When looking to buy computer monitoring or parental control software, you’ll soon find out that there are plenty to choose from.
This can get confusing, especially if you’re looking for both applications (which can sometimes be bought together). Let’s take a look at each and see what you can look at to make sure you make the right choice…
Computer Monitoring Software
Stealth – Make sure you check how stealthy the software is. Can you find it in the task manager when it’s running? Or in the program files directory or start menu?
Features – How many features does it have? What exactly does it monitor? The best monitoring applications monitor keystrokes, websites, applications, files, documents and printers.
Screenshots – Does the software take screenshots periodically? How often? Will screenshots be taken when a new websites is visited or a new application is opened?
Ease of use – How easy to use is the computer monitoring software? Is it easy to look through the reports? Is it easy to set up? How user friendly is the interface?
Remote reports – Does the software send you the reports remotely? Most monitoring software can do this either via email or by FTP. Is this easy to set up?
Value for money – Does the package seem like good value for money compared to other monitoring applications. The average price at the moment seems to be around $70
Parental Control Software
Reliability – Is the software reliable? When filtering websites does it let anything through the net? Test this by searching for terms and visiting websites that the software should block.
Features – How many features does the software have? Does it block by category? Does it block by age? Are there a built in catalogue of websites for kids? What sort of age range is that aimed at? Look through the software and see if the feature set looks good.
Ease to use – As with computer monitoring software, is it easy to use? Easy to install? How do you access it? If it’s too easy, children may be able to disable it – this is something that should be taken into consideration.
Extra features – are there any other features that help you as a parent. Can you block internet access completely? Can you time internet access?
Value for money – Again, does the package seem like good value for money compared to others. The average price for parental control software varies greatly, you could pay anywhere between $20 and $80, depending on the features.
Another point worth mentioning is that sometimes computer monitoring and parental control software can be bought together in a package for a discount. This is well worth looking into.
