Lightspeed Guide FAQ
What is Lightspeed Guide?
Lightspeed Guide is school-tested and approved web filtering software that keeps your family safe from the dark side of the Internet.
Just like the millions of students being protected by Lightspeed Systems networking software, now you can protect your family from
inappropriate web content at home. You can even set the filtering preferences by school age. In addition, Lightspeed Guide helps you
discover the best of the web by sharing user ratings, comments, tags, related sites, and favorites. Finally, you can choose to receive
user activity reports and hold family members accountable.
What do I need?
Lightspeed Guide runs on any modern Windows operating systems (XP, XPe, Vista) with any Internet service provider (e.g., AOL, MSN, cable, DSL)
and runs in Internet Explorer 6.0 or greater. Macintosh and Firefox versions are in development.
Where can I download Lightspeed Guide?
You can download Lightspeed Guide by clicking here.
How do I install Lightspeed Guide?
The file automatically launches a familiar Microsoft Windows Installation Wizard. Just follow the prompts and register to select your
username. If you need help installing Lightspeed Guide, check out the Lightspeed Guide installation PDF.
How many usernames can I have under my account?
As many as you would like.
How do I use multiple Lightspeed Guide accounts on one computer?
After installing Lightspeed Guide, the primary account that you initially login with is set up as your default account on that computer. Each time you open your
browser and go to a website, your primary account is used automatically. If you want to use another account on that same computer, open your browser and
logout from Lightspeed Guide. Then, login with the other account that you want to use.
How do I logout from the primary Lightspeed Guide account and login with another user?
When the browser opens, it will automatically login using your primary account. To login as a different user, click your username and then click the "Sign Out" button.
Then, click the login link and type in the username and password. Finally, click the login button.
Will my children be able to turn it off or uninstall it?
You may make Lightspeed Guide require a password before it can be removed from
your computer. If your child does not know what that password is, he/she will not be able to remove Lightspeed Guide from your computer. Another planned development is a
report that will let you know when an account "goes off radar." This way you'll know if the software has been hacked and is no longer filtering content.
If someone tries to go somewhere on the Internet they shouldn’t, what happens?
The Lightspeed Guide "block" page will display. The block page will include an explanation of why the page was blocked.
Can I set different limits for my older children?
Yes. You can select age-appropriate filtering for each individual user under your primary account using the Settings page. In addition to the Lightspeed
Default, pre-set filters include: Elementary and Jr. High, High School, Mature, and Security. You may also customize the filtering for each individual
account by selecting categories of content to block (e.g. pornography, violence, etc.). To activate, just have the user logout of the Guide interface
and login using his/her assigned username and password.
How does Lightspeed Guide know what to filter?
First, every month we literally download the Internet onto our army of servers. Then we use statistical analysis of the web content and its external
links. A red flag is raised whenever a site uses foul, violent, hate, pornographic language. Another red flag raises when there are links to known
bad sites—that is, sites that are inappropriate for the age of your children. Finally, Lightspeed Systems has been filtering web content for schools
since 2003. These schools, like you parents, are concerned about kids. So they’ve told us when we’ve made an error—by overblocking or underblocking.
This constant, relevant feedback pays off with an incredibly accurate filter for your home. Test it out at our archives page where you can enter a
web address and see how we’ve categorized it and why: http://archive.lightspeedsystems.com.
How do I tag a website?
To tag a website, you first need to "favorite" it by clicking on the heart icon in the Lightspeed Guide browser interface. Then, log into your profile
and you will see the website listed under Your Favorites. Click on the "Site Details" link and on the resulting page you will be able to add tags for that website.
What do the stars mean in the Lightspeed Guide browser interface?
The stars represent a website's rating. Green stars are the community's rating and yellow stars are your ratings, if you have rated the website.
How do I submit a website for review?
There are two ways you can submit a website for review:
-
Search for a domain in the "Lookup website details" text box at the top of the page. On the resulting domain details page, click the link that says "Lightspeed Archive" near the top of the page. Once you're on the Archive page for that domain, click the link that says "Submit for review" near the top of the page and fill out the form on the resulting page.
- On the Lightspeed Guide blocked page click the link that says "tell us about it" at the bottom of the page and fill out the form on the resulting page.
Remember that you can always override a website's block or allow status by using Filtering Exceptions on the Settings page.
Why are you giving away the Lightspeed Guide?
We know our content filtering database for schools is very comprehensive and accurate. Millions of students use it each day -- and any newly discovered
sites are recorded and categorized that night. Further, we work very closely with our school customers to review our categorization processes and to
continually improve them.
The Lightspeed Guide, though, represents a new way of using this database (with our easy to use, grade-level categorization) and a new way to interact
with the information (creating favorites, tags, etc.) While we are actively gathering feedback and evolving the software, we won't charge a single
customer for it.
Further, we expect to have free, discount (for our customers PTO/PTA members), and premium versions eventually, so there should always be a Lightspeed Guide
that meets your Internet safety and budgetary needs.
Are updates to the database and software free?
Yes. And you should know that we update the database continuously. Your computer transparently communicates with this updated database on our servers.
As for software, these updates are automatically pushed to your computer.
In time, you will have options to add functionality for a small annual fee.
Will I get spammed if I download the software?
No. We ask for your email address so we can communicate service and support, which would include setting up accounts, changing passwords,
uninstalling software, software updates, etc.
How can I help spread the word about the free Lightspeed Guide?
Together we can inform parents of the need for Internet safety and offer them the free Lightspeed Guide. Refer your family and friends or contact guide@lightspeedsystems.com.
I'm not receiving the daily email report.
To avoid having the daily email report blocked as spam, make sure your email application (Yahoo, MSN, Outlook, etc.) knows that reports@lightspeedguide.com
is an email address that is allowed to send you email.
Lightspeed Guide isn't working on my computer. What do I do?
If Lightspeed Guide isn't working on your computer, check our trouble shooting page for help.
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