How To Customize Net Nanny Accounts and Settings

Net Nanny 5.1.x • 21 September 2006

This article refers to an older version of this product.

Make sure you are logged on to your computer's administrator account when you make changes to Net Nanny settings. Also, make sure the time, date, and time zone are set correctly on your computer.

Right-click on the net nanny icon and select "Net Nanny Settings". Enter your password. Then click on "User Settings" (bottom left corner). If you have an "anybody account" then the users do not have to log on to Net Nanny before they can access the Internet. They will all have the same restrictions. Of course, you can also set up other accounts in addition to the "anybody" user. This way, the user that you set up the account for (for example you or an older child who does not require as many restrictions) can log on and have different restrictions. You can also choose to remove the "anybody" user and set up individual accounts for each user. This will force each user to log on to Net Nanny before accessing the Internet.

To do all this, click on the "Manage User" icon.

Once you have your users set up, click on the user you want to configure. Set the blocking level for them. If you choose level 2, then only websites on the Net Nanny Restricted List and your restricted list will be blocked and everything else will be allowed. If you choose level 3, then only the websites on the Net Nanny Permitted List and Your Permitted List will be allowed, and everything else will be blocked. You can view these lists by clicking on the "Go to Websites" button. After you set this, go to the next page (blocking Options). Make sure the boxes next to "Net Nanny list" and "My List" are both checked.

Continue going through the pages to set up restrictions. 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 change the number of words required to shut down a site 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.

You can get the full user manual by going to the Start Menu => Programs => Net Nanny 5 => Net Nanny User Guide. You must have Adobe Acrobat installed to be able to view the PDF file.