GURL Watcher - Help - Mac OS X

Overview

Getting Started

Windows
Mac Classic
Mac OS X

Help

Windows
Mac Classic
Mac OS X

Release Notes

Windows
Mac Classic
Mac OS X

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GURL Watcher Help

©2004 Quicomm
http://www.quicomm.com

Installation

1. Install GURL Watcher for Mac OS X by mounting the disk image and dragging the "GURL Watcher" folder to your hard drive. This drive must be read/writeable (that is it cannot be run directly from a CD-ROM copy).

2. Configure GURL Watcher with the GURL Watcher Setup utility. You MUST configure GURL Watcher before turning it on (it will NOT run unconfigured).

3. Turn on GURL Watcher with the Setup utility. GURL Watcher will also automatically start each time you restart your machine if you have checked the "Start GURL Watcher Automatically upon Restart" checkbox.

GURL Watcher will watch for browsser activity for every user who logs into the system (even if they log in and log out).

NOTE: GURL Watcher will only work for one (1) hour while in trial mode. You can register GURL Watcher online and immediately receive your registration key.

 

Control, Setup and Registration

 

Section 1 - Control (on/off)

The GURL Watcher executable (gwbk) has no interface. Hence it must be controlled by the GURL Watcher Setup application (and it will also restart automatically if the "Start GURL Watcher Automatically upon Restart" checkbox is checked).

You can manually turn the GURL Watcher executable on and off with one of the two buttons in this section. If the executable is running, then the "Turn Off" button is active. If the executable is not running, then the "Turn On" button is active.

The GURL Watcher executable must first be configured before it can be turned on.

Section 2 - Setup

GURL Watcher can be configured to save URLs to a file, send them to a designated email address, or both. This setup is performed in the Settings section of the GURL Watcher Setup Utility.

Start GURL Watcher Automatically upon Restart

By checking this option the GURL Watcher executable will automatically start each time you restart your system. It will remain running for all users who login to the system. Because this option places files into protected areas of your Mac OS X system, you will be prompted to enter the System Administrator Password for your Mac OS X system. This password is different than the GURL Watcher Setup password, which is described below.

Save URLs to File

When this option is chosen, you must create a file which directly stores the URLs. You do this by clicking the "Create File" button. This file can created on a local or remote volume (remote volumes must be already mounted). You can open the file at any time with any browser (the file is a HTML file which can be opened with any browser. Just drag it over the icon of your favorite browser to open it or directly open it using the "Open..." function of your favorite browser).

Send URLs via Email

When this option is chosen, all URLs are emailed to a designated email address at some preset time interval. To use this option you must enter :

  • your Send to email address
  • the From email address
  • the SMTP server (as provided by your ISP or network administrator)
  • the Subject of the email
  • a time interval in minutes (at which time all new URLs logged will be collectively sent to the destination email address).

SMTP Authorization

You can use an SMTP Server that requires authentication by adding the user name and password after the SMTP Server address, separated by colons (:). For example:

smtp.my_isp.com:username:password

Cumulative Browser Time

GURL Watcher typically sends reports on the clock time of the machine. That is, if the time is set to one hour, then GURL Watcher will send a report every 60 minutes, provided that there is new URL information to report.

You can change the timer behavior to send reports on browser time by clicking the "Cumulative Browser Time" button. In this mode, reports will only be sent after the elapsed time has been reached by the browser running. For example, assume the time is set to one hour and the Cumulative Browser Tiime checkbox is checked. The machine records URLs for 30 minuties and then is shutdown. Two hours later the machine is restarted and browsing resumes for another 15 minutes. The machine is then again shutdown. The next day the machine is restarted, and then 15 minutes into the browsing session a report will be sent (one hour of cumulative browser time).

Page Checker Limit Value

GURL Watcher can now be used to examine the content of pages loaded into a browser, and compare it against a list of blocked words or phrases (up to 500 words or phrases). Each word or phrase is assigned a numeric value. If the numeric total of all blocked words in a page exceeds the Page Checker Limit Value then the page is either closed (with Safari) or the browser is quit (with all other browsers).

When the limit is low (e.g. 0), then GURL Watcher is very sensitive to what is being displayed in a browser. When the limit is set to 100, Page Checking is turned off. For most normal browsing activities a Page Checker Limit Value of between 24 to 50 works well.

The list of blocked words and phrases is contained in the file "GWBW.txt". The format of this file is simply:

word:value

Example:

blocked1:25
anotherblock:25
someword:50

and so on. Note that after each word or phrase you enter a ":" and then the numeric value associated with blocked word or phrase. You can readily edit this file with TextEdit.

You only need to enter lower case characters because GURL Watcher automatically converts the loaded page to lower case characters.

Note that GURL Watcher checks for multiple occurances of a word in a document. Hence, if the entry:

xxx-porn:25

is in the GWBW.txt file, and this phrase is contained in the document three times, then the total rating of this page would be at least 75 (depending on what other words and phrases are also being blocked).

GURL Watcher will continue to report the URLs visited, even when the content of pages is being examined. IF a page is closed (or the browser is quit), GURL Watcher will make an additional note in the log (or email report) indicating this action against the previously recorded URL.

Password

You can optionally setup a password for the GURL Watcher Setup Utility. By entering a password you ensure that no unauthorized users will be able to launch the GURL Watcher Setup Utility to turn the GURL Watcher executable on or off nor make any setting changes. Just enter a desired password and click the "Save Settings" button. When you relaunch the GURL Watcher Setup utility, your window will appear as follows:

You must then enter your password and click the "OK" button to get the full GURL Watcher Setup window.

After configuring all GURL Watcher parameters, click the "Save Settings" button to save these settings into the GURL Watcher FBA.

Application Watching

GURL Watcher version 2.0 and above supports application watching. What this means is that you can setup GURL Watcher to notify you when specific applications have been launched and quit. It can also automatically quit a watched application after some set elapsed time. The app cannot be relaunched until some specified idle time has been reached.

Watched applications are set by selecting the "Watched Apps..." item under the "Apps" menu:

To add an application to the Watched Apps list, click on the application in the Running Apps listbox. Then Click the "Add" button. The application to be watched will appear in the Watched Apps list.

If the application is not yet running, you can immediately launch it using the "Launch" button. The application will then appear in the Running Apps list once it is running (note: the Running Apps list only contains Mac OS X applications. Classic Mac OS apps run under the TruBlueEnvironment. Hence, if you want to limit the run time of any Classic Mac OS application, you must watch the "TruBlueEnvironment" application which runs under Mac OS X. One shortcoming of this approach is that GURL Watcher will terminate the TruBlueEnvironment once its run time has expired, which in turn will terminate ALL Classic Mac OS applications currently running).

To set the Run and Idle times of any watched application, just click it in the Watched Apps list. Set the Run and Idle times, then click the "Set Time" button. If you do not set the Run and Idle times, GURL Watcher will simply report the time the applications were launched and quit, and not limit the elapsed time the application is run.

Click the "Remove" button to remove any application from the Watched Apps list. Click the "OK" button once you are finished adding applications to the list. You can watch up to ten (10) applications with GURL Watcher.

Note: a user is notified through an alert message that a specific application will be terminated one (1) minute before it is actually terminated. In this manner the user can gracefully save their work, log off (e.g. chat), and/or quit the application.

Section 3 - Registration

As mentioned earlier, the GURL Watcher executable will run in trial mode for one hour periods. In order to remove this limitation the software must be registered.

You can securely register GURL Watcher online by clicking the "Register Online" button. Registration costs $19.95 By registering online, your registration key will be immediately emailed to you.

Once you receive your registration key, you will enter your Name, Organization, Number of Copies and your custom generated Registration Key into their respective fields. You then click the "Save Registration" button to complete the process. Clicking the "Save Registration" button sends your registration key to the Quicomm server where the key is verified. This is the ONLY information sent to our server (and this is information is only sent ONCE when the application is registered). Once the key is verified at our server, the data is locally checked against the key and then stored on your system.

We welcome any suggestions and comments regarding this application.