Staying safe on-line is Priority One for me as I have four children that absolutely love computers and the internet. Everything from Messenger to Webkinz is used daily by my crew. Win 7 and IE-8 has made the process of staying safe on-line easier than ever before. To begin with I want to provide a snapshot of my security fallback positions.
First and foremost is my LINKSYS Wireless Router. I have 2 laptops, 2 desktops, PS3 Gaming Station, Blackberry and IPod Touch connected at any given time so there are many entry points for access to the network. Using the administration features in the router, I am able to restrict access to the wireless network using both private key encryption and MAC Address Filtering.
To use MAC Address filtering, you first need to determine the MAC address for each wireless device that will access your network. On Windows XP click Start-> Run-> then type CMD and press <Enter>. Once the command window appears, type “getmac /v” and press <Enter> again. Look for the Alpha-Numeric Physical Address and write it down.
If you happen to use a LINKSYS Wireless-N Broadband Router, the process is simplified somewhat. By using the Wireless MAC Filter Menu, a list of all the currently connected wireless devices can be obtained and copied over to the MAC Filtering List.
Enabling your router Firewall is also highly recommended along with enabling the feature (if available) to Filter Anonymous Internet Requests to prevent your network from being detected by other Internet users.
Most of today’s broadband routers have options for controlling the times you allow internet access. For example, I restrict the internet access for the PlayStation3 between the hours of 10pm and 6am Sunday through Thursday to prevent the kids from playing on-line games after hours.
The next tool in my arsenal is Windows 7. Using Control Panel-> System and Security-> Windows Firewall, one can view a summary of the status of Windows Firewall. The folks over at Microsoft put some thought into this one and by default the settings are pretty tight. Should you wish to prevent certain types of Inbound/Outbound traffic, use the Advance Options link to configure the rules necessary for your specific application. Usually, when installing new software such as iTunes allowing changes to your system via the use of the User Access Control (UAC) creates both Outbound and Inbound rules for the application. Such a discussion is beyond the scope of this article, but a good topic for a future blog :). The User Access Control prompts are fewer and smarter. Combined with Internet Explorer 8, the surfing should be safe.
Windows 7 also provides for Parental Controls including restricting the time when they can use the computer, specific programs to be used (I restrict Messenger to only the older kids), and type types of game ratings allowed.
I’ve scheduled Windows Defender to run weekly. I’ve experimented with several anti-virus options for Windows 7 including Trend Micro®, Kaspersky® and AVG. I finally chose AVG as it provides excellent protection, it’s easy to set-up and the least intrusive in my normal activities. I’m using the plain-vanilla AVG Anti-Virus version 8.5.409 with most of the default options at install. It performs a full scan of all drives on Sunday mornings at 3:00AM.
Lastly, I like to control what my children see and do on the web (maybe I’m too protective) but after reading article after article regarding internet predators and other situations in which children find themselves, I’ve chosen to install Windows Live! Family Safety Filter on all the computers in the house. This is very easy to do. After installing Family Safety Filter, I created Windows Live! ID’s for each of my children, created Standard Windows User Accounts and linked the two together. Using Family Safety Filter, I am able to restrict the types of on-line games, website’s and other nefarious items my children might get into. Family Safety Filter is really easy to use so if someone needs access to a specific site, Family Safety Filter notifies me of the request and I can view the site and approve or disapprove for just the one child or the whole family.
All in all, I feel safe and better yet, I feel safe knowing that my kids are as well protected as I can possibly make them while surfing and playing on the net. Thanks to the folks over at Microsoft, AVG and LINKSYS for making me sleep better at night!
For additional information regarding Parental Permissions and Family Safety see:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms711320(VS.85).aspx
https://account.live.com/HelpCentral.aspx?productkey=wlfamilysafety
