Customer Reviews

Net Nanny 5.5

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Net Nanny 5.5 effectively blocks users from internet content that parents deem inappropriate (not only porn, but news or hate/violence, etc.). Parents can select what types of websites and online activities to block their children from viewing or using. Should individual sites mistakingly be blocked, they can be individually set as an exception. Also, the program may be de-activated with a user-set password. In fact, all changes to Net Nanny require this password. Overall, Net Nanny 5.5 works as advertised, and works very well.

Perhaps a little too well. Net Nanny protects itself so deeply in the system that attempts to tamper with it in the registry or with third-party programs can cause serious damage to the operating system of the computer.

I had installed and run Spyware Doctor to block spyware from my system; Spyware Doctor mistakingly identified Net Nanny as a malicious program and blocked key aspects of it from operating as well as deleting several Net Nanny files. After a re-start, Windows would boot up but no longer connect to the internet; I could no longer move files, and certain programs failed to run at all. System Restore would no longer work, even in safe mode, and I couldn't re-install Net Nanny because it requires an internet connection to do so.

Thanks to this Catch-22, I had to install Windows on a fresh hard disk in order to utilize my old files. While this may seem to be more of a complaint for Spyware Doctor, it demonstrates that Net Nanny is protected so deeply in the system that if anything goes wrong with it, it can wreak serious havoc in the operating system.

Another complaint about this program is that it runs without regard to Windows profiles. While profile settings can be established, an additional password is required once you log in. It's easier just to use the same settings for everyone and use the master password to shut Nanny Nanny down if it becomes a nuisance.

Overall all, Net Nanny delivers on its promise to keep minors away from unwanted internet content, but the program protection is deeply rooted and therefore poses a potential risk to the operating system should anything go wrong.

I purchased Net Nanny about a year ago. It did not have as many options and features as I had expected but it did offer some degree of protection for my kids while online. The ability to limit the time my kids spent online was my favorite feature. The reason I'm giving it a low rating is because after a year, it just stopped working and gave me a message about my license having expired. This came as a complete surprise to me. When I paid for Net Nanny software, I expected to have Net Nanny protecting my computer until I decided to upgrade it or to use someone else. Please be aware before you buy this product that after a year, you will have to pay again for Net Nanny or some other security software.

I really liked the idea that I could download this product for free for a 14-day trial. After hours and hours of reading reviews, I felt like a ping pong ball. It turns out that sometimes the best way to evaluate is to test drive it yourself! So that's what I did.
What I found was that the software was extremely easy to download and set up. I liked that I could block out time zones for my kids and limit their time online. I also liked that it did a GREAT job of blocking objectionable content. It also sent me lots of emails to let me know that certain things were being blocked. It even told me when it was handing out warnings (I'm not really sure what the point of these warnings are, now that I think about it. It seemed kind of cool when I first set them up, but in reality it didn't really mean anything -- to me or my son.)
My main problem with this software is that it doesn't cover email or IM, and those are two things I'm very concerned about.
So, in the end, I guess it was my own fault that I didn't read the product features description closely enough. All that research made me go blind I guess. I wish I could say that I had found the product that did exactly what I was hoping, but for now I'm back into the review pool, wading through all of the information.

Now, if you're reading this review, you're one of 3 categories of people:

1. A Parent wanting to protect your child from internet smut/garbage.
2. A Parent wanting to regulate your children's internet usage by setting time limits.
3. Like Me - An adult who's wanting to protect yourself from internet smut/garbage or simply regulate time online.

So, here's what NetNanny will do for #1-2:

- You can filter all web content based upon language, images, etc.
- You can block specific sites (like Youtube).
- You can regulate computer games from being run at certain hours.
- You CAN disallow IM or E-mail by simply disallowing the site/program during certain hours, (it seems some reviewers are confused on this), though this will NOT FILTER your e-mail account or those of your children if they're getting "buy viagra here" e-mails.
- You can have it e-mail you immediately if there is attempts to get around the software, and see the log of where the culprit was (on the web) when the attempt was made.
- You can set time limits to the web.
- You can shut off basically all the web except specific sites (though this takes a little know how and I haven't tried it).

On the whole, you can maintain a fair amount of control with your kids and NetNanny. I'm not sure if there are better products for sale that will do this all, but when I was shopping a year ago, NetNanny was definitely at the top of the game.

So, here's what NetNanny will do for #3:

I'm a pastor, and I want to protect myself from web-smut and other trash. I don't go out searching for it, but it's around enough and far too easily. My wife is jealous for my eyes, and I covet them for her. In my books, NetNanny is a definite necessity if you're in any sort of ministry. It logs your web-traffic, you can send your web-history to any elders or whoever is keeping you accountable (and your spouse, of course), and it will be a stop-gap when temptation comes your way and you buckle for that 1/4 second it takes to click something you shouldn't.

NetNanny won't remove sin from the heart, or change your desire to sin if you're actually WANT to, but it will help guard you from unneccesary temptations and for this, it's invaluable!

It's not perfect (since it often filters on language, it may filter out things you want to get too that have 'flagged' words), but that's a small price to pay for some insurance of integrity and purity.

I definitely recommend it...it's a LOT better than some of the free software by "Covenant Eyes" or "XXXChurch" or even Focus on the Family.

In fact, if you're in ministry and don't have a filtered and recorded computer, you need to change that right now.

Don't be an fool.

"1 I have made a covenant with my eyes;
how then could I gaze at a virgin?
2 What would be my portion from God above
and my heritage from the Almighty on high?
3 Is not calamity for the unrighteous,
and disaster for the workers of iniquity?" - Job 31:1-3

If verse 1 doesn't describe you, then verse 3 will.

*********************************************************************
Update after over 2 years of use.

Net Nanny is great, and I'm now using version 6.5.2.25.

One new feature of which I am aware is foul language live filtering (if there are curse words on a page, Net Nanny won't disply them). That took me a few minutes to figure out, but it's a great feature for young kids.

Net Nanny is still working well.

It still filters the web (sometimes in unpredictable and frustrating ways), but I'm much more happy safe than sorry.

It protects me and my family well and I have no solid reasons to think about changing my software.

I'm very happy.

I have owned several versions of Net Nanny - and the latest, version 5.6 is awesome. It allows me to set-up a profile for each family member based on their age. Net Nanny just won the 2008 PC Mag Editor's Choice Award for Parental Controls- and it has earned it and more in my house. My kids have their Internet access shut off every school night at 7PM sharp thanks to Net Nanny. Anyone who isn't using a filter or parental controls and has kids surfing the Internet is asking for trouble

This review is for version 6.5, which I suspect is not available on Amazon due to the poor reviews of previous Net Nanny editions.

Anyway, I did a free trial of Net Nanny for two weeks and then thought about it for awhile before paying for a two-seat license. Honestly, the two weeks wasn't enough for me to really get a feel for the program, but being concerned about my children getting older and knowing what's instantly available on the Web, I went ahead and paid for Net Nanny.

Well, after a few days of usage, it became clear that Net Nanny is an insufferable piece of nagware. It seems like every site you visit, you get at least one popup message from Net Nanny. Soon, this gets really annoying (and time consuming). Also, I never really fully understood the paradigm of Net Nanny. I was forced to use two different passwords, one being my user password and the other my "override" password? It seems that the design of Net Nanny is kludgy and ill-conceived. Installing Net Nanny nearly renders the Internet unusable. It's behavior reminds me of Norton, McAfee, and other bloatware I can't stand.

On top of that, when I installed it on my Windows 7 desktop computer, it destroyed both my Firefox and Internet Explorer (IE) installations. Firefox can no longer browse ANY secure SSL websites. IE now gives me an error message every time I shut it down. When I emailed Content Watch, they didn't offer suggestions on how to fix it, they only blamed me for not shutting down my firewall before installation. If that's how they program over at Content Watch, I'd be wary of other claims about their software's performance.

The final kick in the shins is that they refused a refund even though I uninstalled it from both my computers literally days after purchasing. So, I now have about 358 days remaining on a software license I don't want.

Similar to another reviewer, I downloaded the trial version of Net Nanny over the internet. I don't think my spyware filter caused it (WebRoot) because it prompts for decisions. But whatever the cause, Windows was completely wiped out after installing Net Nanny. No start button, menus, or anything. Just the desktop. I could not use System Restore, even in safe mode and ended up doing a complete system recovery and reinstall of Windows. It took me 2 weeks to get all my programs reinstalled, updated, and running properly and about 2 solid days of web research to figure out how to get my printer software to load. I still cannot scan or fax with my Kodak AIO printer! My suggestion -don't risk it! I'll be very careful before I install another "hack proof" parental control application.

I do not own Net Nanny, but feel compelled to at least support a few folks that had operating system problems. I am technical. I downloaded the trial version and like it. I wanted to try a few others.

The standard uninstall would not work. I was able to find many Google hits giving instructions on removing Content Watch software, but nothing would fully work. This was one of the hardest programs I've ever tried to remove. I finally reloaded my PC.

In my case it was a new system, so I was only out the O/S. It is a good product, but I would recommend [in ANY case] that anybody considering Net Nanny purchase an external hard-disk and take an "image" [I use Acronis] of your drive before installing. This is something you should do to protect your home PC anyway, especially if you don't have all your original install CDs.

CC

I have found one instance on the web where this program was used by a disgruntled employee to destroy all the computers in an office. It is very effective in destroying your operating system.

If you are one of the people who sucessfully installed the program and it simply didn't work--you are one of the lucky ones.

I am a fairly advanced user. I have a non-oem, off-the-shelf, vanilla copy of Windows XP. I shut off all internet protection as per the instructions. The install crashed halfway through the install. I tried to reinstall a couple of times and it crashed at the same point each time. So I decided to give up and uninstall the program. This program is designed to be hackproof so that your kids can not take it off. The problem is neither can anyone else. When I tried to uninstall it, it asked me for a uninstall password. I didn't have a uninstall password because I never got to that part of the installation. You would think that would mean that the password would be blank, but that didn't work.

It was getting late so I shut down the computer for the night. BIG mistake. I have not been able to log onto my computer since. You would think that a program that is designed to be hackproof would have a fool-proof install or at the very least not activate all its security measures until it was completely installed.

The install crashed three times when it was trying to create the ContentWatch file. The operating system will not fully load unless this file is initialized. It has interfered enough with Windows that Windows now thinks it needs to be reactivated. This means that you can not use Safe Mode at all. And each time I try to log on and reactivate the program, the stupid ContentWatch error message keeps popping up preventing any other functions from running.

I have tried Windows Repair and several options on the Restore Console. I have restored computers with corrupt registry files, missing operating system errors, removed malware and viruses, and this has beat me.

Luckily my data seems to be safe. However, I am going to have either put my harddrive into another computer as a slave drive to kill Net Nanny or buy another harddrive for this machine and make it the boot drive. In any case, I am facing several more hours and possibly a lot of money to get my computer functional.

I fully support the idea behind Net Nanny. The internet is a dangerous place and we need to protect our children. However, all I was looking for was a simple program that would prevent my kids from accidently stumbling on a inappropriate site. This program is overkill. If I was worried about my kids hacking or disabling the software or if I felt the need to spy on what they were doing, I would have much more serious problems than them looking at porn sites. I might as well save my money for therapy (or bail money).

After we found some really nasty stuff on our adopted son's browsing history, I downloaded a trial version of NetNanny. Tomorrow I'm going to have to take it our laptop in to a computer repair shop to try to get the operating system repaired at considerable expense. It completely hijacked the OS and wouldn't allow me to reset any of the settings. I tried contacting the customer service department but their instructions proved ineffective. They were nice enough, however, to send me a review of how great and effective NetNanny supposedly is. If I could give it zero stars I would. It's been one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had with software.

The program is like a software cancer. I can't access any website of any sort and, as I said, it will not let me reset or delete it. I even tried to install a version of Windows XP to wipe it off our Vista system (Vista is a problem too) but it wouldn't let me do that. Do not let this program anywhere near your system.