Blue Coat K9 Web Protection is a free web content filtering tool. The software has a surprisingly wide array of options that can be set to filter not only websites but also specific keywords and usage times. Parents and computer administrators should find this software to be an excellent alternative to other Internet filters such as Net Nanny.
Blue Coat has a team of administrators who manually categories every website that is in the filtering database. This database is hosted on Blue Coat’s servers from where client computers access it. In the event that a request to access an unrated website is made, the software will allow access by default. As a workaround, K9 can be set to automatically block unrated sites or the dynamic rating feature can be turned on. The dynamic rating feature tries to filter content using a software approach until a Blue Coat administrator can manually rate the site.
After installation, K9 is set, by default, to block rebel sites that carry p0rn, nudity, drugs and other offensive materials; the software’s administrator can then set his/her preference. Blue Coat K9 users also have the option of submitting new websites that aren’t currently rated and ask for websites, which have previously been rated, to be reviewed.
K9 does a pretty good job of integrating the “safe search” feature that many search engines, such as Google, have. The K9 “force Safe Search” feature works well to keep web search queries clean, by blocking search results that have keywords that K9 was preset to block. Since, most search engines allows the user to easily turn off safe search, K9 gives users an added level of protection by allowing the K9 administrator to force the use of the ‘safe search’ feature at all times; there is also a setting that can be used to block the use of search engines that don’t have a Blue Coat supported ‘safe search’ feature.
With K9 running on a computer, users will notice that not all the content from some websites will be displayed, even if K9 was set the allow the content. This happens if the website in question has content from another site that is blocked by a K9 setting. For example, if K9 was set to block video sharing sites, the user will not be able to see embedded videos from Youtube, even if viewing of the current site is allowed by the administrator.
This content filter can also serve as a web usage-monitoring tool. By turning off the website blocking settings the administrator can simply have K9 keep a log of the Internet activities on the computer being monitored. The activity monitor can then be used to display a detailed report on web categories that are being visited and the frequency with which the computer’s user are accessing those sites. The software can also be used to set time restrictions and disable all Internet services, if users make too many attempts to access restrict websites or categories. This is a powerful feature that can be used to thwart attempts to circumvent the monitoring software or to force users to consider the slippery slope they are embarking.
K9 Blue Coat Web Protection web content filter has a tidy set of features to manage, monitor and filter web content that is being view on a computer. Not only can the software be set to filter websites in general but also to filter specific keywords and also set restrictions on computer usage times. It is indeed a powerful tool that is sure to meet, and in some cases exceed the needs of a parent or computer administrator who is looking for a free content filter or parental control software.