Net Nanny Review

Price
$39.99 (subscription)

Trials & Specials

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Pros: Synchronize settings between computers, manage settings from any Internet connection (remote management), windows user integration for automatic login, time restrictions, spectacular reporting, simple to use, but can provide very granular customization. Installation was easy, settings can be imported and synchronize across all computers, and no configuration required.

Cons: Poor Internet Game management. Privacy protection services are only available in the Net Nanny 5.5 suite. Download is fairly large (recommend purchasing backup CD if you are a dial-up customer). May require you to disable your firewall. Requires computer restart before settings can take effect.

Summary
With a robust feature set including: remote administration, email notifications, image-safe-search, chat monitoring/blocking, Internet game blocking, time-restrictions and plenty more, Net Nanny 5.5 receives our #1 rating.
Net Nanny 5.5's Internet filter offers simplicity of local or online management, giving us the ability to use it out of the box or quickly create multiple users for each family member. We did notice that the online-games listed were not among the most popular in the U.S. and needs a lot of work. Their enhanced reporting (remotely or locally) allowed us to drill-down to see all web and chat activity with a beautiful interface.
Net Nanny 5.5 uses dynamic filtering in conjunction to list-based technologies, making it far more accurate than any other solution. Net Nanny 5.5 blocked 90% of the objectionable web sites tested and Over-blocked on only 15% of the “safe” web sites tested.

Installation/Setup
Net Nanny 5.5 was very easy to download and install. With a footprint of 15MB it took a few minutes to download on a Broadband connection (May take 10-20 minutes on dial-up). If you have never installed Net Nanny 5.5 you are asked to create an email address, an administrator's password, and a password hint. If you have installed Net Nanny 5.5 on another computer it will import your settings automatically.

Before Installation can complete you are prompted to restart your computer. Upon rebooting your computer Net Nanny 5.5 requires no configuration and is reconfigured to begin filtering automatically in default mode. Also, if you purchase Net Nanny 5.5 Suite you can scan your computer for objectionable material including: images, videos, web sites visited, text files, etc. Or you can purchase ContentCleanup separately if you just want to scan your computer for objectionable material.

Management
Net Nanny 5.5 can be managed locally (from your computer) or remotely (from anywhere with an Internet connection). You can manage your settings by clicking the Net Nanny 5.5 icon on your desktop, from your start menu or by clicking on the Net Nanny 5.5 icon in the task bar (beside the clock in the bottom right corner). To manage your settings remotely you can do so by visiting http://manage.netnanny.com

Net Nanny 5.5 gives administrators the ability to create/customize multiple user profiles or if you choose to use default mode you can use the same settings for everyone that uses the computer (One size fits all). Net Nanny 5.5 also gives administrators the ability to: Edit User profiles, Adjust filter settings, manage time controls, disable Internet games, create email notifications, view reports, and much more.

Accuracy
Administrators are given the choice to filter on 29 different categories. Each category can be set to Block, Warn, or Allow for each user. Net Nanny 5.5 comes with 7 preconfigured blocked categories including: Pornography, Gambling, Intimate Apparel, Adult/Mature, Drugs/Alcohol, Illegal Activities, and Hate/Violence.

What are Parental Controls?

Today I wanted to talk a little about Internet Filtering and Parental Controls. I wanted to answer some of the questions I've been asked by friends and family. Who uses Parental Controls? Who needs an Internet filter? What are the best filters available and what's the difference between them? How much should I spend?

Before I jump into these questions I wanted to start with What is an Internet filter (aka Parental Control, Net Nanny, web filter...)?
An Internet filter is simply something that sits between the Internet and the end-user, which filters "objectionable" content. Most filters allow parents to determine what is objectionable including: Pornography, Violence, Adult Language, Gambling, Lingerie, Drugs, Alcohol, Weapons and so forth. Net Nanny, for example, blocks these categories by default and allows parents to customize settings if necessary.

Who uses parental controls?
Everyone and anyone. The real question is why they use Internet filtering. Most people I've talked to use it because something bad happened on the computer. Like what? Little Johnny's friend came over one night and searched for boobies on Google and mom walked in. Mom doesn't want Johnny looking at that stuff and decided to put a Net Nanny on the computer.

What's that, you need another example? I understand, here's one more. Dad enjoys looking at random funny stuff. Mom and Dad are religious and believe that pornography is not something they want in their home. Dad does a quick Google search on celebrity jokes and clicks the third link found on the page. To his dismay he is attacked with 100 pop-ups of nude celebrity pictures. Mom walks in again (she must have some sixth sense) and now you have 10 years of marriage counseling and a second mortgage. So to reiterate, who uses parental controls, it's important that everyone, whom doesn't desire objectionable content in their home, have some sort of Net Nanny.

Who Needs an Internet Filter?
Need is the keyword here. The perceived need usually outlines or fulfills another need. For example, a school that needs government money may be required to have Internet filtering on all of their computers. Or a home that needs a father figure may be required to have a filter because Mom won't stay with dad while he stays up late surfing porn. We all need filtering companies to exist to protect our freedom of speech, give the family control of what's allowed in the household. Otherwise the government will take that role (China).

What are the best Internet Filtering options available?
Now it's time to get to the guts of this discussion. A large portion of this is dependent upon your objective. For me, I prefer to have everything allowed except pornography. For someone else they may want to spy on their kids or spouse. Another may want to block everything except one or two sites, for the kids. You can visit www.child-internet-safety.com and view each Internet filter side-by-side for feature comparison, but I recommend Net Nanny. Net Nanny has been around the longest, it has all the right features, and at $40 per year is very affordable. You can get to Net Nanny here: www.netnanny.com

How much should I spend?
We have 3 computers in our house and would spend about $80 per year on Internet filtering. I wouldn't recommend buying a filter without trying it out first and most filters offer some sort of trial. Net Nanny has one here: http://www.netnanny.com/account/trialware?product=160 Make sure it meets your expectations first. What about the free filters? Try them too. Be cautious though, make sure you can trust the brand and product first, a lot of them will gather personal information or leave spyware on your computer.

This was just a simple overview for those of you searching for Internet filters, parental controls, internet nannys or whatever you call it. I hope this helps someone. Leave a comment or tell your story.