Guardian Monitor Pro |
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Product: Guardian Monitor Pro Vendor: Guardian Software Price: $59.95 Editor Rating: 0 stars |
+ Can display both sides of conversations in AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and ICQ.
Cons
- Program did not record emails as advertised.
- Screenshot viewing is unreadable.
Review
We tested each activity monitoring program by first installing the program with all logging options enabled. Next, we ran different applications to see what activity was logged. During the test, we visited websites with Internet Explorer, engaged in chats with AOL Instant Messenger, sent emails using Outlook, Outlook Express, and Hotmail, and downloaded files using FTP and the P2P program Limewire.
Feature Set
Guardian Monitor Pro’s website indicates the program can monitor online chats from the major services, email from the major email services, keystrokes, websites visited, and P2P downloads. In our tests, Guardian Monitor Pro was a disappointment. The program crashed the first time we opened Internet Explorer while it was activated and some of the activities it was supposed to record were missed.
Installation
The installation of Guardian Monitor Pro proceeded without problems. The install program needed to restart our system during the installation and then asked for our Microsoft Office installation CD (not sure why) but everything worked fine. When the program was launched for the first time, no indication was given that we needed to do anything to configure the program but we were pretty sure that clicking on ‘Settings…’ was the right thing to do.
Ease of Use
The user interface for Guardian Monitor took some figuring out. One problem is that it isn’t clear what information can be clicked on for more detailed information and what can’t. When looking at the websites visited log (it is labeled as ‘History’ – aren’t all of the different logs history?), the color of the website links change to blue when you mouse over them but clicking on them does nothing. Another problem is that the screenshot capture log displays the screenshots in a window that is too small to read anything even when selecting ‘Full Screen’ which only seems to make the images slightly bigger.
Monitoring Effectiveness
Guardian Monitor successfully recorded both sides of our AOL Instant Messenger conversation. There were, however, major problems with the email recording. We downloaded five messages into Microsoft Outlook and Guardian Monitor did display five messages in its email log but the contents of the messages were not viewable. We could not find any record of our Hotmail session and some of the websites we visited with Internet Explorer were not logged. File downloads using FTP and Limewire were not logged.
Documentation
Guardian Monitor Pro includes a Windows Help file that covers all of the programs features and some troubleshooting help. Online Guardian Monitor’s website has a short FAQ with more help for specific problems.
Summary
We were disappointed in the testing of Guardian Monitor Pro. The program would not let us view the content of emails and missed some of our web-surfing activities. The screen capture capability is all but useless since it is impossible to read anything on the screen. There are much better programs available for half the cost of Guardian Monitor Pro.
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