okay, i spent an hour today trying various ones. I tried surmonkey basic version free from my provider Earthlink, the family browser, ICRA rascii ratings built into windows, and another one that i can't recall cuz i delted it immediately it sucked.
what it boils down to:
I think ICRA has great potential for the fact that it probably has the most leverage, since rascii settings are built into windows, this is something that has great mass potential, but the fact is it requires someone to embed some code on the page. it takes an active step and we all know that will never never happen with millions of programmers. this is good tho because sites which aren't so bad such as a site on pussy cats or breast cancer won't get filtered out.
The Family Browser worked well in blocking sites, supposedly it scans each site BEFORE it loads the page. it does a good job of filtering pages which are objectional. but it did filter out pussy cats and i don't think it even let me get to google! i delted it after a while though because it started to freeze on me. while my windows was fine, i wasn't able to type in the search box. you have to use their browser which is plain ugly.
For now, I've decided to stick with SurfMonkey. For me, it is better to block out 8 out of 10 sites than to let even 1 bad one get by. it is highly restrictive but lets you go to search engines but only lets you go to known sites. you can use your own browser, and can swtich easily between supervisor and child settings. it didnt' seem to slow my system down and worked flawlessly. i think they programmed it in macromedia. i'm planning on activating both the ICRA and surf monkey. It will be very difficult to get to an objectional site with that. i tried going to task manager and cutting off surfmonkey while i was surfing, it wouldn' tlet me. it would close for a second then restart automatically. i tried going to processes, and the same thing. even when i screwed around with it and got it to not respond, it wouldn' tlet me surf to any adult sites. when i uninstalled it it required a password, so it looks like its pretty well covered.
i'm highly interested in this subject as i'm setting up computers for a library. please pm me if you find anything better.
i do want to try that cyberpatrol that geek has suggested.
