Webfilter software internet access control

It is, therefore, important that acceptable usage policies cannot be bypassed. To prevent end-users from circumventing company AUPs, ensure your chosen solution includes IP and Port bypassing controls and that anonymizers and web proxies can be blocked. Patch management takes a lot of IT resources; however, unpatched software can potentially be exploited by hackers to gain access to networks. To ease the burden on the IT department, look for a web filtering solution that includes automatic software updates.

Cybercriminals are increasingly using secure websites, yet not all enterprise web filtering software can inspect the content of websites that have SSL certificates — Websites that start with HTTPS. Many malicious websites use fraudulently obtained SSL certificates. Failing to inspect these websites can leave an organization open to cyberattacks. Time-based controls can be used to carefully control the website content that can be accessed at certain times of the day.

If enterprise web filtering software has this feature, personal Internet use can be restricted during normal working hours.

This feature can also be used to conserve bandwidth at times when network use is heavy. Many organizations prefer not to block access to all social media websites at work, yet would like to block access to Facebook Messenger. Facebook Messenger can introduce risks. The chat program lacks the level of security demanded by many organizations. Some enterprise web filtering software can be configured to block chat programs. Facebook Messenger can also be blocked without blocking access to Facebook.

It is possible to set different web filtering controls for different individuals — or groups of individuals - in your organization. Some enterprise web filtering software allows filters to be added for all users or specific user groups. Installation is a quick and easy process, while the solution has a low management overhead. Detailed application identification. Real-time detection of every connections. Block P2P downloads and videos. Load balancing and policy routing.

Powerful bandwidth allocation strategy. Bandwidth optimization and packet priority. Detailed internet history. Featured SSL monitoring solution. Qustodio is our top pick for internet filters in part because it is easy to install on both computers and smartphones. For example, if your kids are allowed online between 6pm and 9pm on school nights, you can set Qustodio to kick them off after an hour or two, controlling overall screen time. Qustodio records a lot of details about what your children do online and provides a detailed report.

While other programs simply tell you when your child has accessed their email account or chatted with someone through an instant messenger program, Qustodio captures the whole conversation. Net Nanny is one of the cheapest internet filter programs we tested, but still includes the most important protection tools to block dangerous content online. There are 18 filter categories to help you quickly restrict access to websites about pornography, drugs and alcohol, suicide and gore. The program sends an email alert if your child enables a proxy or privacy server to hide their internet searches.

It also prevents children from typing these words into search fields and chat messages. Net Nanny sends a notice through the parent reports when profanity was typed or blocked from being seen. Net Nanny includes time controls to block kids from the internet when they should be asleep, at school, doing homework or chores. Because you can set up an account for each child, older children can be given longer time limits for school projects, online games or streaming videos.

The biggest drawback of Net Nanny is that some important tools, such as social media monitoring, chat message capturing and text notifications for parents, require you to purchase a separate program that works alongside the Net Nanny internet filter program.

While Internet filtering isn't something you should cut corners with, we appreciate that services vary wildly when it comes to price. Kaspersky Safe Kids is the lowest cost provider that we recommend, as it packs in the essential features and offers very detailed reports, but doesn't cost the earth. In terms of social media monitoring, it covers the big providers like Facebook and YouTube, and it'll happily track your family's usage across all the major iOS and Android devices.

You get a very generous devices per license, so you won't run out of these any time soon. Kaspersky Safe Kids has many of the standard tracking tools too, like geo-tracking alerts for when your kids leave a certain safe zone, or they visit an area you've designed as 'off limits'. Handily, it'll also alert you when their phones are switched off or they run out of battery, including a last known location.

Once you save the whitelisted websites, you will not be able to access any website other than the specified whitelisted websites. The Strong Mode is suitable for adults that mainly blocks millions of pornographic websites. The Extra Strong mode is for children that filters out Pornographic websites along with websites containing lingerie, Sex Education, violence , etc. In both of these modes, you also get various inappropriate content categories that you can manually enable or disable to customize these modes.

Overall, it is a useful web filter extension that you can use to filter out unwanted and inappropriate websites. Site Blocker is another free web filtering extension for Chrome browser.

Through this extension, you can easily filter out websites of your choice. In it, you need to manually enter all websites one by one that you want to filter out.

Not just websites, but this extension can also block all the Subdomains of a blocked website and website frame in other websites. A useful White Time Config Option is also present in here through which you can specify the time between which you do not want to filter out any website. Besides this, you can also password protect this extension. However, you will not be able to reset password in the free version of this extension.

Note : In this free version of this extension, many premium features like Synchronization , Reset Password , Uninstall Protection , etc. By purchasing the paid version, you can unlock all of its features. BlockSite is a completely free web filtering add-on for Firefox browser.

In it, you can either enter a CSV File containing links of websites or you can manually enter website links that you want to block. You can also add days and time during which blocked websites can be accessed. If you have enabled it, you will only be able to access those websites that you have added in the blocked list. To protect this add-on from unauthorized access, you can enable the password protection by going to its Protection Menu.

Besides this, you can also export all websites that you have added to the blocked list as a CSV File. Overall, it is a capable web filtering add-on that you should consider if you use the Firefox browser. FoxFilter is another free Firefox browser add-on that works as a web filtering software. In this add-on, you can block certain websites using their URL links or keywords contained by websites.

Plus, a set of ignore phrases can also be added into this add-on so that a blocked keyword contained in the ignore phrase does not lead to website blocking. You can also add a set of Trusted Websites that you do not want to get blocked.

Besides all these features, you can also password protect this add-on so that only authorized users can access and make any changes to this web filtering add-on. After all the modifications, do not forget to save all the changes by pressing the Save Changes Button.

This add-on comes with various predefined ublock filters to filter out websites with badware risk , privacy risk , resource abuse , unbreak , malware risk , etc. Along with predefined filters, it also gives you a dedicated My Filters section in which you can add URL links of websites that you want to block.