Home & Family Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the
operating system requirements for Home & Family?
What are the
Web browser requirements for Home & Family?
What is the
Home & Family Plug-in?
Our family
computers use a router on a network?
Will this work?
What should
I do if I have to install a new network card?
It seems to
me that Home & Family is not doing anything. What should I do?
Why is Home
& Family Not Working?
Are you sure
that Home & Family is not working?
It seems to
me that Home & Family is not doing anything. What should I do?
Why is there
not a Home & Family icon in the systray (by the computer’s clock)?
Why is there
two (2) Home & Family icons in the systray (by the computer’s clock)?
General
Questions About Home & Family
Does Home
& Family replace Internet Explorer or Netscape browsers?
How does
WebBalanced Technologies define what is and is not acceptable to the site?
How does
WebBalanced Technologies look at every site?
How can
WebBalanced Technologies possibly keep up with all the content on the Web?
What can I
do in the Home & Family Administration Area?
How do I
modify my Account Information?
How can I
update my Billing Information, including my credit card number?
How do I Add
Users or Modify Users?
How do I
change Administrator or User Characteristics?
How can I
see when each User last used Home & Family?
How do I
submit a URL or Web site to be reviewed or reevaluated?
How do I
download my Home & Family Plug-in?
How do I
access the Home & Family Guides?
I am getting
blocked by sites and don’t know why.
Why is this happening?
What do the
Internet Access messages I receive mean when I cannot access a Website?
Closing A
Home & Family Account
How do I
cancel my Home & Family account and uninstall Home & Family from my
computer?
For All
Other Information Requests
What should
I do if my question or need does not fit any of the sections above?
·
Must be OSR2
complaint (Winsock 2.0)
·
Windows 95
operating system must update to Winsock 2.0
·
Installation
requires Administrator rights
·
Does not
install on server
Home & Family
works generally with most Web browsers.
Minimum browser requirements are Internet Explorer 4.1 or greater,
Netscape Navigator 6.x or greater and Netscape Communicator 4.7x or
greater. Home & Family is optimized
for Internet Explorer.
The Home & Family Plug-in is simply the setup file that extracts and installs the Home & Family files on your computer. A 4-digit number follows the Plug-in file, which is your family’s Account ID. For example: Plugin_0000. You can download your Plug-in from the Administration Area at anytime. Click on the Download Plug-in submenu of the Configuration link in the Home & Family Administration Area to download and install your Plug-in.
One of the new features of Home & Family is the 'family' login. If you chose during your online account creation to allow all members of your family to use the same login and characteristic settings as the Administrator, Home & Family logs in seamlessly in the background every time somebody accesses the Internet on your computer. There is no need to enter a username or password as no login screen is displayed.
If you did not choose a single user at the time you created your account, you can still take advantage of this auto login feature by deleting all users under your account EXCEPT the Administrator. With the Administrator as the single user, no Home & Family login screen is displayed. All users of your computer use the characteristic settings assigned to the Administrator. Home & Family is protecting each user in the background. The Home & Family icon in your computer's systray (typically next to your computer's clock) identifies 'family' as the active user when you hold your mouse over the icon.
A new feature of Home & Family is the ability to have direct access to brand new sites that are not yet reviewed by WebBalanced. If you find the “Site Not Reviewed” message annoying, you can disable the message and have direct access to brand new sites by accessing the Administration Area and following these steps:
To enter Home & Family's Administration area, double-click on your Home & Family Administration icon on your desktop or click/copy this link in your Web Browser:
http://s.planetgood.net/pgadmin
Enter your Administrator Username, Password and Account ID. Click SUBMIT.
1) Click on the Edit Users submenu of the Internet Access Management link on the left side of the Administration Main Menu
2) Highlight the user by clicking on a specific User (user is then highligted in a dark color)
3) Click on the CHARACTERISTICS button
4) Just above the SAVE CHANGES and CANCEL buttons, click on the BOX in front of the sentence, "Allow access to sites that are brand new (sites that have not been reviewed)."
5) Click the SAVE CHANGES button
NOTE: DO NOT CHECK THIS BOX FOR USERS WHO YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE DIRECT ACCESS TO SITES THAT HAVE NOT BEEN REVIEWED BY HOME & FAMILY
In accordance with the Home & Family license agreement, it is permissible to install Home & Family on more than one family computer in your home. There is no additional charge for installing our product on multiple home computers used by your family. However, it is a violation of the Home & Family license agreement to install, copy or distribute Home & Family to other computers not owned or used by your family. In such cases, these Home & Family accounts will be closed immediately and violators of the license agreement are subject to appropriate legal action.
The Home & Family Plug-in is a small setup file that can be downloaded to each computer via the Administration Area or distributed easily by email, network or floppy disk. To download your Home & Family Plug-in on a family computer where Home & Family is not installed, click on this link or copy it to your browser URL address window:
http://s.planetgood.net/pgadmin
At the Home & Family Administration login screen, enter your Administrator username, password and account ID. Click SUBMIT. The Administrator can download the Plug-in from the Administration Area at anytime. Click on the Download Plug-in submenu of the Configuration link in the Home & Family Administration Area to download and install your Plug-in.
Again, you can also download this setup file from one computer and transfer it to another computer by email, network or floppy disk.
Home & Family uses state of the art technology and configures itself to any Internet gateway, proxy, firewall, router, bridge or switch.
If you are running a home network, it is important that you uninstall your Home & Family Plug-in before changing network cards. After you determine that your new network card is functioning correctly, reinstall your Home & Family Plug-in.
If you are running
the Windows 95a or 95b operating system, install Winsock 2.0 from the Microsoft
download site. Windows 95 must be OSR2
compliant with Winsock 2.0 support.
Winsock 2.0 handles requests for sending/receiving information for
Internet applications. Microsoft provides
this link where you can download Winsock 2.0 for WINDOWS 95 only
operating systems (click on the link below):
If you are not
running the Windows 95a or 95b operating system, try reinstalling Home &
Family.
Home & Family
is not compatible with some programs.
These include: Newnet; Webhancer;
and Aventail. Uninstall the
other program by going to START>SETTINGS>CONTROL
PANEL. Choose ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS and select the program
from the list in the Add/Remove Program Properties window. Click the Add/Remove
button.
You installed Home
& Family on Windows XP Home Edition, XP Professional, NT or 2000 without
Administrator rights. You must
install Home & Family as Administrator on your computer. After installation, Home & Family works
for all user accounts.
Try rebooting your
computer.
Try reinstalling
Home & Family.
This issue is typically created by a problem with the stability of your Windows Operating System; specifically, your network TCP/IP protocols. First, try uninstalling Home & Family and reinstalling it.
If this does not correct the behavior, you may try the following (NOTE: YOU MUST HAVE YOUR ORIGINAL OPERATING SYSTEM DISK TO PERFORM THIS PROCEDURE):
· Make sure that Home & Family is uninstalled
· Remove your computer’s TCP/IP protocols
· Reinstall your computer’s TCP/IP protocols
· Reinstall Winsock 2.0 for Windows95 computers only
· Reinstall Home & Family
·
Confirm that
you are the active user for Home & Family.
By moving your mouse over the Home & Family icon in the systray (by
your computer’s clock), a message is displayed identifying the active
user: “Home & Family is Active
for…”
·
Is the Home
& Family icon in the systray (by your computer’s clock)? If the icon is not in the systray, this is
not necessarily an indication that Home & Family is not working. Try closing your browser and re-launching
it.
·
Try to go to a
Website that you know is restricted. If
you receive an Internet Access message why the Website is restricted, Home
& Family is working.
Click on your
browser’s refresh or reload button, or exit your browser and re-launch it.
Home & Family
is not compatible with some programs.
These include: Newnet; Webhancer;
and Aventail. Uninstall the
other program by going to START>SETTINGS>CONTROL
PANEL. Choose ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS and select the program
from the list in the Add/Remove Program Properties window. Click the Add/Remove
button.
You installed Home
& Family on Windows XP Home Edition, XP Professional, NT or 2000 without
Administrator rights. You must
install Home & Family as Administrator on your computer. After installation, Home & Family works
for all user accounts.
Try rebooting your
computer.
Try reinstalling
Home & Family.
If the icon is not
in the systray, this is not necessarily an indication that Home & Family is
not working. Wait a minute as Home
& Family finishes processing and the icon will appear.
The function of Home & Family is not affected by having two Home & Family icons in the systray. The program will run normally. However, it is important to be sure that all icons are removed from the systray when you log off the Internet to close your user session for Home & Family. To log off Home & Family manually, click on the Home & Family systray icon with your right-mouse button (the non-normal button) and then click on the option logoff using your left-mouse button.
There is no “Group ID” in your registry settings. Try reinstalling Home & Family. If this does not resolve the behavior, contact technical support.
WebBalanced
Technologies classifies Home & Family as a "family safe" browsing
tool because all members of the family can surf the Internet using various
levels of safety without running into the danger of encountering objectionable
material. Parents can feel confident that when their child is on the Web, they
will only have access to suitable material based on the types of content
(characteristics) that the parent selects for each browsing level.
No, Home & Family compliments your existing browser, either Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator or Navigator. Home & Family is transparent to the end-user. Your Web browser is not modified by Home & Family.
Parents can choose not to allow their children to access certain secured Websites that contain online ordering.
Home & Family makes no judgment about the acceptability of a site. Home & Family has established a set of over 30 criteria or characteristics which reviewers look for when reviewing sites. If a site's content falls into any of the 30 or more characteristics, that site (or portions of that site) is identified for containing one or any collective combination of characteristics. Depending on the characteristics selected by parents for browsing, this determines what their children access while on the Web.
On the front end Home & Family utilizes the best technology available to help our site reviewers with their efforts in selecting characteristics for each site. After the review process, Home & Family also uses unique technology to automatically recheck for the sites that are highly unpredictable and change. The tendency of the site is the first step in what helps determine the evaluation process. Every page seen by a Home & Family reviewer is completely monitored and judged on total content.
Home & Family has already reviewed the
most popular sites on the Web. Aside from monitoring new pages, whenever a
subscriber encounters an un-reviewed page, the URL address is automatically
submitted to the "Home & Family Review Team." This is the best
means for ensuring that every site is carefully reviewed and fairly assessed.
Home & Family could be less meticulous and try to get more sites approved
to add volume, but the price of lower conscientiousness would be, ultimately,
that objectionable sites slip through the cracks and become accessible, diminishing
our purpose.
For detailed
information about the Home & Family Administration Area, refer to the Home
& Family Users Guide. You can view
or print the Home & Family’s Technical Support FAQ, Users Guide, or Quick
Start Guide for Administration Area by clicking on the desired submenu from the
Help menu.
·
Modify Account
Information like my address, etc.
·
Update Billing
Information, including my credit card number
·
Create or
change User information
·
For each User,
I can manage what type of Websites can be viewed by each family member
·
I can see when
each user last used Home & Family
· I can submit URLs to reviewers to review or reevaluate Websites
· I can download my Home & Family Plug-in
· I can obtain my Uninstall Key
Click on the General
Info submenu of the Account Info link in the Administration Area
to access and manage your Personal Account Information. The fields are populated with the Account Information you provided
when creating your account. You can
modify any of these fields: First
Name; Last Name; Address; City; State/Province; Postal Code; Country; Phone
Number; or Email Address. Click on
Update Changes to save and submit your information to Home & Family.
Click on the Billing
Info submenu of the Account Info link in the Administration Area to
access and manage your Billing Information.
The fields are populated with your Billing Information you provided when
creating your account. You can edit any
of these fields: Card Number;
Expiration Date; Credit Card Holder; Address; City; State/Province; Postal
Code; or Country. Click on Update
Credit Card Details to save and submit your information to WebBalanced
Technologies. The Bill Frequency, Bill
Amount, Last Bill Date and Next Bill Date are not modifiable.
NOTE: If you have a question about your billing
information, you can type your question in the window provided near the bottom
of the screen and click the SUBMIT button to send your question to
Home & Family.
To add a User, click on the New User submenu
of the Internet Access Management link.
To add a new user, complete the following screen information:
Click on Update Changes to save your
information.
Edit [Edit User]
To modify or edit a current User, click on
the Edit Users submenu of the Internet Access Management
link. Click on Edit to modify
your Administrator account and other family accounts. To edit a User, click on a specific User and modify any of the
following screen information:
Click on Update Changes to save your
information.
To delete a User,
click on the Edit Users submenu of the Internet Access Management
link. Highlight the specific User and
click Delete. Click OK
when asked to confirm the deletion. NOTE: The Administrator of the Home & Family
account cannot be deleted.
Click on the Edit
Users submenu of the Internet Access Management link to access the
User Administration screen. Highlight a
specific User and click Characteristics. For each Characteristic, you can Allow or Deny viewing to manage
access to Websites containing that content by simply clicking on Allow
or Deny radial button for any Characteristic. Home & Family Characteristics are listed under four
color-coded groups for ease of use:
Adult Content; Mature Subject Matter; Unpredictable Areas; and Belief
Systems. Click on Update Changes
to save any changed information.
The User Characteristics Administration screen is where the Administrator of the account can choose unique browsing levels for each user:
For User accounts,
“Secure Web site access is enabled” is a separate option that is NOT
checked by default. In an effort to
provide security, certain Web sites code information for secured transactions
such as online ordering and personal information. For detailed information on whether you want to allow viewing of
Secure Web sites for a User, click on the “Secure Web Sites” hyperlink
provided.
1) Click on the Edit Users submenu of the Internet Access Management link on the left side of the Administration Main Menu
2) Highlight the user by clicking on a specific User (user is then highligted in a dark color)
3) Click on the CHARACTERISTICS button
4) Just above the SAVE CHANGES and CANCEL buttons, click on the BOX in front of the sentence, "Allow access to sites that are brand new (sites that have not been reviewed)."
5) Click the SAVE CHANGES button
NOTE: DO NOT CHECK THIS BOX FOR USERS WHO YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE DIRECT ACCESS TO SITES THAT HAVE NOT BEEN REVIEWED BY HOME & FAMILY
Click on the Activity
Log submenu of the Internet Access Management link to display each
user and last activity by date and time.
Click on the Submit
URLs submenu of the Internet Access Management link to access the
Submit URL for Review screen. Enter
the URL that you want the Home & Family Site Review Staff to review or
reevaluate and click Submit to send the information to Home & Family.
The Home & Family Plug-in is simply the setup file that extracts and installs the Home & Family files on your computer. A 4-digit number follows the Plug-in file, which is your family’s Account ID. For example: Plugin_0000. You can download your Plug-in from the Administration Area at anytime. Click on the Download Plug-in submenu of the Configuration link in the Home & Family Administration Area to download and install your Plug-in.
There are two steps
to uninstall Home & Family:
To obtain an
uninstall key, click on the Uninstall Key submenu of the Configuration
link.
Before
clicking CONTINUE,
determine if you want to uninstall Home & Family AND terminate
your Home & Family Account (leave check in the DISABLE
MY ACCOUNT box) or you want to uninstall Home & Family,
but keep your Home & Family Account active (uncheck the DISABLE MY ACCOUNT box).
To uninstall Home
& Family without terminating your Home & Family account, first uncheck
the DISABLE MY ACCOUNT box. Click Continue
to obtain your uninstall key. Please
write down this uninstall key value.
To uninstall the
Home & Family plug-in, go to START-PROGRAMS-HOME&FAMILY. Choose HOME&FAMILY UNINSTALL. Enter your Administrator password and
uninstall key value. Click Uninstall. Home & Family Uninstall will ask you to
reboot your computer. Close all
programs and click OK to restart your computer.
To install Home
& Family on your new computer, click on the Get Current PG Version
submenu of the Configuration link in the Administration Area. Click on the Upgrade Now! button and
follow the screen instructions to download and install Home & Family.
For detailed
information about the Home & Family Administration Area, refer to the Home
& Family Users Guide. You can view
or print the Home & Family’s Technical Support FAQ, Users Guide, or Quick
Start Guide for Administration Area by clicking on the desired submenu from the
Help menu.
The URL or Website
that you are visiting is not yet reviewed.
It is submitted automatically to the Home & Family Site Review staff
for review. NOTE: The Administrator of the Home & Family
account can still access the site via the BROWSE button.
A new feature of Home & Family is the ability to have direct access to brand new sites that are not yet reviewed by Home & Family. If you find the “Site Not Reviewed” message annoying, you can disable the message and have direct access to brand new sites by accessing the Administration Area and following these steps:
1) Click on the Edit Users submenu of the Internet Access Management link on the left side of the Administration Main Menu
2) Highlight the user by clicking on a specific User (user is then highligted in a dark color)
3) Click on the CHARACTERISTICS button
4) Just above the SAVE CHANGES and CANCEL buttons, click on the BOX in front of the sentence, "Allow access to sites that are brand new (sites that have not been reviewed)."
5) Click the SAVE CHANGES button
NOTE: DO NOT CHECK THIS BOX FOR USERS WHO YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE DIRECT ACCESS TO SITES THAT HAVE NOT BEEN REVIEWED BY HOME & FAMILY
The URL or Website
content contains a Characteristic or Characteristics that are set to DENY for a
specific User. The Administrator can
use the OVERRIDE option to allow the User access to the Website.
SITE
OVERRIDE gives the
Administrator of the Home & Family account access to the Web site that is
denied viewing by a family user because of how the Administrator selected the
characteristics or options for that user.
The Home & Family SITE OVERRIDE
feature provides parents and administrators the freedom they desire by allowing
them, if they choose, the ability to look at a Web site that is not reviewed to
determine if their family member should have access to the site.
The SITE OVERRIDE button
opens the ADMINISTRATOR SITE OVERRIDE screen.
Home & Family’s Override feature asks you to verify that are the
Administrator of the account by entering your Administrator User Name and
Password. When you click OK, the Override screen opens and gives you
the choice of allowing this specific Web site to be viewed by you or any of
your children according to the following options: never; half-hour; one hour; one day; one week; or permanently.
If you are the
Administrator of your account and navigate to a Web site that is not reviewed,
you receive the following Access Message:
“The Web site you are trying to access [http://anywhere.com] cannot be
viewed with your Home & Family account because it is not reviewed.” It is submitted automatically to the Home
& Family Site Review staff for review.
Clicking the BROWSE button gives you access to the Web site
even though it is not reviewed.
If a family user
other than the Administrator visits a Web site that is not reviewed, they
receive the following Access Message:
“The Web site you are trying to access [http://anywhere.com] cannot be
viewed with your Home & Family account because it is not reviewed.” It is submitted automatically to the
Home & Family Site Review staff for review.
SITE
PREVIEW gives the
Administrator of the Home & Family account access to the Web site even
though it is not reviewed. The Home
& Family SITE PREVIEW feature
provides parents and administrators the freedom they desire by allowing them,
if they choose, the ability to look at a Web site that is not reviewed to
determine if their family member should have access to the site. The SITE
PREVIEW button opens the ADMINISTRATOR
SITE OVERRIDE screen. Home & Family’s Override feature asks
you to verify that are the Administrator of the account by entering your
Administrator User Name and Password.
When you click OK, the
Override screen opens and gives you the choice of allowing this specific Web
site to be viewed by you or any of your children according to the following
options: never; half-hour; one hour;
one day; one week; or permanently.
If a user other
than the Administrator attempts to use the ADMINISTRATOR
SITE OVERRIDE feature or the incorrect Administrator User Name
and/or Password is entered, you receive this Security Violation
message: “You do not have the proper
authority to proceed.”
If a family member
requests to review a Web site that cannot be accessed with his or her Home
& Family user account, they receive following Access Message: “The Web site you are trying to surf
[http://anywhere.com] cannot be viewed with your Home & Family account
because it contains these subjects:
Chat; Gambling.”
SITE
OVERRIDE gives the
Administrator of the Home & Family account access to the Web site that is
denied viewing by a family user because of how the Administrator selected the
characteristics or options for that user.
The Home & Family SITE OVERRIDE
feature provides parents and administrators the freedom they desire by allowing
them, if they choose, the ability to look at a Web site that is not reviewed to
determine if their family member should have access to the site. The SITE
OVERRIDE button opens the ADMINISTRATOR SITE OVERRIDE screen. Home &
Family’s Override feature asks you to verify that are the Administrator of the
account by entering your Administrator User Name and Password. When you click OK,
the Override screen opens and gives you the choice of allowing this specific
Web site to be viewed by you or any of your children according to the following
options: never; half-hour; one hour;
one day; one week; or permanently.
In an effort to
provide security, certain Web sites code information for secured transactions
such as online ordering and personal information. If you are attempting to access a secured sight and this feature
is denied for your account, you receive the following Access Message: “The requested Web site
[https://anysite.com] cannot be accessed because it is a secured site.”
Through Home &
Family Protected Search, users may use any of the popular search engines like
Yahoo, Excite or Lycos. If users type in any of over 10,000 words or phrases
related to pornography, no results are rendered. If you are attempting to use a search engine to search a word or
words that are linked to restricted sites, you receive the following Access
Message: “The requested search cannot
be accessed with your Home & Family account because of the subject matter.”
If you login to
Home & Family with the incorrect User Name or Password, you receive the
following Access Message: “Access to
your Home & Family account is denied.
Home & Family cannot identify properly your account with the User
Name and/or Password you provided.” To
try another login, press the LOGIN
button.
There are two steps
to uninstall Home & Family:
To obtain an
uninstall key, click on the Uninstall Key submenu of the Configuration
link in the Administration Area. To
uninstall and terminate your Home & Family Account, leave the
check in the DISABLE MY ACCOUNT
box. Click Continue to obtain
your uninstall key. Please write down
this uninstall key value.
To uninstall the Home & Family plug-in,
go to START>PROGRAMS>HOME&FAMILY. Choose HOME&FAMILY
UNINSTALL. Enter your
Administrator password and uninstall key value. Click Uninstall.
Home & Family Uninstall will ask you to reboot your computer. Close all programs and click OK to
restart your computer.
For most concerns,
including technical support issues with Home & Family, click on the Contact
Us submenu of the Help link in the Home & Family Administration
Area and complete the Home & Family Technical Support Contact Form
provided. Click on the Send
Information to Home & Family Technical Support button to forward your
information to WebBalanced Technologies.
Please email all
other general questions or needs about Home & Family or your Home &
Family account to support@webbalanced.com.
To contact customer support call 1-877-366-7233.
Updated
5/23/2002