eBlaster is a solid piece of software that performed well during our exhaustive testing. It feels heavy duty and the control panel used to configure your software settings has a clean, polished look that makes it a snap to determine which types of email you want to monitor, as well as what type of activities you wish to record (keystrokes, P2P activity, websites visited, etc.)

The reason that we ranked it lower than its sibling SpectorPro is because it lacks screenshot capability, which in our minds is a standard feature that any true monitoring application should come standard with. Also, the email reports that it sends out can be pretty difficult to read, and is definitely not an adequate substitute for accessing the machine you are monitoring.

eBlaster monitors just about everything:

• Emails
• Most of the most popular IM programs
• Websites that are surfed to
• Peer-to-Peer Activity
• Keystrokes
• Program Activity

One very nice feature that eBlaster does have, which several of the other applications that we reviewed do not have, is the ability to monitor Peer to Peer activity. This allows people concerned about illegal downloading of music files to keep an eye on things whenever programs such as Kazaa, Morpheus and Limewire are being used. Now that the music companies are taking illegal downloading so seriously, this feature could save you from having to deal with a nasty lawsuit. Many parents don’t realize just how common this practice is among teens and eBlaster can help parents stop a problem before it develops.

eBlaster offers a Stealth Mode that allows the program to run invisibly affording parents, employers or anyone who needs to monitor their computer covertly an advantage.

Be sure to read The Truth About Stealth and Undetectability

eBlaster is often used by parents who want to monitor their children from work but the idea is better than the reality. The fact that eBlaster emails you reports and copies of the emails that are recorded makes for a frustrating experience when you try to analyze the recorded information. It also makes it impossible to effectively monitor more than one computer.

Overall, while eBlaster is a decent offering, it isn’t a truly standalone product, at least not at a $99 price point. To us, eBlaster seems more like SpectorSoft’s attempt at charging you $99.95 for the email report functionality, since other than the missing screenshot feature, this is the only major difference between SpectorPro and eBlaster.