(Credit:
Netgear)
I am not a big fan of parental controls, but that might be just because I'm not a parent.
If you are not like me and have been wondering if paying a yearly fee for the comprehensive parental control feature that accompanies the lackluster iBoss router is worth it, Netgear may have just made your life a lot easier.
Netgear announced Tuesday the release of Live Parental Controls, a comprehensive Web-filtering feature it has developed in collaboration with OpenDNS.
The new feature enables parents and small businesses to restrict Internet access to all the devices that connect via the router, with filtering based on more than 50 categories of content. The Live Parental Controls incorporate a comprehensive set of filtering features including some not available in other parental control solutions, such as remote management from mobile devices and highly flexible settings.
The best things about the new features are that they're free and are included with Netgear's new routers. The first one that comes with this is Netgear's Wireless-N 300 WNR2000 router. Netgear plans on putting Live Parental Controls in its future routers and Internet gateways.
The WNR2000 is available immediately and costs less than $80, which is very good for a Wirelesss-N router and it's a great deal considering the new Web filter, especially when compared with the iBoss.
Hands-on testing and a full review of Netgear's Wireless-N 300 WNR2000 wireless router will be available soon.
OpenDNS is rolling out an addition to its alternative DNS service I covered last September: Its new Shortcuts feature lets you program it to recognize keywords typed into to browser's address bar. For example, "w" could redirect to Webware.com. You can also add simple variables to the keywords, so "st" followed by a ticker ("st ibm") would look up a stock price on your favorite financial site, not just the Google default. Keywords can even fire up applications on a PC and pass parameters to the application.
Sounds clever, and it is, but it's not unique. As CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh points out, there are plenty of address bar keyword tools out there. There's also a spectacular keyword-company failure that everyone in the industry knows about: RealNames. It was a victim of unfortunate timing and a partnership with Microsoft (for access to the Internet Explorer address bar) that dissolved.
Setting up a few local keywords.
(Credit: CNET Networks)What's different about the OpenDNS solution is that once you program in a shortcut, it will work for everyone on an entire local network. If you change the router at your office to use the OpenDNS service, and map "HR" to your internal human resources Web service, everyone on the network, no matter what browser they are using, will be able to take advantage of the keyword. You can also set it up so multiple local networks share the same pool of keywords.
The problem, though, is that when computers leave their home networks--as laptops are likely to do--the keywords will stop working. Maybe that's a good thing for secure corporate intranet sites, but it's not that useful for sites that people will be accessing from anywhere. Also, using company-wide keywords to fire up local applications might cause confusion for users of PCs that don't have the applications installed.
I like the original OpenDNS service. My home network uses it, and I appreciate the speed and antiphishing features that it has. But I don't really get the Shortcuts feature. It ties its users down. We're all mobile now. Our keywords should go with us.
See also this post by Paul Stamatiou.
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