Blocking All Websites

Rhys · 3 Jun 2008 at 14:23

After watching Untraceable last night I have decided my new Linux PC will be uber secure for the kids.

Is there a way of blocking all websites except for ones I decide are acceptable?

thegoonden · 3 Jun 2008 at 14:56

Set the box up with no DNS.
Then put the IP's for the specific sites in /etc/hosts.

Don't give kids root password

Ethics · 3 Jun 2008 at 15:11

Untraceable, albeit more realistic than most, is still non-sense... They can magically blackhole any IP in the world, but don't think to take down the nameservers for the domain.

try goondens idea, be interesting to see if it works

Rhys · 3 Jun 2008 at 15:59

Ive read that you can also set manual proxy to 0.0.0.0 for all http and then specify the site's you want to be accessible to not to use the manual proxy in firefox.

brummie · 3 Jun 2008 at 16:02

I use openDNS with a whitelist

TrX · 3 Jun 2008 at 16:23

Rhys said:
Ive read that you can also set manual proxy to 0.0.0.0 for all http and then specify the site's you want to be accessible to not to use the manual proxy in firefox.

I think that's per user config so the user would be able to change that.

OpenDNS is pretty good for that kind of thing, but I'm not a fan of people logging all my DNS history in one place... So i'd go for the /etc/hosts file

Alternatively run a http proxy like squid on another box.. or get an ADSL/Cable router that does web filtering.

//TrX

tntcoder · 3 Jun 2008 at 16:24

brummie said:
I use openDNS with a whitelist

Seconded, very good for the job but easily bypassable.

Untraceable had some pretty serious plot holes

Rhys · 3 Jun 2008 at 17:09

Cheers for the replies. The user is 8 and so im not too worried about bypassing it easily.

Its more to stop her going on dodgy sites by accident.

Ethics · 3 Jun 2008 at 17:17

Rhys said:
Cheers for the replies. The user is 8 and so im not too worried about bypassing it easily.

Its more to stop her going on dodgy sites by accident.

Educating the child is far more valuable than any whitelist, dodgy sites generally don't happen by accident from what i've seen.

You can whitelist a laod of sites but then say she is doing a school project, and is using wikipedia which references an external source, you must then allow that domain... means you have to be on hand at all times (which you may well be)