Hector - Useful little prog for primary schools

[_Bat_]

Found this little program a while ago but only just decided to install it across the network now.

It's a free download from Microsoft and it basically puts a small animated dolphin (hector) in the top right hand corner of the page whenever an internet browser is open.

If one of the pupils accidently comes across something naughty, they can click on hector and it will load up a screensaver which covers all the open windows giving the child time to call an adult without having to keep seeing what is on the monitor.

This is going to be explained the the pupils in assembly and I think it shows that the schools are trying to do what they can to protect their pupils with simple things like this installed.

http://www.microsoft.com/nz/athome/s...en/hector.mspx

[richard]

Thanks for that. I've been looking for something like this for as the head at my junior school has been threatening to remove the internet from the school completely as she is scared that a parent may sue if the child stumbles upon something they shouldn't even with filtering in place.

[_Bat_]

Glad someone else found it to be of use

[alonebfg]

This is of good use but from what i can see it is self controled. I know for a fact in our school that the site we have the most problems with are the one the children know about and try to visit. even web proxys have made there way to primary schools now as a report said children now get technically advanced at a earler age. At the end of the day taking away the internet does not help as the internet is a useful tool. Children need to be educated in it and the internet and is you have a major problem use something like smoothwall which you have more controlability with.

[becktonboy]

....the head at my junior school has been threatening to remove the internet from the school completely as she is scared that a parent may sue if the child stumbles upon something they shouldn't even with filtering in place.

That's an old probelem which should have been addressed in the school in the past, principally through the AIUP. Children should not be wandering willy-nilly round the net, the child and parent has to take responsibility if the kid types '*****whatever****' into google. Would they sue the school for providing a pencil which was used to make an obscene drawing? Your head needs to grow up and get a grip of what's important for her school.

[Andie]

I've downloaded the Hector Safety Button, and installed it on one computer on the network. Works fine as admin, but, when logged in as a pupil, the swimming dolphin isn't on the address bar and the Hector button isn't in the system tray. All I have is the Hector button on the Internet Explorer toolbar. This does work in that the screensaver appears fine, but I can't right click it to get the options such as Stop, Help and About.

This is on XP, and we use mandatory profiles for pupils and staff. Wondering if the system tray is locked down in some way and that is prventing it from running??

Any ideas?

[Paul_L]

Yep, been using this for awhile, had to change the permissions on the folder for restricted user, but other then that works great, even with firefox!

[Paul_L]

I've downloaded the Hector Safety Button, and installed it on one computer on the network. Works fine as admin, but, when logged in as a pupil, the swimming dolphin isn't on the address bar and the Hector button isn't in the system tray. All I have is the Hector button on the Internet Explorer toolbar. This does work in that the screensaver appears fine, but I can't right click it to get the options such as Stop, Help and About.

This is on XP, and we use mandatory profiles for pupils and staff. Wondering if the system tray is locked down in some way and that is prventing it from running??

Any ideas?

Okay as I said in my first post been using this for a little while, I got it working by, first installing onto client computer, then dropping the exe into the all users startup folder and giving 'everyone' read permission. Finally I found that you have to give 'everyone' read permission on the netsafe folder, which is in the programs folder.

Hope that helps

Paul

[elsiegee40]

if the kid types '*****whatever****'

Yes responsibility for the AUP has to be accepted, but with young children, you have to accept that both their typing and spelling may be eratic getting the "interesting" results occasionally when surfing.

Hector does seem to be a useful idea. I will be trying it here

[Mcshammer_dj]

could do with being improved as it does not handle muliple screen setups

[My220x]

I would excpect a teacher to be supervising a primary school pupils internet usage.

[Andie]

Okay as I said in my first post been using this for a little while, I got it working by, first installing onto client computer, then dropping the exe into the all users startup folder and giving 'everyone' read permission. Finally I found that you have to give 'everyone' read permission on the netsafe folder, which is in the programs folder.

Hope that helps

Paul

Should have thought of that first!!! Used to have to change permissions all the time with Classlink network, but haven't had problems with that for ages - obviuosly getting rusty! Thanks.

[Andie]

but with young children, you have to accept that both their typing and spelling may be eratic getting the "interesting" results occasionally when surfing.

Here here! Added to that, not all children have English as first language, which also leads to interesting spellings and even more interesting results!

[Andie]

Mmmm... Still not working properly. There are three .exe file in the Netsafe folder, but the administrator Startup folder just has "Hector Protector.exe" in it, so i copied that to the Startup folder for pupils. I went to the Netsafe folder in Program Files on the C: drive and checked permissions. This was already set to read, but running as a pupil user showed that this still wasn't working, beyond the icon in the IE toolbar. So I bumped up permissions to modify for users, and this has changed things a bit. Now, when I log on as a pupil, the Hector icon appears in the System Tray too, but there is no swimming dolphin when I start IE. And when I move the mouse to the System Tray, the Hector icon disappears and doesn't come back again.

[Andie]

Sorted.

Thanks to Liz, the Managing Director at Hector's World Ltd, who sent me the up to date link for the Hector Safety Button on the ThinkUKnow website.
This version installs properly for all users on network (well, it does here anyway!). If you have XP Deluxe you can even choose a different character for the safety button.

Thinkuknow - 5-7 - hector's world - Safety Button

However, the dolphin now swims on the desktop all the time. As Liz explains,

"Yes, we re-designed the new button to run in front of all applications. Hector can be put to sleep with a right click on the task bar icon or awakened the same way. We did this because the first version was linked to the actual browser software and email client software which meant keeping our software in sync with code changes in the browsers etc. The old button also went onto the Net to get software updates but that ran into serious problems with increasingly complex security software blocking access to the net. In the end, this new approach was the simplest and gave us the added benefit of covering whatever application the child was using. Material that upsets them can come from such a variety of sources – email, browser, IM, Skype etc, so this seemed the best approach in a complex world. Also the old button was designed for a standalone computer and we needed one that handled installation on a network with minimal bother."

So now you have the choice, depending on your capabilities, to either tweak the old version or go with the new one.