Customer Reviews

eBlaster 5.0

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I've been using eblaster 5.0 for about 2 weeks now and it's been helpful but it has holes.

The keystroke logger is limited to about 512 characters. I didn't know this when I bought it. This limitation is disclosed in the help files, but is not plainly disclosed in the advertisement of the product and I think it should be. So if your child/spouse types a long email message, you only get the first 512 characters or so.

Of course, captured keystrokes aren't important if eblaster 5.0 forwards you a copy of incoming and outgoing emails. But this points out another weakness: at least in my case, eEblaster 5.0 cannot grab any emails sent or received from an email server behind a corporate firewall. I use Citrix on my home PC to access my employer's email server. Eblaster 5.0 does not capture either the incoming or outgoing mails generated from that server. Keystrokes are captured, but it's only the first 512 characters, and keystrokes only pertain to the outgoing message, not the incoming message.

Another weakness is that eblaster 5.0 can only capture incoming emails that are opened. If a pedophile sends your child an email a day and your child deletes them without opening them, you'd never know. It's great that your kid didn't open them, but wouldn't you want a copy anyway?

I have no experience with the chat capture functionality so I won't comment on it.

eBlaster gives you piece of mind by letting you know what your kids are doing on the Internet when you are not around. It even lets you know who they are talking to and the content of those chats, which is very important given some of the dangerous people on the Internet these days. eBlaster records Outlook emails, Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL email. It also records AOL chats, AOL IM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Trillian and Yahoo Chats. It also records the web sites your kids are visiting and the keystrokes they type. Then, once an hour, it emails you the reports. So, you can still be at work, the kids can be home from school, and you will be able to know whether they are getting into danger online. This is also appropriate for employers who need to be away from the office and need to know that their employees are actually working and not spending a lot of time goofing off on the Internet. If you don't want to receive reports every hour, you can set eBlaster up to send reports less frequently, such as once every few hours, or just once a day. I have been using eBlaster for more than a year and have found the program to be quite solid and reliable and to perform as advertised. I have also found the company to be readily available to answer questions via email and via a toll-free telephone number and, according to their web site, they take phone calls 7 days a week and publish their toll-free number front and center on their home page. Highly recommended.

While this application sounds really good, it turns out to be very easy to fool both for chats and emails. If anyone even suspects that they are being monitored, it can easily be defeated. For example, it only works really well if the computer being monitored is using Outlook or Outlook Express. The application cannot forward attachments from any other mail applications, so just send your messages in a attachements; eBlaster will not even know who you forwarded the message to. GMail, Yahoo Mail, etc. are not handled very well. To fool the chat, all that you need to do is use something else besides the keyboard as input. I learned this from a user with XP Table PC. They just sketched all of their chats on MSN (which is set up to do this for all tablets) and none of the information came across eBlaster. Also, the whiteboard feature readly supports passing information around eBlaster's recording mechanism for those who just have a mouse. If it is not one of the popular chat application like MSN or Yahoo, eBlaster only gets the user's outgoing messages from the keystrokes that get captured; there are apparently too many chat applications for eBlaster to monitor and all incoming information is not recorded. Also, for chats, none of the advanced features of the chat applications are supported. So a normal conversation could be carried out over the keyboard, while the whiteboard or simple file swapping can be used without anything being captured by eBlaster. eBlaster is too explensive too expensive for what it does and how easily it can be duped.

BUYER BEWARE! When I tried to install this software, I had some problems getting it to work. I called the software support number and was told that there was an update and this version is no longer supported by the manufacturer. I was told that this version has a problem installing correctly if ant-virus software is also running. Turning off anti-virus software will allow for a proper install. Otherwise the software appears to be working well. I was also offered a discount to upgrade to the newer version and was told that the above mentioned problem had been fixed in the new version.

I first purchased the program for about 99.95 and then after about 2 years it stopped working. When I contacted them they said I needed to upgrade and I did at their discounted 69.95. It just happened again.....and I contacted them and again I need another upgrade for 69.65! I removed the program myself...one should not have to pay 69.95 every 2 years if that's the case they should tell you up front!

Eblaster is the worst program out there, besides that it has flaws and isn't reliable, they keep sucking money out of their customers.
every 2 years they disable the program and when you call they say you have to buy the latest version! i asked i would like to keep using the one i have, they said you have to pay for support, but old versions are being disabled!

As many of the other reviews are stating, they want more money. I purchased the program a little over a year ago, and I think they are now on an annual subscription plan or something. I was told via email that my eblaster subscription was about to expire. I let it expire because I figure I had already purchased it and I didnt need the updated version. The reports kept coming, but "strangely"the program stopped recording any of the incoming information, just key strokes on the computer. Then, after a couple more weeks, it stopped categorizing them with a time stamp and the key strokes were all jumbled. I called, and they said that there must have been an update done to a computer that is no longer compatible with the current eblaster version. I know that to not be the case with 100% certainty, and it was convenient that it "just so happened" to stop working at the end of the year.

Facebook has also put through an update that eblaster/spectorsoft does not know how to adapt to, either. If you want to monitor chat, you can add facebook to all of the other programs already listed in other reviews that will not be monitored.

Lost email account and the key for continued use. Wrote to Spectorsoft outlining the problems and said I could answer questions regarding the account or purchase. This is the reply I received:
"Hello,I am sorry but for security reasons we can only reply to the email address on file for an account.. Please resubmit your request directly from the email address you registered with us at time of purchase. SteveG."
Thats bull." If I don't check this stuff you wont need to buy another licence." Yeah, I hear you Steve.
kind of like having a pet snake.
Not an honourable company.

1. This product does not support Google Chrome.
2. This product does not support web based e-mail like yahoo, gmail, etc.
3. This product stops working after 2 years.

You can scourge the website and even call up the sales department and there will be no mention of these facts.

What else are they lying about? You don't want to be doing business with an untrustworthy company. Especially when their product is gathering so much information about your children, employees, or whomever.

The product works well. The rub comes in that you need to purchase a new license in order to continue using product. They don't tell you that it'll only work for 2 years. It'd be nice if someone challenged them on not being truthful with consumers and we all got a portion of our money back. I will not continue to support them by purchasing a new license every year or two.