Discrete Website blocking

Michaeljcox24 · 5 Feb 2012 at 14:47

Is there any freeware out there that blocks website discretely without the browser flashing up a 'WEBSITE BLOCKED' message?

My router does it, my copy of avast does it, what doesn't?

Woden · 5 Feb 2012 at 14:48

You can edit your hosts file

moss · 5 Feb 2012 at 14:49

You could edit the machines host file and point it to a locally stored blank page or just 127.0.0.1, not too hard to get around but it depends how techie the user is.

JonJ678 · 5 Feb 2012 at 18:36

What do you want the browser to show?

If the user types facebook.com into the URL and fails to get facebook, they're probably going to work out it's blocked whatever the screen says. I suppose you could create a number of simple websites with "Down temporarily for maintenance" written on them, but that's not really any more subtle than "Page blocked" after a day or so.

You want discreet website blocking, which I don't think is possible. This is unfortunate, as discrete website blocking would involve a simple blacklist. Discrete <> Discreet.

23JMZ07 · 5 Feb 2012 at 20:09

moss said:
You could edit the machines host file and point it to a locally stored blank page or just 127.0.0.1, not too hard to get around but it depends how techie the user is.

This..