Blocking torrent / "kid" sites

Teaf

Teaf

Teaf

Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2006
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By kiddy I mean rubbish like Facebook, MSN (particularly MSN Messenger), Myspace. Also wanting to completely block any torrent sites of any sort. What would be the best way to do this? The problem I face is that the children in question using the machine will be on the administrator account, so I need to do it in a way that they aren't familiar with or something they are going to overlook. If I add the rules to the firewall they'll just deactivate the firewall and then browse the sites.

I was thinking the hosts file and just adding rules in there to bounce all the sites back to 127.0.0.1, as I'm very confident they don't know what the hosts file is. Problem with hosts is that there are so many torrent sites that it would be nigh impossible to block them all with a hosts file. Also the hosts file can't stop programs getting installed. A secondary account with limited access so they can't install programs would be ideal, but in this case it's not possible to do therefore I'm having to work around that.

The main reason for doing this is the children using the machine are really bogging down the system with stuff like IE toolbars, torrent files, downloads from MSN and so forth.

Are there any other better ways of doing it? Maybe some kind of freeware program that runs in the background that is inconspicuous and won't show up anywhere other the processes window in Task Manager?

Thanks in advance for any help.

* Disclaimer: I'm aware adults use these sites, and I'm not attemping to be rude, just kids tend to use them more often :)
 
I can't help regarding the blocking sites, however, I would suggest you simply change the administrator password and create a fresh account for the kids!

Can you not simply deny each program access in your router settings?

Or, you could just tell the kids not to do it! Explain to them why you don't want loads of stuff downloading, explain the risks of virus's/keyloggers and then tell them that if they don't stop you will be locking the PC down so they can't do anything :D
 
AHarvey said:
I can't help regarding the blocking sites, however, I would suggest you simply change the administrator password and create a fresh account for the kids!

Can you not simply deny each program access in your router settings?

Or, you could just tell the kids not to do it! Explain to them why you don't want loads of stuff downloading, explain the risks of virus's/keyloggers and then tell them that if they don't stop you will be locking the PC down so they can't do anything :D
Click to expand...

Unfortunately we don't use a router :(

We came to the conclusion if we blocked them from the PC their school work would degrade as they do their homework and things on the computer, and they'd also ask for their own computer for Christmas :P

A second account would be ideal but in this situation it's the last resort, if there's something else we can do then I'd rather take that route.

Ta for reply!
 
The best way is to add a second account and make usre it is a limited account and put on the content advisor on IE so that it blocks everything at the first attempt and slowly you will build up a selection of sites that the kids can go to after you grant them access with the password you create.

As for msn, uninstall the live version if its on and as for the standard messenger try this
 
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hmm, in that case I would definitely create a second account just for them. Remove any rights they have to install software and remove MSN and torrent programs.

I have seen this program bouncing about on other forums regarding IP blocking but have never used it myself:

http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/

PeerGuardian 2
 
Cheers guys, from reading up more about what I'm wanting to do I think it's going to be best to make a second account for the kids so I'll do that
 
Easy...

1. Head on over to http://www.opendns.com

2. Configure your router with the Open DNS name servers
3. Sign up for a free account
4. Sign in and add your network using the OpenDNS control panel
5. Download and install the OpenDNS client on your machine
6. Use the tools within the control panel to block any site you like

:)
 
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PaulB said:
Easy...

1. Head on over to http://www.opendns.com

2. Configure your router with the Open DNS name servers
3. Sign up for a free account
4. Sign in and add your network using the OpenDNS control panel
5. Download and install the OpenDNS client on your machine
6. Use the tools within the control panel to block any site you like

:)
Click to expand...

AHarvey said:
Can you not simply deny each program access in your router settings?
Click to expand...

flibby said:
Unfortunately we don't use a router :(
Click to expand...
 
i tried loads of things in the past to stop my oldest lad (13 ) from going on sites/downloading things that i didnt want him to. nothing worked.
in the end i just told him i would check the history/pc daily and if i found anything he would get punished (no money and/or grounded )
and after a few bans it sunk in and now hes trusted to have a pc in his room, which i still check daily and the same rules apply.
 
byteagig said:
i tried loads of things in the past to stop my oldest lad (13 ) from going on sites/downloading things that i didnt want him to. nothing worked.
in the end i just told him i would check the history/pc daily and if i found anything he would get punished (no money and/or grounded )
and after a few bans it sunk in and now hes trusted to have a pc in his room, which i still check daily and the same rules apply.
Click to expand...

You know he can delete things from the history?
 
Yeah i think its better to teach your children properly rather than just banning access to everything. Teachnig them should make them more rounded individuals. I (and a lot of other people) didn't need this nannying when we were younger, and theres always been c""" around on the internet.

If you really must tie them down, OpenDNS as mentioned is probably the easiest, but then you can still just change the DNS settings...
 
Remove whatever version of Windows you're currently using and go back to Windows 3.1. Problem solved. None of their apps will even install.... in fact nothing will work any more ;) :D :)
 
Installed a program called CyberSitter on the PC's at home.

Blocks MyFace/MSN/Yahoo etc, had great content filtering, time limited browsing hours etc and you can set which users to apply the restrictions to. You can even set it to auto-hide on boot and protect access to it via a password.

EDIT: You also get daily updates to the latest blacklists.
 
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