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Table of Contents

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Installing the netChaperone Monitor .................................................................................................................................. 3

netChaperone Dashboard .................................................................................................................................................... 4

Logging in the first time ........................................................................................................................................... 4

Page 1 - Overview .................................................................................................................................................... 5

Detailed User Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 7

Page 2 - Chart: Users and Sites ................................................................................................................................ 8

Page 3 – Chart: Visits by and Hour .......................................................................................................................... 9

Page 4 – Chart: Weekday and Weekend Usage .................................................................................................... 10

Page 5 – Search: Sites by User and Date ................................................................................................................ 11

Page 6 – Blocking .................................................................................................................................................. 12

Page 8 – Settings .................................................................................................................................................... 13

Page 9 – Alerts / About .......................................................................................................................................... 15

Troubleshooting ................................................................................................................................................................. 16

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Introduction

Now in use for over 25 years, the internet is estimated to be available in over 90% of US households. Whether

children researching school projects or adults hunting for a job, the internet has rapidly become an essential aspect

of everyday life. Though the internet and modern technology have certainly served to make our lives easier, the

internet and its influences are not always safe.

In 2007 Google characterized 10% of all websites as “dangerous,” being that they include pornographic or drug

related content, hate propaganda, gambling, or introduce viruses and malware to your devices. Over 1 billion

websites exist today with both useful and dangerous sites being created daily. When used safely, the internet is an

incredibly valuable resource for people of all ages. In the early days of the internet, parents were able to protect

their children by placing a PC in a common area of their home so any web access was safely in plain view of other

family members. No such luxury exists today. With innovations such as laptops, smart phones, tablets and smart

televisions and gaming devices, all equipped with wifi, web access can no longer be confined and it is simply is not

practical or easy for parents to chaperone their children’s internet use.

netChaperone offers a simple solution to this problem by providing an easy to install and use monitoring device. By

plugging netChaperone into your home network, ALL web traffic in your house is captured for simple review.

Whether it is a PC wired to your home router, a laptop, mobile phone, iPad or other tablet, every site visited is

logged without having to install anything on any of these devices. Even web sites accessed by guests on your home

network are captured. With accurate information about web access, parents can review and control certain web

habits such as web sites visited, how often and at what time of day.

Installing the netChaperone Monitor

The netChaperone Monitor is an essential part of your home network monitoring system. It is a small computer with its

own memory and its job is to listen to and record all traffic on your network.

There are two connections you need to make to install your Monitor, one for power and one for network access.

Typically, both of these connections can be made directly to your home router.

1. Simply plug one end of the network cable (Blue) into the network port of your Monitor and the other into an

available network port on your router.

2. Next, we will use the USB cable to provide power to the Monitor by plugging the smaller end of the USB cable

into the small connector port on your Monitor and the larger end into an available USB port on your router. If no

USB port is available on your router, this connection can be made into any available USB port on a computer or

other nearby device. If no USB port is available, you will need to provide a USB power adapter (similar to those

commonly used to charge mobile phones) which can be plugged into an available outlet.

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netChaperone Dashboard

The netChaperone Dashboard application runs inside the netChaperone Monitor and provides you the ability to monitor

and report on access to your home network as well as to block access to unwanted sites. The Dashboard is organized as

a series of tabs, each of which provides a different set of information about your network usage. There is also a Settings

tab which allows you to personalize certain functions of the Dashboard.

You can access the Dashboard from any browser on any device** connected to your home network.

To do so, simply type my.netchaperone.com into the address bar of your browser.

** While the Dashboard is capable of working on any device, it is recommended that you begin by using a desktop or laptop until you become familiar with all of

the functions.

Logging in the first time

Each time you log into the Dashboard, you will be presented with the login screen. This is to protect the sensitive

information about your home network usage as well as to ensure only authorized users can modify blocking rules.

The first time you log into the Dashboard, your User ID and Password will both be netchaperone.

Once you have successfully logged in, you will be presented with the full Dashboard which is organized into a series of

tabs or pages so you can easily access all of the graphs, reports and capabilities of netChaperone including the ability to

choose your own User Name and Password on the Settings tab.

What follows is a detailed description of each page.

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Page 1 – Overview

Overview has three useful sections, Summary, Users and Visited Sites.

Summary

The Summary section is useful to give you a quick view of how many devices have accessed the internet on your

network and how many websites have been visited over different time periods. Both active devices and website visits

are measured over the last day, the last week and the last month.

Users

Every internet accessible device has a unique identified called a MAC address. netChaperone uses this address to

monitor and store the usage of every device. When you first log onto netChaperone Dashboard, the Username field will

contain the names assigned to each device when you set them up. Later in the Settings section, we will show you how

you can change the Username that Dashboard will display for each MAC address so you can more easily monitor your

users (eg Tommy’s iPhone, XBOX, Family Room TV, Mom’s MacBook).

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Visited Sites

This section shows each site which is visited along which device went there in reverse chronological order. You can get

details on any additional pages viewed on that site via the Search tab.

This section also allows you to easily search for any site by simply typing the site name into the QuickSearch box and

then clicking on the magnifying glass. The contents of this section may be printed or exported to either an Excel

worksheet or PDF by selecting one of these options from the EXPORT button on the top left of the section. The Visited

Sites section automatically updates every 2 minutes so it remains accurate but can be manually updated by pressing the

“Go To” button in the lower right corner of this section.

MAC Address User Name

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Detailed User Summary

A very convenient feature of the USER section is the ability to click on any MAC address. By doing so, you will be

presented with a much more detailed summary of the usage for any device. This summary will appear as a new tab in

your browser so it does not overwrite the netChaperone Dashboard and so that you can click on multiple MAC

addresses to compare the detailed usage of multiple users.

This detailed view shows information about the last 90 days of use for the selected user:

Visits by Hour of the Day shown as a bar chart

Visits by Day of the Week show as a bar chart

Visits by Period of the day on Weekends

Visits by Period of the day on Weekdays

Sites ranked by number of visits

Top Sites displayed as a pie chart

Any of the 4 charts can be viewed full screen by clicking the small box in the upper left corner of the title bar.

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Page 2 - Chart: Users and Sites

This page has two charts, USERS and VISITED Sites, each displaying information about the number of web site visits.

USERS shows site visits by user for every user since you have installed netChaperone Monitor on your network. You can

easily change the time period used for this section by clicking on the Advanced Search button on the upper left side and

choosing a different time period. You can also export to a PDF or print the contents of this section.

VISITED SITES shows the top 10 sites visited by all users on your network since you have installed netChaperone

Monitor.

You can also export to a PDF or print the contents of either section.

Either chart can be viewed full screen by clicking the small box in the upper left corner of the title bar.

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Page 3: Chart: Visits by Day and Hour

This page has two sections, DAY OF WEEK and HOUR OF DAY.

Both sections help you to see how site visits occur throughout the week by day or throughout the day by hour.

These charts are useful for getting an overview of how the internet is utilized on your home network prior to using other

pages to review usage more deeply.

You can refine the time period or user data displayed in these charts by selecting the Advanced Search button and

selecting a different time period and choosing a user.

Either chart can be viewed full screen by clicking the small box in the upper left corner of the title bar.

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Page 4: Chart: Weekday and Weekend Usage

This page has two sections, Weekday Visits and Weekend Visits.

Both sections help you to see how site visits occur throughout the day which is broken into four 6-hour periods:

Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night.

These charts are useful for getting an overview of how the internet is utilized on your home network prior to using other

pages to review usage more deeply.

You can refine the time period or user data displayed in these charts by selecting the Advanced Search button and

selecting a different time period and choosing a user.

Either chart can be viewed full screen by clicking the small box in the upper left corner of the title bar.

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Page 5: Search: Sites by User and Date

This page allows you to easily display a detailed summary of web visits for any user during any time period.

From the Time drop down menu you can select from several time periods. From the User Name drop down menu you

can select any User Name know by netChaperone to have accessed your home network. After you make your selections,

press the ADVANCED SEARCH button and your results will be displayed below. These results can be search further using

the QuickSeach box where you can type any text and only web sites which contain that text will be returned. For

example, you can type .net in the QuickSearch box and all sites ending in .net will be returned or you can type golf and

you will see sites like golfchannel.com and oregongolf.com.

The displayed summary of web sites can be expanded to display the pages within any web site by clicking the (+) button

on the left of any column. The displayed summary may be exported to Excel or a PDF or printed by selecting the relevant

button on the top right of the screen.

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Page 6: Blocking

WEB SITE BLOCKING

To enter a blocked site, first press the Add Blocking Rule button and then enter the site name in the form of

www.sitename.com and press the submit button . If you would prefer to block the website for a particular time

period each day, simply click on the Start Time box and End Time box to enter a time. These times can either be typed

(in military 24-hr time) or selected by clicking on the convenient time chooser. Once done, press the Submit button

to submit the rule. Changes can be made to any rule time period and then submitted by pressing the Update icon .

To remove any blocking rule, simply find the rule in the blocking rule list and press the delete button .

Any attempt to access a blocked site during the defined time period will cause an Alert.

USER BLOCKING

You can also block access to all web sites from a selected user. Any attempt to access a blocked site will cause an alert.

To enter a blocking rule for any user, first press the New Blocking Rule button and then select the user name from the

drop down list of all users which netChaperone knows press and then submit this rule by pressing the submit button

.

If you would prefer to block the website for a particular time period each day, simply click on the Start Time box and End

Time box to enter a time. These times can either be typed (in military 24-hr time) or selected by clicking on the

convenient time chooser. Once done press the Submit button to submit any new User rule or press the Update

button to change any prior entry. To remove any blocking rule, simply find the rule in the blocking rule list and press

the delete button .

Blockedsite.com 01:00 22:00

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Page 7: Settings

User Name

The USERNAME associated with any device may be customized by the administrator by entering a new user

name into the desired box. For the change to take effect, you must press the update button . The new

USERNAME will be used in all charts, tables, reports and alerts.

Alert Email Address

The EMAIL ADDRESS used to notify the administrator of selected alerts may be changed by entering a new email

address in the Alert Email Address area and pressing the update button .

Time Zone

The TIME ZONE where netChaperone Monitor is installed may be selected using the TIMEZONE setting. By doing

so, all times shown in the netChaperone Dashboard will be shown in your local time. This setting does not affect

how times are stored in the database. Click on the pull down menu, select the appropriate time zone and then

press the update button . The default time zone is GMT.

Alert Selection

netChaperone provides several different alert types which were discussed in the prior section. You can choose

which of these you would like to receive email alerts about by placing a check next to your selections.

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User Name and Password

The USERNAME and PASSWORD are both initially set to netchaperone. You should reset these to a USERNAME

and PASSWORD that are easy for you to remember but difficult for others to guess. Simply enter the new

USERNAME or PASSWORD in the appropriate box and press the update button . The update button must be

pressed separately for USERNAME and PASSWORD changes.

Feedback

FEEDBACK is very important to the creators of netChaperone and this feedback will be used to continue to

improve the capabilities of the netChaperone service. Any comments or suggestions you have for improvement

can be entered into the FEEDBACK box. When you are ready to send your feedback, simply press the SEND

FEEDBACK button.

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Page 8: Alerts / About

The Alerts / About page provides important alerts about system events and usage as well as information about your

netChaperone monitor.

ALERTS

netChaperone provides alerts when certain events occur on your network. These are:

Power: When netChaperone loses power, it remembers the last time that it had power and sends an Alert when it

has power restored. The alert informs the administrator of both the time of the outage and the time of the

recovery so you are aware of the time period that your network was not protected by netChaperone.

Network: When netChaperone loses network connectivity (eg the Monitor is unplugged from the router), it

remembers the last time that it had power and sends an Alert when it has power restored. The alert informs the

administrator of both the time of the outage and the time of the recovery so you are aware of the time period that

your network was not protected by netChaperone.

Email Change: When the alert email address has been changed, an alert informs the administrator of the new email

address which has been set. As a security precaution, whenever the alert email is changed, an alert email is

automatically sent to the prior alert email address informing the recipient that it is no longer the alert recipient.

Blocked: An alert is captured each time an attempt is made by any user to access a blocked website.

System information unique to your own netChaperone Monitor are displayed on the ABOUT page.

System Information

ARCHITECTURE describes the chip set used in your Monitor

DISK displays the percentage of diskspace currently used by the operating system and your data. You should

have sufficient disk space to store more than one year of data with normal use.

IP displays the external IP address of your home router.

SERIAL displays the unique identifier of your Monitor CPU.

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Troubleshooting

Most issues can be resolved by power cycling either the netChaperone Monitor or by power cycling your home router.

The easiest way to power cycle your netChaperone Monitor is by temporarily removing its power cord, waiting a few

seconds and then replacing it.

I typed my.netchaperone.com into my address bar, but I do not see a Dashboard login screen.

If you type my.netchaperone.com into the address bar of a browser and are not presented with the Login Screen, power

down both your home router and your Monitor. Wait a few seconds and power on your home router. Wait until you

have internet access from any device on your network and then power your Monitor on.

My network seems to be working slowly or differently to what I would expect.

Strange network behavior is often difficult to explain but can be easily resolved by power cycling both your home router

and your Monitor. Power down both your home network router and your Monitor. Wait a few seconds and power on

your home router. Wait until you have internet access from any device on your network and then power your Monitor

on.

When I access the Dashboard, I do not see my data but instead have error messages.

If the Dashboard is unable to access the Monitor on your home network, you will not see your data and may receive

error messages on the Dashboard screens. If this should occur, simply Power down your Monitor, wait a few seconds

and then power your Monitor back on.