Many PC users have software firewalls installed on their PCs behind their NTI (Broadband Modem). The software firewall does little more than slow down your broadband connection. What the household of today really needs is not a firewall that blocks non-existant traffic into the household but a security device that allows parents to actually control what services their children have access to. Such a device is called a parental control gateway.

A leader in firewalls, ZyXEL, now markets a very inexpensive "Parental Control Gateway Router" that is compatabile with many broadband NTIs. With this device you can now control your childrens access to chat rooms, instant messaging, and questionable content web sites.Not only can you block a teenager from pronographic sites but you can restrict hours in the day that they can use services such as instant messaging when they should be doing homework.

The parent is able to set up users of web services by age range. The ZyXEL gateway makes calls to a Cerberian database of web sites and classifies them based upon these age ranges to allow the parent to guard their children from site content that may not be desirable.

The cost of the ZyXel HS-100 is $70.40* and is available for order by simply calling our sales department. *tax, shipping, and installation are extra.

Some information from ZyXEL's web site below about the HS-100.

HS-100

Parental Control Gateway Router

ZyXEL’s HomeSafe Parental Control Gateways are Internet sharing gateway with built-in Parental Control enforcement features designed to provide customers with the most complete set of Internet parental control tools available today. It is designed to give parents the freedom to share Internet access with every member of their household and the peace of mind that comes with knowing that their Internet access rules are being enforced 24 hours a day.

HomeSafe Parental Control Gateway allows parents to:

• Create separate parental control profiles for each member of the family.
• Manage what time of day family members can access the Internet.
• Limit how much time each family member can spend on the Internet.
• Control which Internet applications a family member is allowed to use.
• Block objectionable content based on a family member’s maturity level.

HomeSafe Gateway vs PC based Software Solution
Until now parents wanting to manage their family’s Internet usage needed to install a software-based solution on every PC in the house. With the average number of PCs per household increasing every day, purchasing separate parental control software packages is both difficult to manage and an expensive proposition. HomeSafe has been designed to deliver powerful parental control features at a single point of installation and management.

In addition, HomeSafe gateways also provide all the standard routing features available on all ZyXEL Internet sharing routers. So there is no additional hardware required. The HomeSafe gateway can be connected directly to a DSL or cable modem to provide full Internet sharing functionality.

How the HomeSafe System Works
The HomeSafe system concept is simple. Parents create different user accounts for each family member and each account has its own set of access rules.

• HomeSafe Access Rules Include:
  
  Time-Of-Day
  Parents can set rules to enforce when their children are allowed to access the Internet.
  
  Daily Access Allowance
  Parents can set daily allowances to manage how much time each user is allowed to spend on the Internet, on any given day of the week. Once a user’s daily allowance is used up, their Internet access will be disconnected and they will be logged off the HomeSafe system for the day.

Application Level Control
Parents can block a user’s access to certain online applications such as Web, email, chat rooms, peer-to-peer applications and online games.

Web Content Filtering
Parents can filter out objectionable web content by selecting from dozens of different content categories.

Before any PC on the LAN is allowed access to the Internet, the user must first log into the HomeSafe Parental Control System.

Once logged in, the user is subject to the access rules assigned to their login account. The access controls follow the user’s login, not the PC. So, if family members are sharing the same PC, each person can have their own login account with a unique set of access rules.