Ask Me Help Desk - Blocking websites

How do I block websites without paying for a special programme

You can see if you can find anything here

Search Results: blocking sites

If you are seeking to block specific websites, and you know which ones they are you can do the following for free: (time consuming if the list is long): Open internet explorer, go to tools, select internet options, the select the security tab, then select the restriced sites icon. This will pop up a window, type the site address in the line and click add. Repeat adding the sites to the list, then click close. When done, the list of domains you added will be blocked and not easily visible, unless the list is changed.

Another option would be to go to zdnet.com and search for freeware site blockers. If you are willing to pay a little bit, Net Nanny is an outstanding web filtering program... great for houses with kids... each kids gets their own account, parents set up the kids account with allowed access times, add key words to block, and it uses a list of sites to block that is built by other parents recommending which sites to block. If a kid types in a blocked search word or site, it blocks the site and word and can send the parents an email indicating who searched for what and when.

Lavasoft's adware is a free advertisement blocker and anti-spyware tool. PC antivirus is a free antivirus program... both are available on ZDNet: Tech News, Blogs and White Papers for IT Professionals

Hope the info helps!

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatnot

If you are seeking to block specific websites, and you know which ones they are you can do the following for free: (time consuming if the list is long): Open internet explorer, go to tools, select internet options, the select the security tab, then select the restriced sites icon. this will pop up a window, type the site address in the line and click add. repeat adding the sites to the list, then click close. when done, the list of domains you added will be blocked and not easily visible, unless the list is changed.

Another option would be to go to zdnet.com and search for freeware site blockers. If you are willing to pay a little bit, Net Nanny is an outstanding web filtering program... great for houses with kids... each kids gets their own account, parents set up the kids account with allowed access times, add key words to block, and it uses a list of sites to block that is built by other parents recommending which sites to block. If a kid types in a blocked search word or site, it blocks the site and word and can send the parents an email indicating who searched for what and when.

lavasoft's adware is a free advertisement blocker and anti-spyware tool. PC antivirus is a free antivirus program... both are available on ZDNet: Tech News, Blogs and White Papers for IT Professionals

hope the info helps!

I am using Firefox... I tried it on explorer through my msn but it won't block it

Firefox is the preferred browswer, but like you I'm not sure how to block sites with it. Not sure why you're going through my msn, why not go direct to the sites using the url? Go to google.com for the search and set it as your home page... Personally, I wouldn't bother with my msn, att-yahoo, or AOL for anything other than the initial connection to the web. To get it to work with explorer, you'll need to go the internet explorer version 7's tools options and follow the steps. Might need to close IE 7 and then reopen. Good luck

Are you trying to block them on one computer or all computers on the network?
Adding a site to the restricted sites in IE does not prevent someone from going to that site, it just changes the security settings for that site so most things won't work.

Some routers (Netgear for example) will let you block sites at the router level. If your router supports this it's the most efficient way to do it. Some ISP's also offer parental control software for free.

Another way is your hosts file. In C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc open the hosts file with a text editor such as notepad and put in the sites you want to block. If you wanted to block www . Xyx . Com (remove spaces) for example you would type in 127.0.0.1 www . Xyx . Com. Now anyone on that computer who tries to go to that url will be redirected to 127.0.0.1 (which is your computer) and they won't get to that page. Using the example above I would also put 127.0.0.1 xyz.com to be on the safe side because on most sites the www is optional.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jstrike

Are you trying to block them on one computer or all computers on the network?
Adding a site to the restricted sites in IE does not prevent someone from going to that site, it just changes the security settings for that site so most things won't work.

Some routers (Netgear for example) will let you block sites at the router level. If your router supports this it's the most efficient way to do it. Some ISP's also offer parental control software for free.

Another way is your hosts file. In C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc open the hosts file with a text editor such as notepad and put in the sites you want to block. If you wanted to block www . xyx . com (remove spaces) for example you would type in 127.0.0.1 www . xyx . com. Now anyone on that computer who tries to go to that url will be redirected to 127.0.0.1 (which is your computer) and they won't get to that page. Using the example above I would also put 127.0.0.1 xyz.com to be on the safe side because on most sites the www is optional.

Did that host file thing.. nothing works... I can't find where to go with Firefox to do it though

The hosts file is not browser specific, anything that tries to get to those URL's via TCP/IP will be affected. Did you reboot your computer after you made the changes? Typically you don't have to but it's not a bad idea just to be sure.

Make sure the lines in the hosts file look like this:

Code:

127.0.0.1 www.xyz.com 127.0.0.1 xyz.com

Also check to make sure your network card is setup to use the hosts file.
Right click on My Network Places and select Properties.
Right click on your network adapter and select Properties.
In the box in the middle, scroll down to Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click properties.
Click Advanced.\
Under the WINS tab make sure Enable LMHOSTS is checked and make sure the default NetBIOS setting is selected as well.

Open a DOS prompt and type: ipconfig /flushdns
Now type ping site-you-entered-in-the-hosts-file
What ip address do you see?