google a way around this. However, by default a normal user with no experience to computers and this sort of stuff should be clueless to getting around this, hence there being no clue to why the site is blocked. Works great! You could also check if the file has been modified, once in a while.
Tap the Windows Key + R at the same time.
When the RUN dialog appears, paste the following without the "" "c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc"
Open up the "Hosts" file in Notepad++ or any text editor.
Starting from the bottom line available, you can start to blacklist sites (one site for each line) by 127.0.0.1 followed by the web address. For example, you could add:
Code:
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.com
Ad.Doubleclick host advertisements. You may also have to add the other domains such as .be, .de for ad.doubeclick too as they host on other domains representing the country domain, too. However, you can replace that "ad.doubleclick" with another website. "inappropriate" websites you want blocked, basically. You can do this line by line. However, this method would mean finding the sites yourself.
METHOD 2: USING GOOGLE SAFESEARCH
Assuming you are using Google (she is using Google and not another search engine) you could also try a method AS WELL as other methods as this is not as good, but enabling a feature on Google called "SafeSearch". This will basically attempt to re-filter results, removing the explicit sites it can filter out from being displayed on a search.
Once it's loaded there should be a check box "filter explicit results". Tick it.
After this, there is a feature which allows Google to use a cookie to try to prevent someone from turning this off unless they are signed into the Google Account (profile) which enabled it. Therefore, make sure you're now signed into your Google Account. Then, tick the box. Then, next to the check box (or you may call it a "tick box"), hit the "Lock SafeSearch" link.
After doing all of the above steps, to finish off, scroll down to the bottom of the preferences page and hit "Save". This will save your settings and maintain your configuration for SafeSearch.
Explicit/Sexual results should now not be listed in Google. You can do some tests yourself, it works well.
NOTE: If you use Bing or Yahoo! just say and I can give instructions for using their safe search on those search engines too.
If you are dealing for a suite like Kaspersky, there's a parental control feature to configure well to avoid any inappropriate websites besides of malware / viruses.
But picking K9 Web protection is a good choice and fully around web filter version.
