How to block casino sites

C64 · 10 Nov 2007 at 20:37

Hi there,
My sister has asked me to stop her online gambling by somehow stopping her getting onto these online gambling casino type places.
What would be the best way to achieve this ? setup a profile on firefox or get a separate application which can block certain things.
You know how at work you cant do certain things and download certain stuff how does that work is it just a firewall blocking them or some setting within xp? or a third party application ? advice appreciated thank you.

Is terminatorxv2 any good?

RobH · 10 Nov 2007 at 20:48

Your best bet is the HOSTS file located in %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc. You can add entries to this to block any site you wish, you have to obtain a list of sites you want to block or find a customised hosts file on the Internet that has the entries for the sites already (common ones block adult sites but there may be one for gambling, search around). The HOSTS file is basically the first point of call when trying to resolve a domain so it will filter any outgoing requests for sites in the list.

C64 · 10 Nov 2007 at 20:55

Thanks yea so i just add the sites under

127.0.0.1 localhost

127.0.0.1 www.site i want to block
like this right ?

RobH · 10 Nov 2007 at 20:58

Yep, you can add things like subdomain.site.com too if you don't want to block the whole site.

C64 · 10 Nov 2007 at 21:16

Right thanks i need to find a list am not sitting here pasting in god knows how many sites one by one.

bledd · 10 Nov 2007 at 21:37

here's one i just found on google http://www.hostsfile.org/hosts.html

Munky1080 · 11 Nov 2007 at 01:05

I had to go through this with someone I know
http://www.gamblock.com/ has software that blocks EVERY gambling/poker/bookie/casino website there is

JayMax · 11 Nov 2007 at 01:13

Wouldn't Bluecoat K9 do the job if configured correctly, for free?

Tony Williams · 11 Nov 2007 at 01:26

JayMax said:
Wouldn't Bluecoat K9 do the job if configured correctly, for free?

Yes give this program a try ... uncheck everything but gambling sites.

PinkPig · 11 Nov 2007 at 02:37

You'll never succeed at editing the HOSTS file - there are just far too many casinos out there and new ones appearing, you could never find them all. More importantly she could very easily remove them if she worked it out, and gambling addiction can be a horrible thing, even once you know you want to give up.

Gamblock is (from experience) not the best written piece of software in the world, and it's expensive, but on the plus side it's very simple and difficult to remove. I'd really recommend using K9 Web Protection instead though - install it and set it up with a password and email address that she doesn't have access to. Choose the "gambling" and "proxy avoidance" (else it's far too easy to get around the filter) categories only, and remember the password yourself in case it ever causes you any trouble.

Munky1080 · 11 Nov 2007 at 07:29

Sorry, to be honest I forgot Gamblock cost money...