REFOG Personal Monitor 7.1 Review
REFOG Personal Monitor is software with a very good approach to the user. The keylogger has user-friendly interface and is translated to 11 languages. It also has a wizard helping one to configure the software in few steps. No additional knowledge is required.
New version of ReFog Personal Monitor has improved Facebook's chat interception!
Advantages:- Multi-OS support
- Grouping of the intercepted information into categories
- Nice-looking, user-friendly interface
- Very good file-activity monitoring
- Multi-language interface
- Good URL interception
- Strong visual surveillance
- Both sides interception in messengers
Disadvantages:- Not enough stealthiness level
- A bulk of pre-installation windows to follow
Today we are writing about ReFog Personal Monitor 6.4.1.
The installation process begins with choosing the language of installation. There are four languages to choose from: English, German, French and Spanish. The next screen is EULA screen. After accepting the license agreement and clicking ‘Next’ we see the 'Information' screen. After reading the information about the program and choosing the folder to install the program to, choosing whether to install shortcuts and help-file we confirm our choice in the last installation screen and the setup process itself begins. After it is finished we choose ‘Launch ReFog Personal Monitor’ and click ‘Finish’ button.
The next thing that appears on our monitor is a screen asking us to order the full version of the program, register it or to continue the three-day trial version. So we choose the second variant and put in the information kindly given to us by REFOG team. After registration is finisghed we see the Configuration Wizard. Next five screens give us the opportunity to choose whether we want to monitor all users, what exactly we want to monitor, to configure e-mail sending of log-files, to choose whether to hide the program and finally to choose if we want the program to update automatically.
Finally we see the program interface and we must admit that it was worth waiting. It has all the features that the pleasant-to-look-at product should have: grouping of intercepted information and settings into categories, abundance of nice icons and usability. Another strong point of the program interface is its availability in 9 languages (English, Brazilian, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish). Very well!
As for the interception the software also has a lot of qualities to boast of – it intercepts both sides in all chat messengers (unfortunately the 6.4.1 version doesn't intercept Skype, though the 5.0 did) , intercepts mouse-clicks, URLs in four of five browsers (IE, Mozilla, Opera and Chrome), is able to perform all the operations with screenshots and to log the logging off time.(It is strange that it is unable to log the log on time though…) To the strong points of the program we should also add the ‘Alarms’ that correspond to the ‘Reaction to a specific keyword’ point in our table, the ability to choose between users to monitor, the automated clearance of log-file, the ability to setup the maximum size of log-files for each user and good, though not great stealthiness.(We were able to find the program folder by the means, available to an average user).The previous version had weak file-activity monitoring capabilities, but this one is capable of monitoring all the file-activities, except creation of the files.
Anyway as all the products this one has its own disadvantages. The first one is, like it was already mentioned, a bulk of pre-installation steps to follow, the second one is as we have already said, is only one side of chat conversations made in Skype interception. We are also a bit disappointed that such a great and functional program still doesn't intercept outgoing and incoming e-mail messages. Though we are hoping that this function will be added soon.
Summing up we can say that ReFog Personal Monitor is a quite an advanced product that will come in handy for absolutely all the groups of users except those who pay a lot of attention to complete stealthiness of the program.
Description from developers
Concerned About Your Children Safety?
If your kids spend time chatting or playing computer games, they can be approached or threatened by the strangers. Internet has anonymity, and anonymity means impunity in the minds of molesters. The solution? Violate their anonymity by monitoring your kids’ activities!
REFOG Personal Monitor is designed to deal with extended families, but it fits small families just as easy. Allowing you to monitor your children activities remotely over the Internet, REFOG Personal Monitor does not even require your close presence in order to be alerted about suspicious activities of either your children or someone they chat with.
Easy To Install and To Use
REFOG Personal Monitor can be set up and used by anyone. The monitor does not involve a steep learning curve and does not demand a degree in Computer Science to configure and operate. Simply download your free trial version and get yourself going!
Remote Monitoring
REFOG Personal Monitor provides the necessary degree of interactivity, allowing you to monitor your kids’ actions remotely over the email. There’s no need to rush home during the launch hour just to check the logs. See what your kids are doing with their computer without leaving your office!
Real-Time Alerts
Should you be worried now or later? If you want constant protection of your family, simply logging keystrokes and storing screen captures is not enough. Often, an immediate action is required to get your kids out of trouble.
REFOG Personal Monitor is highly flexible, allowing you to configure multiple alerts on harmful or offensive keystrokes sent or received on their computer. Set your alarms, and get notified instantly with real-time alerts if a pre-defined event happens on their PC.
You can easily set REFOG Personal Monitor to alert you by e-mail. Templates are available to filter keystrokes that contain pre-defined trigger phrases, making false alerts hardly possible.
Save Screens and Key Presses
REFOG Personal Monitor keeps a list of all activities you specify it to log. It records all visited Web sites, keeps logs of chats and instant messenger conversations as well as other things typed or received by your kids in chats, messengers, blogs, forums and other online and offline applications.
REFOG Personal Monitor saves each key pressed and every phrase typed, and makes periodic captures of the computer screen to better illustrate what was going on at that moment.
Capture Chats and Instant Messengers
REFOG Personal Monitor captures every key that they press, but does not stop there. Individual keystrokes are of little use when analyzing your kids’ behavior. REFOG Personal Monitor can detect popular chats and instant messengers, and forms clearly legible and readable logs containing chats and instant messenger conversations formatted in a manner that is convenient to read.
Stealth Operation
For even better protection, REFOG Personal Monitor can be completely hidden from your kids’ eyes. It runs silently and unobtrusively on their PC while taking screen shots and recording every key that they press, logging applications that they use and Web sites that they visit. You can access these logs either locally or remotely at any time, even if you are not at home!
