Sometimes you are at wifi hotspot or office and site is blocked most often wrongly (if it is rightfully blocked then that’s a good reason to stay away from it). In such case, look at Databytez’s list of 10 ways to access the website contents (sometimes static, so will have anything javascript only partly functional). Couple of them I know of but many I didn’t, useful to add to bag of tricks!
Strangely, it seems possible to edit Firewall exceptions in Windows XP if you know Win32 programming in C++, as explained by Charles at rohitab.com. This would seem like a real security risk since any trojan could add firewall exceptions and open firewall ports. Perhaps Windows asks user to confirm such operations when they happen, don’t know (maybe that’s what programs do when you see a notice “such program is trying to access internet, do you want to allow – it’s just installing an exception so it can access the internet).
What led me to looking for this info is the desire to increase my level of protection when on public wifi (and therefore untrusted) networks. When at office or home, I have many exceptions in firewall, to allow printer sharing, etc. But I don’t need those in public wifi setting, I just want to browse. So I’d like a way to command, in one click, “I’m on public wifi network (untrusted), so close all incoming firewall exceptions”; Maybe even all outgoing ones just to make sure some programs aren’t pushing some data on the network; the only outgoing ones would be web browser and skype.
Haven’t found anything COTS like this. But apparently in Windows 7 this capability is builtin to the OS, so I’ll just have to wait a year…
The Canadian website http://www.internet101.ca seems like a good entry point for internet safety for kids.
The Parent Control software Sentry Lite is recommended by dottech.org. The Basic version is only $36, though the web site does not say which features of Basic are not supported in the Lite version. It also got very good reviews from PC Advisor in early 2009. Apparently it is possible to buy multi-PC license for less but not clear.
Note that to monitor two kids who have their own computer, it would be US$72/year, which is a little on the steep side but not out of the question either, given the convenience (no need to access their machine except once to install the tool).
Looks like data gets logged to the Sentry website from where you access/analyse it, which poses two problems: if you stop paying, you loose access to (historical) data; and, there may be a risk of exposing (your kid’s) passwords, would have to find out how data is stored on Sentry site. Also not clear on whether your kid’s firewall needs to allow Sentry Lite/Basic/Total access to the internet (to reach to Sentry site to log data).
