Net Nanny is not filtering enough

Net Nanny 5.1.x • 11 April 2006

This article refers to an older version of this product.

Please check your settings to make sure bad sites and language don't get through anymore.

Right-click on the net nanny icon and select "Net Nanny Settings". Enter your password. Then click on "User Settings" (bottom left corner). Click on the user you want to check. Make sure the blocking level is set to 2. Then click on the "Blocking Options" tab. Make sure the boxes next to "Net Nanny list" and "My List" are both checked. This will block all the websites on the Net Nanny Restricted list as well as on your restricted list. If you want to block all websites except what is on the Permitted list, set the blocking level to 3. To check or edit these lists, click on the "Go to Websites" button. Next, click on the "Filtering" tab. Make sure the "Enable filtering of objectionable words and phrases...." is selected. Then click on "manage users". Go to the "edit user" tab. Highlight each user account and make sure the "monitor only" option is NOT selected.

Then click on the Activity Consequences icon under "system settings". In the "applications tab, click on "web Sites" from the list. Make sure the "Block access" option is selected. Next, click on "content filtering" tab at the top. Make sure the box next to "Mask the word or phrase with ####" is checked. Also, make sure the box next to "Halt the download of a page after 3 occurrences of a word or phrase" is checked. You can also change the number 3 to a lower number if you wish. Click Apply and OK. This will block words and phrases on the restricted list. So, if these words appear on a website, they will be masked out. When the number of words that appear on the site reaches the limit you've set, the site will be blocked. Also, when you do a search on any site for one of these words, they will turn into # signs and the search won't be able to complete. To view this list, click on the "content filtering" icon on the left side of the Net Nanny window. Then click "show". You can add or remove any word/phrase you want.

Then, you'll need to open up your Internet Explorer. Click on the Tools menu and select "Internet Options". Click on "Delete cookies" and "Delete Files". Click Ok. Finally, reboot your computer.

Another good idea is to remove all advertising and spyware from your machine. There is a free program you can download from www.download.com called Ad-Aware. Install and run this on your computer to delete any spyware.

Spyware is advertising that's installed against your knowledge on your computer and that affects which advertisements you see when you're online. It can also affect the speed of your Internet connection and cause websites to re-direct.