CyberPatrol 7.6 review

CyberPatrol passed most of our standard tests with ease.

It was easy to set up, automatically detected when we created a user profile with the same name as a Windows user account, and always ran with the relevant user profile active when that account was used.

It blocked everything we'd expect it to, refusing to let us search for obscene words and blocking access to websites with violent, pornographic, extremist or gambling-related content. It dealt appropriately with UK-specific search terms, blocking 'happy slapping' videos, for instance.

It was also intelligent enough to discriminate between different uses of many terms and phrases - blocking access to key generators for pirated software but allowing us access to free encryption key generators. When we tried to get around the filter by using Windows Task Manager to turn off CyberPatrol, our internet connection stopped working. However, if you do need to give a user profile unlimited access (say you're doing maintenance from that account and need to re-enable downloads), you can use the password-protected instant-override feature.

Chat-filtering was less impressive. At first, it didn't block anything, even when we made blatantly improper suggestions couched in the most obscene terms. When we customised the default filters, the software seemed to do much better. When we gave our lurid come-ons another try, it stopped accepting messages. It recognised and blocked our credit card number, even when it was typed without spaces between the four-digit blocks. But when we typed blocked words or phrases with other characters in between the letters - such as 's*e*x' instead of 'sex' - it didn't know what to do and let the offending words pass.

Apart from one or two small glitches this is a good program, but it's not as good as some others.

Author: Karl Wright