14 DAY TRIAL // Monitoring your computer can prove to be a great thing sometimes. It could give you an idea on what people are doing on your machine or where they navigate on the Internet (that is in case your PC is hopping in one leg instead of running due to malware collected from who knows what web page). It could also give you a hint on passwords and what everybody is doing on your computer in your absence.
However, in some corporate environments, the existence of keyloggers could be absolutely necessary as some things are meant to stay inside the company perimeter and away from the eyes of the outsiders. This is why a keylogger becomes an excellent tool for monitoring the strokes of the employees. This should be done with the knowledge of the workers.
Emails can also be monitored and every incoming and outgoing email can be checked. One tool to do all the verification would be Email Spy Pro. It is a simple software that does not require too much technical knowledge and the configuration is done fast and easy. The application will verify the email messages read on the computer on which it is installed, so the employees can use their personal email account outside the company perimeter without being monitored.
The price of the little monitoring instrument is $89.95 and I assure you that it will make a damn good job. From the second screen of installing the software, you will be asked to provide a password allowing you the access to the control center of the application.
General tab will let you choose the computer ID and enable the monitoring. In the right side, you will see the plugins that are installed. Next is the delivery method setting. Here the user chooses where the reports should be sent or saved. The choices available are to a local folder on the computer or a delivery to an email account.
The time of the delivery can be specified. The default delivery time is 60 minutes, but you can set a larger or smaller time interval. The user can set the application to send a daily report at a certain hour. For the Email delivery to work, you will have to specify the settings for the email account (delivery address, sending address and SMTP server). Advanced options allow typing in the SMTP authentication data (if any) and the used mail server.
Email Spy Pro also provides the user with the means of testing the delivery method and to send the email right away. Local folder option is appropriate when you want all the emails on the same computer on which Advanced Email Monitoring is installed. During our testing, this feature did not work at all. I guess it must be a limitation of some sort, but the only restriction I could find was the 15 days trial.
Security Options window covers the password as well as stealth related issues. Changing the password, setting and enabling the hotkey as well as displaying the shortcuts for the software in Start>Programs area of your computer are the options available. As the program can be installed both in visible and stealth mode, you will need a keyboard shortcut combination that allows you the display of the control center. As the Ctrl and Alt keys are locked, all you can do is include Shift or not and set one of the keyboard letters. In the end, your keyboard shortcut should look like this: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Letter or Ctrl+Alt+Letter.
In order to let the users of the workstation know that their machine is monitored, you can type in a monitoring policy that can be displayed or not at user logon. The Preview button available allows you to take a look at the message before actually activating it.
It seems that the developer has given a good thought of all the aspects of the application and in the menu bar of the control center, under Programs, you can uninstall the software. The downside is that the system needs a restart for all the changes to take effect. This option comes in very handy when the program is installed in stealth mode as there is no trace of it in Program Files or Windows Task Manager.
If the reports sending is prevented by your firewall or antivirus, take a look in the Program Files Information window (Program menu) and see what you should add to the exclusion list.
The Good
Email Spy Pro is an excellent software for monitoring incoming and outgoing emails from the computer on which it is installed. The delivery is made at the exact user specified time.
The Bad
Delivering the emails in a folder on a local drive was not possible although when sent, the application stated that the emails were successfully sent.
Also, adding an option that allowed the user to store the messages on a network drive would add to its value. The message stating that the report sending was successful may be really confusing for the users.
The Truth
To be frank, the application worked like a charm in what I am concerned and did its job. Saving the emails on a local drive or on one in the network are not such big baddies if receiving the report in your mailbox works.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
