Does anyone know of a Parental Control program that works with ESS?

If the parental control program K9 Web Protection (see http://www1.k9webprotection.com/) is installed on a computer with Eset Smart Security (ESS) 3.0.621 (with all of the latest program component updates) then Internet access is impossible and the computer becomes unresponsive.

Either ekrn.exe uses 100% CPU or ekrn.exe and System together use 100% CPU.

K9 Web Protection runs as a Service "k9filter.exe".

I have added a firewall rule to allow access for k9filter.exe in both directions to any destination address and any port. Unfortunately this does not solve the problem.

I think the problem may be because K9 Web Protection acts as a proxy to filter all internet access. I understand that ESS also acts as a proxy, so maybe there is a conflict between them.

If I try to display the list of established network connections then that is fatal, as the computer grinds to a complete halt due to high CPU usage and the only way out is to reboot the computer.

If I replace ESS with NOD32 3.0 and another firewall (e.g. Outpost Pro 4.0) then everything runs smoothly. There is no significant CPU usage and Internet access works OK.

I have had to uninstall K9 Web Protection so that the computer runs smoothly again with ESS installed.

I am running Windows XP Pro SP2 (fully patched).

Has any one else managed to get this program to work with ESS? If so how?

 

Re: Conflict between K9 Web Protection and ESS

It works for me with either version of the AV, but with the suite on reboot, everything stalls. It is one tool I am not getting rid of.

 

Re: Conflict between K9 Web Protection and ESS

I've had this problem ever since I tried ESS. I had contact about this with support, the problem thus is known but obviously there are no ressources (or will) to address this. This bug is actually the reason why I switched my security product. I think ESS firewall is really immature and flawed in many ways so that I cannot unfortunately trust it. Sorry Eset ...

You can decide just to run the AV, should be doing fine.

 

Re: Conflict between K9 Web Protection and ESS

I would rather not have to remove ESS because of this conflict.

I previously used Outpost Firewall 4.0 with NOD32 3.0 and found that my computer speeded up greatly once Outpost was removed.
Outpost is a good firewall but is heavy on system resources, buggy (crashes frequently) and has become rather bloated.

K9 Web Protection also worked well except for the conflict with ESS.

Does anyone know of any good (preferably free) Parental Control software that works with ESS?
My guess is that many of them may run in the same way (as a proxy) and so may also conflict with ESS.

I read about Microsoft Windows Live OneCare Family Safety.
Its feature set sounds good but there are many reports of serious bugs within it that either slow down the PC or crash Windows Explorer etc.

Hopefully Eset will create a fix soon.

 

As detailed above I am still unable to get K9 Web Protection to work on a PC with ESS installed.

I suspect that the reason for this is that both the K9 service (k9filter.exe) and ESS are trying to act as proxies and so are conflicting.

I expect that other parental control programs may use a similar technique, acting as a proxy, and so may also not work with ESS.

Has anybody had any success in getting any program of this type to work with ESS?

Is there any point in me trying to specify a proxy server in the ESS configuration? Presumably the address would be 127.0.0.1 (localhost), but what would the port be?

 

I'm very interested in this issue as well. So bump.

 

You can block websites in ESS.

Advanced setup > Web Access Protection > HTTP > Blocked Addresses > add "*.somerandompornsite.com*" > OK

Then go to hxxp://www.somerandompornsite.com to see if its blocked ..

Obviously add your own values.

 

There is a firefox addon called Glubble,I haven't used it,and its probably for younger children.I don't think it filters content,rather you choose which sites they can visit.http://preview.glubble.com/index.html

 

I know that there is a facility for creating a list of blacklist (blocked addresses) or whitelist (excluded addresses). I do make use of the blacklist facility. However, this requires me to know the URL of every undesirable site that my children might visit.

Using a whitelist is too restrictive.

Most parental control programs rely on an online database which classifies websites into certain categories. All you have to do is specify the categories of web site that you child is not allowed to visit.
This is a much simpler and more secure approach.

 

How long does it take to get a response to a problem report from Eset?

I reported a problem with ESS as detailed in this thread on January 22nd via the built in "Contact Customer Care" dialog.

It told me that I should have an acknowledgement the next business day.
I am still waiting.

I also reported a different issue with NOD32 at work the following day.
That problem was acknowledged by NOD32 support the next day (Wednesday 23rd) and more information was requested (an Eset SysInspector log).

I can understand Eset giving priority to business users over home users, but I would have expected to have had some contact from Customer Care by now.

 

Re: How long does it take to get a response to a problem report from Eset?

Could you please email support[at]eset.com and enclose the link to this thread?

 

Re: How long does it take to get a response to a problem report from Eset?

Thanks Marcos.

I've just sent the email.

 

Re: How long does it take to get a response to a problem report from Eset?

I placed a call on January 11th and it took until January 30th to get and response and then it was uninstall/reinstall and since then the answers have been turn on logging, which I had already said was turned on but showing nothing so issue still has not had a serious response.

Hopefully you will do better.

 

We can confirm ESS is colliding with K9 protection. Only way to stop high CPU utilization is to disable Web Access Protection but that is not an option. It is under investigation at ESET. I've been advised that K9 is also aware of the problem.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Can I just exclude k9filter.exe (the K9 service) from content filtering by placing a cross in the box in the list of Web Browsers, or do I have to globally disable Web Access Protection for every application?

The first option would be an acceptable temporary workaround until a fix is developed, but globally disabling Web Access Protection is definitely NOT an option (as no Web Browser or Email traffic would be scanned).

 

I received an email from Eset Tech Support telling me that the 1st option won't work and only disabling Web Access Protection for everything will solve the problem. Obviously this is not acceptable.

Looks like I will have to wait for Eset to diagnose the root cause of the problem and release a fix.

 

I agree, that is my only hold back from the suite and it pisses me off. I like and need both products.

 

What I don't understand is that Web Access Protection is a feature of NOD32 3.0 too.

However, K9 works with NOD32 3.0 (with Web Access Protection enabled) and a third party firewall, but not with ESS.

There must be some kind of unwanted interaction between the firewall in ESS and Web Access Protection.

 

True, I reported this issue from the start. With most other suites I have found they automatically allow K9.

 

Eset have contacted K9 about it, but I don't know whether they'll get a reply, as K9 support seems quite unresponsive judging by the K9 User Forum.

I considered asking a question there, but most questions seem to go unanswered.

Someone called Vic has already started a thread about it, but the only reply advised him to install Kaspersky Internet Security. Very Helpful!

 

It looks pretty active to me, comapred to some.

 

Some to check out if you want to.

FREE Parental Control Software & Internet Filtering

Free downloads, freeware and shareware

Monitoring Software - Free Software Downloads and Software Reviews
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Filter Review - Products Ranked 5

Internet Filter Review 2008

Bsafe Online Internet Filters
Some of my Church members use this & like it, but not free though.

 

Thanks for the list.

Have you tried any of them to know wheter they work well with ESS?

 

No I haven't. I failed to mention that. My bad!

I have ESS on my PC & do not use any parental software because I'm the only one that uses it.

I did install K9 on a friends PC for her kids & tested it & like the way it works, especially since it's free. I also installed AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic over a year ago & it gets along with K9.

I was just giving you other options but if you're like me I like K9. Plus it takes time to test other software with ESS!

 

Hello,

I have been advised that the problem with K9 Web Protection is now fixed but not yet available to the public.