K9 Web Protection is easy-to-use Parental Control and Internet filtering software that helps parents protect their children online. K9 Web Protection has the ability to block adult, porn and other offensive content, prevent spyware infections, and monitor visited sites on any Internet access connection (AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Earthlink). Based on commercial-grade Web filtering controls from Blue Coat Systems, K9 Web Protection is unique among content filters and it is free for home use. K9 can be configured as a porn blocker, a spyware stopper, a gambling filter or various other configurations based on our over 55 Web categories.

Version 3.2.36 includes the social networking category, Windows Vista compatibility, and improved administration tools.

Editor's review of K9 Web Protection Take control of your Web filter

For a free Internet filter, K9 Web Blocker does its job well, providing a broad collection of options for customizing your remote Web supervision needs.

To run the program, you must register on the Web site to get the free activation code. The control panel is accessible only through the Internet. Uninstalling requires removing the app from the Task Manager, then using its password to delete it from the Windows Control Panel, and finally, rebooting. Because the password gets sent to the e-mail account of the person who registered the program, it's possible that an enterprising user could disable K9 on a shared computer.

Despite those drawbacks, K9 comes with a handful or so of predesigned filters and an option to customize. With more than 50 categories for organizing Web sites, and the keyword-free proprietary K9 rating system, the Web monitoring and blocking aspects of the software functioned well. K9 also has categories for blocking sites that have been detected as potential malware threats. Equally impressive, and a little bit scary, was the log that detailed not just blocked Web sites but also every Web site visited.

K9 Web Blocker is a good, free program for those who are concerned solely with Web surfing, but the lack of a chatware filter leaves some holes for predation.