My son plays several video games including Rome Total Realism (http://www.rometotalrealism.org/), Glory of the Roman Empire (http://www.haemimontgames.com/gotre/), and Starcraft II (http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/). While playing these games, he can override both the total daily time limit and the end time I set for him. I've been able to reproduce the issue while logged on to his account. If he's playing the game and the time is reached, NOF minimizes the game and the "time limit has been reached" box pops up. However, he can ignore the box and click back into the game. After battling with NOF for a couple times, it appears NOF gives up and he's free to play for as long as he wants.
As you can see from the below screen shot, he was able to log in before his approved time (1PM) and play way past his allotted time (2 hrs) on 11/21:
Short of taking the power cord when he's away, uninstalling the games, or standing over his shoulder when he's playing, what's the work around.
I've notice this similar thread in other posts and the typical Norton of "we designed it that way" or "that function is supposed to foster a dialogue between the child and parent" doesn't cut it. If there's no work around, NOF needs to be re-coded so it can tell the difference between "real" work and goofing off. If NOF thinks the kid if goofing off, it should force the log off.
We have an XP sp3 box with Firefox v6, NOF v2.2.0.40 , and Norton Security Suite v5.1.0.29. He has a limited user account. No, he doesn't know my NOF password.
When the time is up or during a curfew period, the child would receive a message saying there are 60 seconds left. After 60 seconds, the child is allowed to log back to the PC for another 60 seconds to finish whatever he/she was doing. These behaviors can be repeated for three times, so the child gets about extra 6 minutes, then he/she wouldn't be able to log back to the PC without the email address and password for the Norton Online Family account
You mentioned your are able to reproduce it, so please let us know
1. How many times the child receives the warning message when the time is up, three times?
2. What he does after receiving the 3rd warning message?
3. You said "After battling with NOF for a couple times", so what exact message or screen you see when you're referring to "battling"?
My son and I did our own trouble shooting. It appears Norton Safety Minder uses the switch user function of xp to forcebly log the offending user off. I recenlty installed Microsoft Silverlight for an unrealted issue and Silverlight appeares to disable the switch user feature. After uninstaling Silverlight and checking the "use fast user switching" box under the select log on/log off option tab of the user account settings accesable in an administrater account, NSM appears to be functioning as advertised. Once the time limit/max hour usage is reached, NSM forces him off. If he tries to log back it, it'll force him off after 1 min.
I'll update if NSM acts up again.
For your consideration, below is the warning he would get when NSM WAS NOT forcing him off and the "view remaining time" was queried:
