I used to spend a lot of time writing computer books. I’m currently working on updating The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Computer Basics, 5th Edition, and realized that most articles written for parents on how to keep their kids away from the nasty stuff on the Web recommend buying and installing one of the many Internet monitoring and filtering programs currently available.
Everyone who’s ever tried to censor the Web using Internet Explorer’s Content Advisor is well aware of the fact that it’s almost totally useless.
What most articles fail to mention is that if you have a router, it probably has its own monitoring and content filtering features built right into it. (A router is a networking device that not only allows several computers to network with one another, but also allows them to share expensive equipment, such as a printer, and services, such as broadband Internet.)
I just posted an article about censoring the Web through your router on my computer-focused blog ComputerChimp.com.
