Joanie, the term filter is very vague and can mean a lot of things. If you're talking about a fire wall Alarmzone.com is one of the better free firewalls available.

If you clarify what you need more, I can ask my husband, he's and IT guy and will probably be able to suggest something.

Thanks for responding Lurk. I want something to block pornography. Hope you or your husband can suggest something. TIA

Joanie, I have used this one www.opendns.com and it works well. It is used by many schools to control their internet. You block access through your router, so all computers on the network will be covered.

Thank you Chispa. I will check it out. It's all so confusing to me and I need to get this taken care of.

Do you have a network or are your computers stand alones?

We have a Linksys router providing internet access for X-box and playstation 3 online gaming as well as Ipods, phones, and 2 computers. I'm wondering if I need to install software for the 2 computers as well as something for the router, or perhaps that's overkill.

If you put in on the router it will cover all hardwired computers and any wireless devices that go through that router. Set it up first without blocking anything and don't tell anyone. Sit back and observe what is being accessed. Isn't it fun having teens! The only problem is that it tracks sites through the router and not through individual computers, so if you have a couple of kids, you won't be able to tell who accessed it, just that it was accessed. Once you set up the blocks, the kids will see a page that tells them that opendns blocked access to "ABC" site or category of sites.

That sounds perfect Chispa. And I don't need to find out who accessed the info, I know exactly who. So it sounds like I don't need software for the computers as well, just the opendns? Thank you tons

Yes, just the opendns. They have instructions on their site and a forum and tech support for any questions/issues. Just make sure you have passwords on your router, etc that won't be guessed/hacked by your teens!

My only concern is that while teen would be safe with laptop at home and likely collge campus, probably not with another location with wi-fi. I may put software on his but I don't want to slow it down performance wise. Any thoughts? Thank you so much for your help.

> The only problem is that it tracks sites through the router and not through individual computers, so if you have a couple of kids, you won't be able to tell who accessed it, just that it was accessed.

the router should be able to report the MAC address of the specific computer that's requesting an internet site