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PC Pandora

*This is an unpaid product review*

One of the most popular questions I receive is about internet safety. As many of you are well aware, I am a strong advocate for cautiously monitoring your children's online activities. There are far to many predators out there, and far to many ways for the internet to be used as a doorway into your home by them to not keep a close eye on the activities of your children.

I try to keep an eye out on the different programs available, because I know that having the best protection available is extremely important. Recently, I was given the chance to test out a newer product now on the market, and I must say that I found myself rather impressed by the features it offers, and the quality of the program overall.

PC Pandora is described by it's makes as:

PC Pandora is your very own personal PC and Internet detective that hides on your hard drive and monitors all computer and Internet activity.

This program will allow you to record and take snapshots of the websites visited, emails sent and received, Instant Messages sent and received, Chat room conversions and other computer and Internet activity that is done on your PC.

This software can also be used as a keylogger that will allow you to record secret passwords that someone may want to keep hidden from you. Once you know the passwords you will be able to enter any site that someone tries to keep hidden from you, or login to secret Hotmail, YAHOO, AOL or other web based email accounts.


After testing it out, and using it in real life situations, I can honestly tell you that I give it a high recommendation as a tool in ensuring your children's online protection.

PC Pandora is simple to use, it has adjustable options which allow you to customize the features to what suits your needs best.

The most common feature on any simular software is the ablity to record keystrokes. This includes typing of passwords, ID's- giving you the ability to go back and access accounts that you otherwise may not be able to view- and I honestly believe that it is a feature that could play an important part in providing information if ever you needed to access these accounts for security reasons.

One of the options, which I favored were the ability of the program to perform screen captures at intervals that you can adjust, letting you preview everything your child is seeing on the screen. Whether they are reading a blog, chatting on an IM, or watching a webcam- you will have a saved image of it. I found this feature most important, because not only do we need the ability to know who our children are talking to- having the ability to see what they may be viewing on webcams, or messages that they may be receiving from potentially risky people, is essential when it comes to ensuring online safety. The screen captures can be seen by thumbnail, or in full screen mode- and you have the ability to save them as files on your computer, for later reference.

PC Pandora gives you the ability to monitor instant messages, emails, websites that your children may be visiting, and other programs that may be used. For those that have different Windows logons for different computer users in their home- PC Pandora even provides the option of only monitors certain Windows User Accounts.

One of the problems that I did incur while using the program was that it appeared to slightly slow down the loading of some programs. While I am more than use to Internet Explore 7 being relatively slowing in opening a new browser page, I was a little surprised to find that both Flock and Firefox also seemed a little delayed, and I encountered a slightly increased number of error signs telling me that a program had stopped responding while still in the process of opening. I did not count this as a huge issue, and I doubt that it will have any serious effect on your use of your computer.

A feature that I wish was available is the ability to monitor audio, especially in IM's and chat rooms.

For those seriously interested in not only watching, but also logging online and offline activities preformed on their computer- I would have to say that I would recommend this program. I believe that it's easy to use format, and the amount and quality of features it offers makes it a most valuable tool for all parents.

Now, I did want to share with you the simple fact that this program can be used for more than just monitoring your children. Recently, I had been working on a case where the accused had published files to the web, I had viewed them, but had not had the chance to do my usual screen capture of what was written, nor had I lifted the HTML. I had wrongly believed that I could go back later and access those files, only when I went back- the site was shut down. There was no cache of the pages yet, because of them having been online for such a short amount of time, and I thought that I had completely lost all chances of getting the information that I needed. When I realised the following day, after being quite disturbed by this situation, that I would be able to log into PC Pandora on my computer, and possible have screen captures from the site- I was relieved... and even more so when I was able to find the desired pages in jpeg form, and save them for later access.

When first asked to review PC Pandora, I was skeptical of doing so, as I didn't know if it would live up to what I felt it should, and even more because I realised that if I recommend this- I'd be putting my reputation, and your children's safety at risk. Weighing those two concerns, I knew that the program would have to be able to stand up to some high standards... and I really believe that it does.

So, if you are looking for an application to assist you in protecting your children online, I happily suggest that you look into PC Pandora. And, if you decide it's something that you would like to invest in and use- please let me know. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, and perhaps share a few readers reviews with others.

*This has been an unpaid product review*
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Very excellent review. Not only have you reviewed the typical use, but your mention of using it as a capture and storage device of anything you might need to pull up later is excellent. I can't tell you how many times I have spent an hour laboring over a long document, correcting every word, every sentence, only to have it crash or lock up before I saved it. With www.pcpandora.com it sounds like I can go in and grab one of the screen shots and just copy from there instead of from my head.

For that reason alone, I am going to go purchase it. The folks at PC Pandora should thank you, as you have just delivered your first sale to them.

One thing you didn't mention is the incredible tool this could be for catching a spouse cheating, or an employer who wants to know what's happening on work PC's.

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