handyCafe Firewall

handyCafe Firewall is a small Windows application designed specifically for helping you filter and block access to webpages, take proactive measures against malicious attacks, and limit the download and upload speed using custom firewall settings.
This tool can be of great help especially for cybercafés or other small-sized business where you need to control and filter Internet content. The installation package comes with a server edition which can be deployed on the administrator’s computer, as well as a client one for the PCs that you want to manage.

User interface

The server version of handyCafe Firewall sports a clean and intuitive design that allows you to easily switch between the main features of the utility, namely Network Computers, Log and Reporting/Log. A dedicated panel is reserved for browsing on the official website of the app.

Network computers, logs and reports

You can view all computer identified in your network, along with information about them, such as date/time, IP and MAC addresses, user, version, status, download and upload speed.
The log keeps track of visited websites, banned webpages, as well as links accessed via different search engines. In addition, you are allowed to print or clear the log content, as well as export log data to CSV, XML or plain text file format.
Reports can be generated for a given date. You may include banned logs and search engine logs, and print or export the report data to the same formats as those used for saving logs for offline viewing.

Filters and bandwidth limitations

handyCafe Firewall gives you the freedom to set up filters in order to restrict websites. You may create a list with user-defined webpages to be banned or trusted, as well as ban webpages based on custom keywords and file types.
Advanced features enable you to apply the current filter settings to all active computers or the selected ones. The tool comes with several preset filters but you need to download them in order to make use of them.
Bandwidth limitation can be applied only for web applications in order to restrict the download and upload speed. Plus, you may alter the bandwidth for all active computers or only the selected ones.

General configuration settings

handyCafe Firewall allows you to activate security measures in order to make sure other users cannot alter your settings (ask password on restore and options menu), and show banned websites in the log with visited websites.
Furthermore, you can set up several client parameters in order to ask for password, enable protection against tunnel websites, and apply the same password for both clients and admin.
You may pick the log saving directory, long all active PCs or only the selected ones, change the client/server password and TCP port, set up an admin password, and uninstall the utility.

An overall efficient firewall app

All in all, handyCafe Firewall provides a straightforward way for helping you filter web content, restrict websites and log visited webpages. On the downside, it hasn’t been brought up-to-date for a long time, so compatibility issues may appear on newer operating systems.