Tales from the Blog

How to limit XBOX / PS4 / PC game time.

June 2, 2020

I trust my kids and we have a good relationship, but sometimes they get a little distracted when deep into a virtual world. Hey, they’re kids and what kids don’t? When this happens however, sometimes I need to exert some “parental control”. If you have ever tried to use Microsoft’s or Sony’s or Circle’s parental control / family features – you probably didn’t use it for very long because although nice in concept, it’s way too complicated, and it…

How to watch & download YouTube videos using VLC Player.

May 20, 2020

Scott

How-to

I like to download video’s off youtube that I think are important, for posterity. In order to download a youtube video it has to be converted first from a streaming format into an offline (.mp4) format. There are two ways to download youtube videos: Use a HTML based converter like y2mate.com, keepvid.com, video.download Use VLC Player # 1) Although these are easy when they work, unfortunately the browser based converters should probably be avoided as they have been repeatedly flagged…

How to not get Malware

May 5, 2020

Scott

How-to, Security

Malware, malware, malware. That’s all you hear about today and for good reason. If you do get malware you can kiss time and money goodbye. Add to that a lot of frustration and anger. I’ve been managing corporate networks for over twenty years and I’ve watched malware evolve into what is today a Rubicon of frustration from which there is no return. In other words, if you get malware it’s over – do not spend your precious time and money…

Phishing emails abound, be ever vigilant.

April 24, 2020

Scott

Education

A phishing email is an email crafted to appear legitimate in order to trick you into clicking on a link or attachment. Said link or attachment will contain malware. Phishing emails are nothing new, but they have become much harder to spot, and are becoming much more common (because they work). We help people and companies deal with phishing email fallout all the time. Here are a few tips to protecting yourself. Preface: One aspect of email you need…

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2020

Scott

General

Hi Everyone, We just wanted to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all, and a big thank you to all of our customers for supporting what we believe is a very important product for families today. This year we will be releasing Kibosh 2.0, another step closer to the perfect Parental Control solution. We’ll be introducing a new Gigabit Wireless AC router, a new UI, a new location and app usage monitor, an improved mobile solution (unlike…

How to archive your Amazon digital content (movies, digital books, audible)

November 13, 2019

Scott

How-to, News & Information

Amazon makes spending money easy…perhaps too easy, and before you know it you’ve spent hundreds to thousands of dollars buying books, music and videos on demand. However, all of this content is locked in the Amazon system, so even though you bought it, in reality Amazon owns it and they dictate if / when you get access. Besides the obvious privacy issues, this isn’t such a bad thing per say, until either A) you lose Internet and access to all…

How to surf without porn, ads, and malware.

September 17, 2019

Scott

Did you know?, Security

There are three essentials pieces to a clean (no ads, no porn), and safe (no malware) Internet browsing experience: Kibosh Router Zero Internet pornography Images / videos always safe Bad websites disappeared incognito always safe Malware & DNS Hijack protection Includes mobile Internet protection uBlock Origin This is the only ad-blocker you need. It is available as an extension for all browsers. NOTE: uBlock is easy to turn on / off per site, but be advised it’s a serious…

How to protect yourself and your company network from Ransomeware.

July 18, 2019

Scott

Did you know?, Security

How to protect yourself and your company network from Ransomeware. …or how I laugh in the face of scrip kiddies! I’ve been building, and managing networks of 75 – 150 user, multi-site, primarily Windows based corporate networks for about twenty years, plus my work with Kibosh. I keep a tight reign over the data under my care, but even so I’ve been hit with a few malware / ransomeware attacks over the years. I think that no matter how tight…

DuckDuckGo SafeSearch now supported by Kibosh!

April 25, 2019

Scott

How-to

Good news! DuckDuckGo.com has been added to our list of SafeSearch enforced search engines: Google Bing DuckDuckGo Info This means that, for all Kibosh customers, DuckDuckGo.com will always be in Safe mode (it will never display pornographic websites / images, or even allow the searching for said content). No matter what device, no matter what browser (Chrome, FireFox, Safari, etc). Same goes for Bing, Google, and Info. This is a big deal because DDG is right behind Google as the…

Security Note 12/18

December 27, 2018

Scott

Security

Couple of items to be aware of: There are no keyloggers that work on iPhones or iPads, so don’t fall for the slick websites that tell you otherwise. There are no free solutions to parental controls. There are no easy ‘point and click’ solutions to Internet security. Do not fall for these phishing tactics. Example sites trying to trick you into installing something: https://ikeymonitor.com/top-keylogger-for-iphone https://www.spyzie.com NOTE: Never trust a website selling an app, always double-check the reviews of an…