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AOL parental controls

 
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I dont have children myself but many people say they like AOL for the parental controls. my question is can anyone tell me how they work? cant the kids just open a browser(say netscape) and get around the controls?
 
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I think the answer is yes. But do they that they can? (both the parents and the kids)
 
Desperado
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I know this doesn't have to with the original question but it has to do w/AOL:
People w/o children should get another ISP. Preferably one that only gives you bare bones access to the Internet, maybe with an NNTP server also.
Then you can go where you want to w/o being subtly coerced by installed software and you can use any and all browsers that you want etc.
 
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i do not know about the parental controls, but i do know this:
i am taking an online class at school... they told us that "AOL users need to use a different computer, or get a new ISP..."
what a bunch of CRAP! like you said, all you have to do is open IE or Netscape and browse through there... leave AOL out of the loop (except for the connection). i logged into the class from a friend's house on AOL last week and did not have a problem when i used IE 5.0.
but, also like you said, most people that use AOL do not know that they can just open IE or Netscape. so, the question is; should they know, or should we just let them be blissfully ignorant?
 
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Everyone is right that says AOL is crap. MSN is crap. Any GUIized ISP is crap. There is no need for it all. It just makes it easier for the psychos to locate your children.
The best protection is a third party software suite called NetNanny (at least that I have found). It blocks access on ALL browsers. Can filter E-mail and can even limit the amount of time a user is On-line or even on the computer itself. It can log all applications that have been opened and ran.
Also, if the user goes to a site they are not suposed to, it will completely shut down any access and the computer will have to be rebooted.
It is fully customizable. Might want to check it out.

------------------
Happy Coding,
Gregg Bolinger
 
Randall Twede
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well i just minimize AOL then open IE. which is kind of why i was wondering. kids are very computer literate from what i have seen. i think most would think to try it if they really wanted to go to a site that wasnt allowed.
you might wonder why i use AOL at all. not all providers have a local access number for me and AOL has given me about half my months free this year. i keep calling to quit and they give me another month
[This message has been edited by Randall Twede (edited October 31, 2001).]
 
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With AOL parental controls as long as you are on dial up via AOLs servers (not BYOA) the parental controls cannot be circumvented. Other browsers like Netscape must go through ie3.proxy.aol.com or it won't be able to get any pages. Other applications have difficulty going through proxies, so they won't be able to use some programs.
 
Randall Twede
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since someone revived this thread, i have noticed something else about AOL. i use(or used to) Audiognome to download mp3's. AOL used to sometimes freeze up(quit responding) when the download reaches 99% and if i attempted to resume, it would freze right away. now it seems to always do it. i wonder if it has anything to do with AOL being part of Time Warner or if it is just the proxy thing that drew mentioned. either way it is annoying as hell.
 
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I had the misfortune of using aol for awhile (suckered in by the free trial after moving and having no other net access). Then I set up a linux box on a hub, and couldn't get the two boxes to even ping each other. I poked, prodded, reinstalled drivers, anything possible to see where I went wrong configuring the linux box. Eventually I realized that aol had installed a WAN adapter on the win2k box that snagged every packet and flung it off to the aol servers. even things marked for 192.168.whatever went straight to aol, no choice in the matter. I quickly ditched aol. just one more gripe against them.
ps - if you want some nerdy fun, try explaining to an aol rep that their product is taking every ethernet packet from my class C subnet...
 
Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs.
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