Update : The non-beta of Windows Live Essentials has been released. Get it here : http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials
A fair amount of my clients are SMEs and don’t have a Windows or Linux server. But they have the problem of controlling their employees internet usage. Some are having a problem blocking such sites as Facebook and YouTube. They don’t mind whether the users do other research but they are finding that their internet usage is being affected by their staff using YouTube and they are hitting their internet cap fairly quickly.
This is a common problem in all types of companies. Their is also a need to protect your network from people looking at porn. You obviously want to block all porn from your users.
We found this free program from Microsoft, called Windows Live Essentials. We are currently installing the beta version but if you are not comfortable with the beta then you can use the normal version from here.
There are lots of things in the Live Essentials, but the program we are looking at is the Family security
Here I am going to show how to use the Live Essentials Beta, as I find it better than the normal version.
Go here : http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta
Press the download now button. Once it has finished, then click Yes to install it.
It will then ask you what you want to install. I would suggest that you choose the programs that you want to install as you might not need all the programs.
Choose Family Safety.
Then click Install
It will download and install the program.
Once done, it will look like this.
Click Close.
Open up the program.
You will need to sign in with your Windows Live ID.
Once you have signed in, you will presented with a screen like this:
I am demonstrating on my PC, so it says you must tick the user you want to monitor.
Then click next.
It then says, who must be in control of this computer’s internet? You would sign into each computer in your company that you want to block or monitor the internet on.
Then click Save.
It then says it is finished. We now need to tell the computer what this user can and can’t do on the internet. To do that that go here : http://familysafety.live.com
When you are on this page, http://familysafety.live.com/ you will see something like this:
This is a little confusing, but basically it is saying that I am a parent. and that i control the PAULOGIER-PC computer.
You now need to edit the settings.
Then you need to tell the Family Safety what can and can’t be done. This is up to you and will be different for every company.
If you block all sites, except what you what you want people to see then choose the first setting.
But play around and see what you want to do.
You can also get a activity report of what people are doing on your network.
Do want to be sneaky? Do you not want your staff to know that you are monitoring them?
If you right click on Family Safety icon in the bottom right corner and choose remove icon.
So what happens if the person wants to surf the internet to a page that you don’t want? Well test it.
It will tell you that it is blocked. And if the person needs access to it, then they can email you.
I think that this is very cool.
I hope that this helps you.
Update 13 September 2010 : If you would like to download the full offline install rather than having to download on each computer, then use this link. This link may not continue working. http://g.live.com/1rebeta4_all/en/wlsetup-all.exe
