blocking websites

[PAULRYAN52]

hi whats the easiest way to block websites, someone i know wants me to block certain websites, there isp is vodafone and operating system is vista

 

[PAULRYAN52]

anyone help

 

[PAULRYAN52]

Block certain websites based on what? A list of URLs you don't like, IPs of the servers, keywords in the pages?

urls

There will be options on the Router.

there is no router

Hosts file, firewall rules, Vista Parental Controls, OpenDNS. All those would be easy options.

how do i set Vista Parental Controls

 

[PAULRYAN52]

the simplest way is to add the URLs in your hosts file and set the IP to 127.0.0.1.
Though if they have admin access to the PC they can undo this. Vista's parental controls i think are password protected.

they use a usb modem on a laptop

 

[PAULRYAN52]

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...controls-to-filter-websites-in-windows-vista/

thanks

 

[PAULRYAN52]

is there any software to do it instead

 

[PAULRYAN52]

there's K9 webring. But most software isn't free thought a lot of it is quite cheap.

whats the best

 

[PAULRYAN52]

The best is dependant on how much you want to pay.
Here we have web filtering from Sonicwall on a piece of hardware that cost lots of money.

Given they're on a USB modem and mobile broadband then I'd say K9 is fine, tbh if he knows the website URLs he wants to block adding them to hosts file is by far the simplest way and the cheapest way.

how do i set up hosts file, sorry about all the questions

 

[PAULRYAN52]

i'm not 100% on it's location in vista. In XP it was in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc. A quick Google should tell you where it is in vista.

In there is a file called "hosts" if you open that with notepad and edit it you can get the desired result. There's an example in there as default to show you what to put.
Basically you put the url and IP you want it to lookup for that address. The IP should be 127.0.0.1 which is loopback. I.e when that URL is requested the request never leaves the PC. e.g "www.google.co.uk 127.0.0.1" would block google

thanks sorted