Windows Shell/User (MSN & OneCare Too) : Tech Help

The State of Parental Controls and Instant Messaging.

ericvogel — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 23:42:00 GMT

I was given the task to bolt down the boss's son's new computer I had pushed and pushed to get so he can do normal teen things. I thought this was going to be easy. But, I thought I would share my experience and a hole I found in doing so. The two programs I found that were from reputable companies and got good marks was NetNanny and k9 Web Protection. NetNanny seemed to be the best to cover almost everything. I had read some people were complaining it would crash and hose some peoples computers. Also seems it has not been updated in a few years and the website had a non-professional feel to it. I have found work arounds for it and the only way NetNanny can stop it is to block thoughs sites. But there are ways to get the files from a a friends computer. Someone suggested k9 which is made by Blue Coat. Blue Coat makes appliances / software to monitor content on corporate systems. They wanted to give back to the community, so they created k9 and give it out free to home users for home use only. I was not able to find a way to by-pass it and I did kill the service it runs and I was no longer able to connect to the Internet. I like the highly configurablity of it. The only down side is it puts MP3/Streaming Music/P2P (Peer 2 Peer) in one category. I would like P2P to have its own. I do not think most people would mind if a teen buys music legally with his money or listen to a radio stream that their parents pay for like MSN Radio Plus.

I can turn on and off access to Instant Messaging (IM) programs, but there is no way for these programs to disable and lock down these apps. I am writing this in hopes that IM companies such as AOL, MSN, Yahoo! and Google build in parental controls like allow for a parent to approve contacts, turn off web cam, audio conversations and file transfer. Window Live Messenger 8, which is in beta right now, has Shared Folders. This is great for sharing files with friends and family. But if you lock down your kids computer, a friend can just drop any size file in your kids shared folder and it will be transfered over. Same with file transfer but that is one file by one file. I think the IM companies should take matters into their own hands and include parental controls in their products. Some do have them, but you have to subscribe to their Internet service BUT they do not offer protection on their competitors. I have to use 2 IM clients to serve who I IM. I would prefer one, but that is life. Teens may use 3 or more. I would also like to see stealth IM monitoring. I know I maybe hard on some of these, but with the child predator's out there every parent needs to know what their kid(s) are up to and make sure they are not getting into trouble or talking to a 13 year old who is really 35 with a evil plot. Please, lets keep our kids and teens safe!

Also, MySpace is not the best for teens, but I am on the teens side why they want it. I suggest parents secretly monitor their kids or better yet make them do it with you over their shoulder. One thing they may not find harmful is this. A 14 year old, really good looking posts their picture, puts on the website which school they go to and blogs about a game at a certain time and date. This gives people too much info. I took this example from Good Morning America which had 3 daughters and their Mom's on. I had to leave for work, so I did not get if something happened or not. (lets hope not.) MySpace allows you to put in a full name but does not show the last name. Do a search with the full name and you might find your teen. You can also do a search for all teens in your area. Do not search by age because COPA says no one under 14 without parent consent. So your kid might lie about their age so they can open an account.

The other suggestion I keep hearing, put the computer in the family room where the family is most times and never in the kids bedroom.

Microsoft Windows 2000 Users Patch FAST!

ericvogel — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 15:07:00 GMT

New worm will cause you machine to infest others and reboot and repeat. It will not damage your data, but your PC will be unusable till it is fixed. The fix for this worm is not for novices.
Please go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com or the new site http://update.microsoft.com and get all the critical updates. I highly suggest that everyone no matter which version of Windows, to get the latest critical updates when they come out to prevent something like this. Also, you can turn on Automatic Update to alert you to new updates, or download then alert, or download, alert and auto-install.

CNN Got hit, and also you can see some of the inaccuracies. There are links here to the actual article about the patch at Microsoft. http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=29981&category=main

Also, Anti-Virus software can catch them most times. So please get one. There are some free ones listed here. I have heard good things about AVG one, which is on version 7 and this page needs updating in regards to the features and version numbers. http://www.computertalkshop.com/faq/free_av.htm Make sure auto-updating is enabled. AVG usually releases updates daily.

Create your own MSN Desktop Search IFilters / Download IFilters

ericvogel — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:44:00 GMT

Want to have MSN Desktop Search more file extentions? Create your own IFilter to do so. The website also has links to other IFilters http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel9.DesktopSearchIFilters

MSN Desktop Search Hacks

ericvogel — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:43:00 GMT

Change the startup delay
Drag & Drop
Exclude some files extensions from being searched
Float the deskbar
Get rid of the toolbar buttons
Save your searches
Search network shares
Use a Windows Key shortcut

http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel9.DesktopSearchHacks

Michael Connolly and Jim Horne - Demo of MSN Spaces / Talking about MSN Spaces

ericvogel — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 19:25:00 GMT

Thank you Robert Scoble, for posting the feedback to the previous post about the demo and interview. I thought this might be of interest to many people and thought it deserves its own post.

Michael Connolly and Jim Horne - Demo of MSN Spaces #
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=30998

Michael Connolly and Jim Horne - Talking about MSN Spaces #
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=30995

Your Computer Connects to an Access Point That Broadcasts Its SSID Instead of an Access Point That Does Not Broadcast its SSID

ericvogel — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 01:53:00 GMT

Your Computer Connects to an Access Point That Broadcasts Its SSID Instead of an Access Point That Does Not Broadcast its SSID

Laptop going into a coma. I think I found the awnser.

ericvogel — Fri, 17 Oct 2003 00:17:00 GMT

I hope this fixes it. I had to hit the power to get the laptop in snooze, then wake it back up or worse a hard reset. INFO: The Monitor May Not Turn On After You Configure the Energy-Saving Settings on Some Portable Computers http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;823348