Welcome to Bsecure Online for Mac

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About Bsecure Online for Mac

Bsecure Online for Mac is a parental control program for the Macintosh, providing functions for parents and businesses. It is designed to filter and block certain Internet content according to the settings you choose. Bsecure Online for Mac blocks adult web sites, sites with subjects not fit for children, and blocks chats when predatory language is used. It also blocks certain protocols, or types of Internet communication, that you may not want your children to use, such as peer-to-peer and other file sharing protocols, online games, streaming audio and video, FTP, SSH and more.

Bsecure Online for Mac works with multiple users, and interfaces seamlessly with the Mac OS X user accounts on your computer. If you have several children, you can set different limitations corresponding to their age or maturity. You can choose whether they have access to newsgroups, e-mail, or whether they can download files. You can set the program to let them only use the Internet at certain times, and on certain days. You can choose to block or allow specific web sites, allow users only to use selected applications, and block access to specific types of content, such as streaming media or peer-to-peer file transfers. The program can even send you e-mail, automatically, when certain events occur. And you can view logs and manage some of Bsecure Online for Mac's settings over the Internet, using any Web browser.

Bsecure Online for Mac sets up a protective wall around your computer. Its pre-defined filters let you choose what you don't want your children to see, and you can create your own custom filters as well. Inappropriate web sites are blocked, shielding your children from content they are too young for. Additional filters block content by program type, such as chats, newsgroups and more.

Features of Bsecure Online for Mac

System Requirements

Getting Started with Bsecure Online for Mac

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Installing Bsecure Online for Mac

When you purchased Bsecure Online for Mac, you downloaded a disk image file containing that program's installer. Locate the disk image file that you downloaded.

Double-click the disk image file to mount the disk image; it will display on your Desktop and/or in the Finder window sidebar.

A window will also open, showing the contents of the disk image.

Double-click the Double Click to Install icon. You might see a window that warns you that the file was downloaded from the Internet. Click Open to continue.

A second warning window asks whether you want to run the installer. Click Continue.

You now see the first screen of the installer. Click Continue.

The next screen shows the Software License Agreement that governs your ownership of Bsecure Online for Mac Online. Read through it, then click Continue.

A window appears, asking whether you accept the terms of the agreement. If so, click Open; if not, click Disagree, and the installer will quit. (You must agree to the terms to install Bsecure Online for Mac.)

The next window shows you where Bsecure Online for Mac will be installed and how much disk space it will require. Click Install to continue.

You'll then have to enter your Mac's administrator user name and password to continue. Another window appears, warning you that your Mac will restart when the installation is complete. Make sure that you've saved all documents in other programs that you have open, then click Continue Installation.

The installer puts Bsecure Online for Mac on your computer. The process takes a couple of minutes, during which time you see a progress bar. When it's done, the installer tells you the results; if successful, click Restart to complete the process. Your computer will restart.

After restarting, you see a summary of the protection that Bsecure Online for Mac provides by default. To change it, click Configure; to leave it as it is, click Ignore. You'll learn all the configuration options below.

Serializing Bsecure Online for Mac

When you first launch Bsecure Online for Mac, the program will display its serialization window.

Enter your name, e-mail address, and serial number, which was sent to you in your e-mail confirmation. When you have entered your information, click OK. The program will now open.

You can change this serial number at any time while Bsecure Online for Mac is running, by choosing Bsecure Online > Enter Serial Number… menu selection.

Setting Up Bsecure Online for Mac

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Bsecure Online for Mac is installed in your Mac's Applications folder. To open Bsecure Online for Mac, go to this folder, then double-click the Bsecure Online for Mac application icon. You'll also find the Bsecure Online for Mac icon in your Dock; you can click it once to open the program.

You'll be required to enter your Mac's administrator password to continue.

The first time you launch Bsecure Online for Mac, the Bsecure Online Setup Assistant displays:

You can also call up the Setup Assistant at any time by selecting Window > Setup Assistant….

Using the Setup Assistant

Bsecure Online for Mac's Setup Assistant helps you quickly and easily adjust the program's basic settings so they are appropriate to the way you use your Mac.

If at any time you want to launch the Setup Assistant manually, you can do so by choosing Window > Setup Assistant…. However it launches, you'll need an administrator's password to run the Setup Assistant.

The Setup Assistant walks you through the configuration process, explaining the types of content that Bsecure Online for Mac filters, and how this filtering is done. Click Continue to start configuring protection for your users. If, at any time, you wish to return to a previous screen, click the Go Back button.

Setting an Administrator Password

The second screen of the Bsecure Online for Mac Assistant asks you to set an administrator password for Bsecure Online for Mac.

You always need an administrator password to change Bsecure Online for Mac's settings. This prevents your users from accessing and changing their own settings. Bsecure Online for Mac gives you two options: you can use your Mac OS X administrator password, or you can set a special Bsecure Online for Mac administrator password.

The advantage to using a Mac OS X administrator password is that any user with administrator access to the protected Mac will be able to make changes to Bsecure Online for Mac's settings. Since you can have several user accounts with administrator access under Mac OS X, this allows you to ensure that, in certain environments such as schools, an administrator who can access and change Bsecure Online for Mac's settings is more likely to be available.

If you are using Bsecure Online for Mac on a home computer, you may only have one administrator. In this case you can also use the Mac OS X administrator password. However, if you want extra security, or if you want to limit the ability to make changes to Bsecure Online for Mac's settings to specific administrators, you can set a special Bsecure Online for Mac password. To do this, check Use Bsecure Online Password and fill in the fields that appear: first, enter a password, then enter it again in the Verify field, then enter a hint that will remind you of the password, in case you forget it, in the Hint field.

Click Continue to go to the next screen, or click Go Back to return to the previous screen.

You can change this password at any time in the Password pane of the Preferences window. To access it, first make sure the Setup Assistant window is closed, then choose Bsecure Online > Preferences….

User Selection

The next screen of the assistant lets you select which users you wish to configure. This screen shows all the users you have on your Mac (including the Guest account if you have activated it in your Mac's Accounts preferences).

There are two types of user accounts: administrators and standard users. Administrators are permitted to make system-level changes to your computer to, for example, install software. If you attempt to protect an Administrator's account with Bsecure Online for Mac, you'll get a warning saying, "For security reasons, filtered users should not have administrator rights." Bsecure Online for Mac will still let you set up protection for such users, although they might be able to use their administrator privileges to change or remove your settings.

But if you've set a special Bsecure Online for Mac password, even users who are administrators will not be able to make changes to Bsecure Online for Mac's settings. While the Bsecure Online for Mac password prevents administrators from changing the program's settings, any user who is an administrator will be able to uninstall the program. Therefore, if you have not set a special Bsecure Online for Mac password, it is best to give standard accounts to users for whom you wish to filter content.

If you need to make changes to any user accounts, such as adding or removing administrator privileges, or if you wish to add, edit or remove any user accounts, click Manage Mac OS X User Accounts; this opens Mac OS X's Accounts preference pane. For more on managing user accounts, see Mac OS X help.

To configure users, check the boxes next to their names, then click Continue. In the assistant screens that follow, the same protection will be set for all users you select here. However, you'll be able to customize the settings for each person later. If you wish to use the Setup Assistant to configure settings for one user, you can do so, then run it again (by choosing Window > Setup Assistant…) for another user.

Web Filtering Setup

Bsecure Online for Mac next presents you with three options for preventing the selected users from accessing certain web sites. They are:

The default setting blocks web sites in the Alcohol, Gambling, Hacking, Racism, Sex/Pornography, and Violence categories, and you can add or remove categories by checking and unchecking their boxes. Bsecure Online for Mac regularly updates its lists of suspect websites, so you don't have to surf the web to determine which sites fall in these categories; these updates are available in the Bsecure Online for Mac filters that you can download and install as is described in the section Updating Bsecure Online for Mac.

If you choose to only allow selected websites, your user(s) will be unable to access any website until you create a list of permitted sites. You add sites to the list by clicking the plus sign at the bottom of the screen, which puts "www.example.com" into the list.

To change this to the site of your choice, double-click on that line and type the site you want to allow. Note that all subdomains will be allowed, so allowing google.com also allows www.google.com, maps.google.com, and news.google.com. However, the opposite isn't true: if you allow only www.google.com, the user will be unable to reach google.com (without the www.)

After you've confirmed the settings you want, click Continue to go to the next screen.

Chat Filtering Setup

This screen lets you decide which chat filter settings you wish to use.

You have three options:

After you've confirmed the settings you want, click Continue to go to the next screen.

Reporting Setup

This screen lets you determine how Bsecure Online for Mac reports users' activities to you via e-mail or the web. Regardless of what you set on this screen, you can always monitor user activity by viewing Bsecure Online for Mac's log, as is described in the section, Using Logs.

If you check the first checkbox, you'll receive reports of user activity by e-mail. Depending on what you choose in the first popup menu, you'll receive them in the format of Simplified Report, Complete Report, or Compressed Complete Report, or Blocked Item Report. For details on these formats, see the "Exporting Log Reports" section of Using Logs.

You can choose to receive these reports either daily (at the time at which you set up this option) or weekly (at the same time and day at which you set up this option).

If you check Send AntiPredator notifications immediately, Bsecure Online for Mac will send you an e-mail whenever it detects predatory activity, according to its rules regarding text content.

But before Bsecure Online for Mac can send you any e-mail notifications, you must tell it which e-mail server to use, who should receive the alerts, and where they should come from. To create these settings, click Configure E-mail Settings….

In the Sender box, type the e-mail address you'd like these reports to appear to come from. In the next box, add recipients by clicking the plus sign, then typing an e-mail address. To delete any e-mail addresses, select them and click -.

In the rest of this window, you define how e-mails will be sent: the server, user name, password, port number, authentication scheme, and whether to use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). You can probably find this information by checking the settings in your e-mail program; if not, ask your ISP or your computer's administrator.

To ensure that you've entered all the information correctly, click the Test Settings button. If all goes well, you see a dialog box announcing the fact, and Bsecure Online for Mac sends an e-mail message to the "Sender" address you specified. If the test fails, you'll see a dialog box to that effect.

Click OK to save these e-mail settings, which will return you to the window to configure Web Administration settings.

If you haven't already created a free Bsecure Web Administration account, select Enable Web Administration and create an account. You'll then be prompted to give an e-mail address to identify yourself, a password for the account, and verification of that password. (If you already have an account, select Enable Web Administration using an existing account; if you don't want to use Web Administration, select Do not enable Web Administration.)

After you've configured reporting preferences to your liking, click Continue to finish the setup process. (If you set up a Web Administration account, you'll also receive an e-mail message with further instructions at the address you provided.)

Finishing

You've now reached the end of the setup process, and see a confirmation screen. Click Configure to apply the changes you specified and go to Bsecure Online for Mac's main screen.

Congratulations! You've successfully told Bsecure Online for Mac how to block users' access to parts of the Internet. If you wish to reconfigure your users, or configure new users by using the Assistant, you can do so at any time by choosing Window > Setup Assistant… while Bsecure Online for Mac is running.

Setting Up Web Administration

Bsecure Online for Mac includes a way to monitor Internet use on your computer even when you're far away, through a Web Administration interface that you can view from any web browser. First, you must set up a free account. If you haven't already set up an account in the Bsecure Online for Mac Setup Assistant, choose Bsecure Online > Preferences…, then click the Web Administration icon.

If you have a Bsecure Online for Mac Web Administration account and need to sign in, enter your e-mail address and password, then click Sign In. If you don't have an account, click Register…. In the sheet that appealrs, enter your e-mail address, your password, then confirm your password. Click Create to create your account.

In either case, when you're done the Web Administration preference pane changes to tell you that web reporting is enabled, and to offer you the opportunity to disable it if you wish. To connect to your Bsecure Online for Mac Web Administration web page, click Open Web Administration (or click this link to go to the Web Administration page). Your web browser will take you to a login page, where you must enter the e-mail address and password you used to set up your account.

After logging into your Web Administration page, you'll see a log page, which displays information about your users and their activity. For more information about using online Web Administration for Bsecure Online for Mac, click the Help button on that web page; you'll be taken to an online help page.

Managing Users

When you set up Bsecure Online for Mac, you are its administrator, with access to all the controls that limit or grant permission to access the Internet. The people you are overseeing - whether children or employees - are called users. This section shows you how to create and delete users, and control how you and other administrators see users.

When you've finished running the Setup Assistant, and every time you launch Bsecure Online for Mac thereafter, you'll see its main window.

At the left is a list of your users. If you click on a user, the right-hand pane shows you which settings are applied to that user. Two checkboxes next to the user's icon give you quick access to frequently used functions: the Enable protection for this user checkbox lets you turn Bsecure Online for Mac's filtering on and off, while the Send e-mail notifications checkbox informs you of certain access attempts. (For more information about how to change which e-mail notifications you get, see the "Setting Log Preferences" section of Using Logs.)

Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and later offer a "Guest" account that you can configure in Mac OS X's Accounts preference pane. If you activate the Guest account, any user can log in temporarily; they have standard access to your Mac, but when they log out, their user folder is deleted. This is great for when you have visitors who want to use your Mac temporarily.

If you enable the Guest account in the Account preferences, Bsecure Online for Mac will display this user in its Users list. You can apply settings to the Guest account, which will then apply each time someone logs in as Guest. If your children have friends who may user their Mac, you might want to use the same protection on the Guest account as on your children's accounts.

Changing User Display

Bsecure Online for Mac displays users by default as silhouettes with large icons in the left-hand column of the program's window. You can change this display, customizing each user's image, name and more.

If you click the Action button at the bottom of the user list, you can choose to display small user icons and/or full names. Choose either of these options to change the display.

Choosing small user icons is practical if you have many users, and using full names is helpful if you have several users with the same first name.

You can also make these changes from the View menu: choose View, then choose Use Small Icons or Display Full Name.

Exporting User Profiles

After you create a profile for one of your users, you may want to apply the same profile to others. To do this, apply all the settings and filters you want to a user. Make sure you have selected that user in the Bsecure Online for Mac Users list, then select Export Profile… under either the File menu or in the Action menu (the one with the gear) at the bottom of the window.

Give the profile a name and save it wherever you want.

If you wish to apply this profile to another user, click that user's name, then select Import Profile… from either the File menu or in the Action menu at the bottom of the window. Locate the saved profile in the Open dialog that displays, then click OK. All the settings contained in this profile will be applied to the selected user. You can make changes to this user's settings, modifying the settings you imported from the saved profile, but these changes will not affect the saved profile. In this way, you can set up a standard profile for many users, then apply it to others. You can also set up a number of profiles based on the ages and maturity of your users, and apply them to new users as needed.

Editing User Icons

Bsecure Online for Mac allows you to change the icons associated with your users, even letting you add their photos. To do so, click on a user in the Users list. The top section of the Bsecure Online for Mac window shows you information about this user.

To change the user's icon, click it. Choose one of the default silhouettes, or choose Edit Picture to add a photo of the user.

Drag an image file to the image well, or click Choose to browse and find a photo. If your Mac has a built-in camera or you have an external camera, you can take a video snapshot. When you have added your picture, click Set to apply it, then click Save to save the changes you have made to your user's information.

Using Bsecure Online for Mac

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Refining Bsecure Online for Mac Configurations

You've seen how to use the Bsecure Online for Mac Setup Assistant to create and configure your users, in the section Using the Setup Assistant. You can also make changes to these configurations from Bsecure Online for Mac's main window, which provides access to more detailed configuration options, as well as an overview of your users' settings and a summary of their past activities.

The above screen displays whenever you launch Bsecure Online for Mac, and its contents correspond to the user selected in the Users list. It shows you the following:

You can also access the logs by clicking the Log button, which looks like this:

For more on logs, see Using Logs later in this manual.

How Bsecure Online for Mac Filters Internet Content

Bsecure Online for Mac separates its filtering functions into four categories: Web, Chat, Applications, and Other. In addition it has the ability to record users' actions without their knowledge (Recorder), and you can limit Internet access entirely according to a schedule that you set (Schedule). Each of these six tools is represented by a button underneath the user's information in Bsecure Online for Mac's main window.

We'll discuss each of these tools in detail. You can return to the Overview screen at any time by clicking the Overview button.

Web Filtering

Bsecure Online for Mac gives you three options to prevent the selected users from accessing certain web sites. They are: Allow access to all web sites, Block selected categories of web sites, and Only allow selected web sites. Each has its own screen of configuration options that resembles the screens you saw during the setup process, except with more options.

The Allow access to all web sites option is the simplest, as there are no settings: if you select this radio button, the selected user can view any web site.

The Block selected categories of web sites choice is Bsecure Online for Mac's default. It provides the most options, which are divided into five tabs: Categories, Trusted Web Sites, Blocked Web Sites, Keywords, and Advanced.

When you check this radio button, the Categories tab is selected and you see a list of web site categories with the Alcohol, Gambling, Hacking, Racism, Sex/Pornography, and Violence categories turned on - that is, blocked from this user. To prevent this user from browsing web sites in other categories, check their boxes; to allow access to categories, uncheck their boxes. (Filtering is done by analyzing keywords in web pages, as well as by reference to a list of web sites maintained by Bsecure and updated regularly through the process described in Updating Bsecure Online for Mac.)

You can also change whether a category is blocked for this user by clicking a category while holding down the Control key, then choosing Block selected categories or Allow selected categories from the contextual menu. By clicking multiple categories while holding down the Shift or Command key, you can block or allow multiple categories at once.

You can choose to allow your user to access certain web sites, regardless of whether they fall into a forbidden category, by clicking on the Trusted Web Sites tab. To add a web site to this list, click the + sign at the bottom of the screen, which puts "www.example.com" into the list. This is just a placeholder: To change it to the site of your choice, double-click that line and type the site for which you want to allow access.

Note that all subdomains will be allowed, so allowing google.com also allows www.google.com, maps.google.com, and news.google.com. However, the opposite isn't true: If you allow only www.google.com, the user will be unable to reach google.com (without the www).

To remove a site from the list, click it and either press the Delete key or click the - sign at the bottom left of the list.

You set up Blocked Web Sites and Keywords in exactly the same way as you set up Categories, after clicking on the appropriate tab. They function as their names suggest:

In the event of a conflict - if you've listed the same web site listed in both the Trusted Web Sites and Blocked Web Sites lists, for example - Bsecure Online for Mac will block the site.

Last in the Block selected categories of web sites section is the Advanced tab. It has two settings:

The third option for controlling access to web sites is Only allow selected web sites, which has two tabs:

Regardless of how you decide to block (and allow) access to sites, the popup menu at the bottom of this window gives you a choice of what happens when your user attempts to reach a blocked site.

By default users will be sent to a web page that tells them why Bsecure Online for Mac has blocked their access.

To give this user access to the page - if it was incorrectly blocked, for example - click the Allow this web site… button at the bottom of the page. A dialog box comes up with options to give access to the entire domain (example.com in this case), just the specific web page the user attempted to access, or any web page containing a specified text.

Clicking either Preview or Unlock requires you to enter an administrator's password, preventing ordinary users from unlocking sites without permission. (The only thing a non-administrative user can do from here is click Cancel, leaving the site blocked.)

If you click Preview, a window appears that displays the requested page so you can check to see if it's safe; you'll see the choices given above. Unlock provides access to the page, site, or pages containing the specified text, depending on which of these you have checked.

If you feel a web site was blocked unjustly, you can click Submit this link, which will send a report to Bsecure. Bsecure will examine the page to see whether we feel it should be blocked.

Chat Filtering

Bsecure Online for Mac lets you filter or block chat sessions, and offers a powerful function to protect your children when using chat programs such as iChat, ICQ or AIM instant messaging software. The AntiPredator function filters chat texts for predatory language - that is, language asking for personal information about the user. This includes such questions as "are you home alone?" and "what is your phone number?".

To enable chat filtering, select the user you wish to control in the left column, then click the Chat button. As with web filtering, you have three options: Allow all chats and Block all chats (which need no explanation), and Block suspicious phrases with AntiPredator, which we'll examine.

Bsecure Online for Mac's AntiPredator comes with a set of basic text strings as filters for incoming data, and several languages are available. You can choose to display all filters, filters in a specific language, or just custom filters that you add to the list either by:

By default, all the AntiPredator phrases are active when you turn on chat filtering. You can disable any of them if you wish by unchecking them; by selecting them and clicking the Action menu and choosing Allow selected phrases; or by clicking them while pressing your keyboard's Control key and choosing Allow selected phrases.

While Bsecure Online for Mac contains an extensive list of text strings to be filtered, you can also add your own words and phrases. You could add, for example, your address or phone number, as well as any other personal information you feel should be protected.

To add a filter for either Incoming or Outgoing data, click the + button. A new line displays at the top of the filter list. Enter the word, phrase or sentence you wish to filter, and enable it if desired by checking the box to its left.

Click the menu in the Direction column and select whether you want this text to be filtered for incoming chats, outgoing chats or both.

It is best to filter the shortest possible texts. Bsecure Online for Mac looks for the exact text you have entered in the filter, and, if the user types it differently, it will not be blocked. For example, rather than enter "my phone number is 555-1999", it is best to enter just "555-1999".

Using Schedules

Bsecure Online for Mac lets you set a schedule for each of your users that allows them to access the Internet only on certain days and for a certain length of time. To access schedule settings, click the Schedule button in the Bsecure Online for Mac button bar.

By default, all users are granted Internet access at all times. To restrict access to times you'll specify, click Only allow network access during the following periods.

When you first see the timetable, all the cells are blank, representing that the selected user is not allowed to access the Internet at any time. To grant Internet access at given times, click the time cells in the timetable - each cell represents one hour. You can click individual cells, or you can click and drag to cover longer periods.

As you click cells, tooltips display showing the periods that you are enabling or disabling. You can allow or block access for any hour-long period on any day of the week in this manner.

If you wish to allow or block access to an entire day, or if you simply want to reset access for a day to change settings from scratch, you can click the name of a day. This resets the entire day to green, allowing access for that day. Click again to block access for that day.

You can also click and drag in any direction to change cells. If, for example, you want to block access when a child comes home from school until suppertime, you would first enable all times, and then drag from 2pm on Monday to 6pm on Friday to disable those times.

A user attempting to connect to the Internet using a web browser during a forbidden period will see an alert:

However, attempts to connect to the Internet with other applications might not cause an alert to be displayed; in some cases, access will simply be blocked. Some applications will display their own alerts, saying that they could not connect to the Internet.

You can also allow Internet access for a limited period of time in between specific hours-for example, half an hour between 6pm and 9pm. To do so, first enable that time period by clicking and dragging to create a green access block; then, press the Control key while clicking that time period, and choose Add Time Limit….

A dialog will appear, allowing you to set the amount of combined Internet access permitted during that period.

Drag the slider to the time limit you want to allow. After you click OK, your choice will appear as a striped green area on the time chart, specifying the amount of time allowed.

To change the amount of time available in a time limit, move the cursor over one of the sections with a time limit, hold down the Control key, and click. Choose Edit Time Limit… from the menu.

The time limit dialog displays again. Change the time limit by dragging the slider, then click OK to save your changes; alternately, click Cancel to keep the previous time limit. To remove a time limit, select Remove Time Limit from the menu.

When a user has a time limit, Bsecure Online for Mac automatically displays a small controller allowing them to start and stop their Internet access period. Since you may want your children to be able to use their Mac, but not the Internet, this allows them to control the periods when they can access the Internet. The controller looks like this:

To start or stop a session, just drag the slider to Started or Stopped. Below the slider is the remaining time.

To remove the controller from the screen, you can click the yellow button; the controller is then minimized into the Dock. Clicking the controller's icon returns it to the screen so the user can start or stop their Internet access period.

To turn off all schedules and therefore allow Internet access at all times - with all of Bsecure Online for Mac's other filters in place, of course - uncheck the Only allow network access during the following periods box. If you've set any schedules, the word "Disabled" will appear in the middle of the time grid as a warning that those schedules won't be in effect.

Application Filtering

Bsecure Online for Mac gives you the option of allowing users to only access the Internet with specific applications. Rather than filter web access by category, for example, you can prevent a user from using any web browser. You can choose which applications can access the Internet; all other applications are blocked. To set up application filtering, click the Applications button on the Bsecure Online for Mac button bar, then check Only allow the following applications to connect to the Internet.

Application filtering will supersede all other Bsecure Online for Mac filtering rules. If, for example, you do not add a web browser to the application list, then web filtering will have no effect: all web sites will be inaccessible, as no program that accesses them is available. However, Bsecure Online for Mac's other filtering rules apply to all applications added to this list. So if you choose to allow a user to access the Internet with a web browser, then Bsecure Online for Mac's active web filtering categories will filter web sites visited.

To add applications to the list, click the + button and navigate to your Applications folder. You can also drag applications from a Finder window into this list. As you add applications, they display in the list.

To remove an application from the list, click it to select it, then either click the - button or press the Delete key.

If, at any time, you want to stop using application filtering for a given user, simply click that user's name in the Users list, click the Applications button, then uncheck Only allow the following applications to connect to the Internet.

When Bsecure Online for Mac blocks an attempt to access the Internet by a non-approved application, it displays a warning. You can change this behavior in the Reporting preferences, as is described in the section, Setting Log Preferences.

Note: some applications may use "helper" applications when they connect to the Internet. One example is Apple's iChat, which requires that iChatAgent access the Internet. If you add iChat to the list of allowed applications, this will not add iChatAgent. To add the latter helper application, go to your user's log (as is described in the section Using Logs), click Applications, then find which applications have been blocked. Click the disclosure triangle next to an application or helper application you want to allow, then hold down the Control key and click on its name. A contextual menu displays with one option: Allow Application. Choose this and the application in question will be added to the list of allowed applications.

You may also want to check the logs from time to time; many applications that you might not expect need to connect to the Internet. Apple's Address Book, for example, attempts to connect to the Internet, as does Help Viewer, the application that provides Mac OS X help. Your users will probably tell you which applications are blocked, but you can always see them, then allow them, from the log.

Recording Internet Usage

Bsecure Online for Mac lets you keep track of what your users have been doing by secretly taking pictures of what's on their screens. To access the Recording controls, click the Recorder button in Bsecure Online for Mac's button bar.

To turn on screen recording, click the Record button underneath Screen. Bsecure Online for Mac will then take a screenshot of either the Main Window (that is, the frontmost one), or of everything on the computer, including any additional monitors, if you select All Screens from the popup menu. You can also decide how often these screenshots will be created, from one per minute to one per 999 hours. (One reason to direct Bsecure Online for Mac to take less-frequent screenshots is that a large number of graphics can take up a lot of hard disk space.)

You can see these graphics and text files created by these recordings by looking at Bsecure Online for Mac's log, as is described in the section, Using Logs.

Other Filtering Options

While chatting and web browsing are two of the most popular Internet activities, Bsecure Online for Mac also provides filtering for other types of Internet access. To adjust settings for these, click the Others button.

E-mail Filtering

Bsecure Online for Mac allows you to apply its built-in content filters to e-mail messages that are transferred through any e-mail program.

Your three options for e-mail filtering are:

Peer-to-Peer Filtering

Bsecure Online for Mac can filter peer-to-peer software, which is often used to share files over the Internet. To activate peer-to-peer filtering for a selected user, check the Block peer-to-peer box.

There are no options for peer-to-peer filtering; It is either active or inactive.

Game Filtering

Bsecure Online for Mac can filter common protocols used by online games such as World of Warcraft and Quake. To activate game filtering for the selected user, check the Block games box.

This setting will only block those games that access a server in a way that Bsecure Online for Mac can identify: standalone games and those played within a web page will not be affected.

There are no options for game filtering; It is either active or inactive.

Audio/Video Filtering

Bsecure Online for Mac can filter streaming audio and video, which is audio or video content that is played back live, rather than after downloading. To activate streaming filtering for a selected user, check the Block audio/video box.

There are no options for audio/video filtering; it is either active or inactive.

Newsgroup Filtering

Bsecure Online for Mac can filter Usenet newsgroups, which offer discussion forums using a specific protocol and software. To activate newsgroup filtering for a selected user, check the Block newsgroups box.

This setting will only block newsgroups that are accessed through such software, and will not affect those that are displayed on a web page. However, you can block those web sites by checking the Newsgroups category in the Web filtering screen. (For more information, see the Web Filtering section under How Bsecure Online for Mac Filters Internet Content.)

There are no options for newsgroup filtering; it is either active or inactive.

FTP Filtering

Bsecure Online for Mac can filter incoming or outgoing "file transfer protocol", or FTP, which is commonly used for exchanging files among computers. To activate FTP filtering for a selected user, check the Block FTP box.

This setting will only block file transfers that take place using FTP's default port 21 and SFTP's default port 22, either through an FTP program or through a web browser pointed at URLs that begin with "ftp://". It will not stop files transferred using other methods, such as HTTP download or peer-to-peer programs.

There are no options for FTP filtering; it is either active or inactive.

SSH Filtering

Bsecure Online for Mac can filter incoming or outgoing "secure shell", or SSH, which is commonly used for logging into remote computers. To activate SSH filtering for a selected user, check the Block SSH box. This setting will block communications that take place using SSH's default port 22.

There are no options for SSH filtering; it is either active or inactive.

Volume Filtering

Bsecure Online for Mac can stop your users from mounting external hard drives, iPods, USB thumb drives, CDs, DVDs or other volumes, thereby preventing them from introducing new software or content onto the computer via hardware that's directly connected to it. To activate Volume filtering for a selected user, check the Block volumes box.

There are no options for Volume filtering; it is either active or inactive.

Using Logs

Bsecure Online for Mac provides a complete log of all Internet activity for each user. To view the log, either:

When you first open the Log, it shows a record of all users' Web access attempts for the past week.

You can filter log entries by clicking the popup menus in the bar at the top of the window.

Criteria are:

You can also search for specific log entries by typing the desired text in the search box at the top of the window; as you type, all entries disappear except for those matching your search. To show all log entries again, click the "X" next to the search string.

Setting Log Preferences

Some of Bsecure Online for Mac's logging behavior is determined by settings in its preferences, which you access by choosing Bsecure Online > Preferences…, or by pressing Command-, and then by clicking the Reporting icon.

The options are:

Viewing Logs

The Log window's left-hand column lists six types of log entries: Web, Chat, Applications, Session, Screen, and E-mail.

Clicking any of these log types displays only those entries. For example, clicking Session tells you of times when your user attempted to use the Internet, while Applications tells you which programs attempted to connect to the Internet.

Each line in the Log contains five different pieces of information: a colored icon, the Name of the site attempted, the User who attempted to access that site, the Date of the attempted access, and the Duration of the visit.

By default, log entries are sorted according to the last attempted access. You can re-sort the log according to any of the five criteria by clicking the appropriate header at the top of the column. Click again, and the column re-sorts in the opposite order.

You can preview log entry in several ways:

Bsecure Online for Mac will connect to the Internet to show you what the web page looks like. This preview is "live" - that is, you see the page as it exists right now.

It is possible, at times, that a web site might not be available; if so, double-clicking will not display the site. Also, some of the elements of a web page are merely parts of a page, and will display as such.

The icons at the bottom of this window control how you see these previews. They are:

You can dismiss this window at any time by either clicking the "X" in its upper-left corner, or by pressing the Escape key.

Clicking a disclosure triangle next to a web site's name lets you view specific, individual entries in a popup window as described above, and with the same controls.

When viewing log entries for web sites, you can quickly allow or block web sites that are listed in the log by holding down the Control key and clicking a log entry. Select Trust Web Page or Block Web Page from the contextual menu that displays, and Bsecure Online for Mac adds that site to the list of allowed or blocked sites. Note that this only works on individual entries; you must click the disclosure triangle and select one of the log entries therein.

Similarly, you can allow a blocked application to access the Internet by clicking its log entry while pressing the Control key, and then choosing Allow Application.

Screen Logs

Screen log entries have extra information to help you see how your users have accessed the Internet. For the Log to track such entries, you must first turn on screen and/or keyboard recording: see the section, Recording Internet Usage for further information.

Keyboard and Screen Log entries are grouped according to the application being used so, for example, all text typed into Microsoft Word appears under a "Microsoft Word" listing. Clicking the name of any application shows you all the activity that occurred while that application was being used in the right column. You can hide this column at any time by clicking the bottom-right button.

As with other log entries, you can see a visual snapshot of the user's actions by double-clicking an application, or selecting it and then clicking the Quick Look icon in the bottom right corner. A quick look window appears, letting you page through all screen shots or keyboard captures made while that application was being used.

Exporting Log Reports

You can export Bsecure Online for Mac logs as HTML files to view them later in a web browser, or as text files. To do so, select one or several log categories (Web, Chat, Applications, etc.) by pressing the Command key and clicking on them in the left column, then click the Export… button at the bottom left of the Log window. A sheet displays where you choose a name for the log, a location to save the file, and the format.

Bsecure Online for Mac lets you choose from three types of reports when you export logs. They are:

Click Save to export the log in the selected format.

To erase all information stored in the log for all users, click the Clear… button at the bottom of the Log window.

Maintaining Bsecure Online for Mac

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Updating Bsecure Online for Mac

If there are updates for Bsecure Online for Mac when you first launch the program, you'll see a window offering to install them now or ignore them until later. We recommend you always install updates when possible to allow Bsecure Online for Mac to protect you against newly discovered threats. To do so, click Install Update and follow the on-screen instructions.

You can also check for updates at any time by clicking "Check Now" in the upper-right corner of Bsecure Online for Mac's main screen.

Uninstalling Bsecure Online for Mac

To uninstall Bsecure Online for Mac, mount the Bsecure disk image as was explained in the section Installing Bsecure Online for Mac, above. Then, double-click the Uninstall Software icon.

Follow the on-screen instructions. When finished, Bsecure Online for Mac will no longer be on your computer, and any protections it provided will be gone.

Renewing Bsecure Online for Mac

Bsecure Online for Mac is provided with a license for 12 months from the date of installation that includes all updates and upgrades - both minor updates and major version upgrades - as well as updates to filters to maintain up-to-date protection. The upper-right corner of the main Bsecure Online for Mac screen shows when your software expires.

To renew your software, and benefit from another period of protection, select "Renew Bsecure Online" from the "Bsecure Online" menu to go to a web page with further instructions.

You can renew your software at any time. In fact, you should renew them before they expire, to make sure that you are fully protected, and always have the latest updates. Bsecure Online for Mac will display a reminder 30 days before any of your software is due to expire, to ensure that you are always up-to-date.

About Your Copy of Bsecure Online for Mac

To get information about your copy of Bsecure Online for Mac, choose Bsecure Online > About Bsecure Online. It gives information about Bsecure Online for Mac, such as the version number, your support number (a number you will need for technical support), and a clickable link to send e-mail to Bsecure's support department.

Technical Support

Technical support is available from the Bsecure Support page.