How can I block access to a web site

Coveredinbees!!!!

My nephew keeps using my Dads computer to access the games web site zango which loads spyware on to his computer. I have told him not to let him do it but he does it anyway. Is there any way to block access to this web sites? My dad is on NTL and is connected directly with a cable modem and doesn't have a router or anything that I can configure to block the site.

superjaggybunnet

If you are using MS Internet Explorer go into Tools > Internet Options > Content and then click on the 'Enable' tabn.

You should be able to enter the website address and block it.

albertross_2

start run

notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

add this line

127.0.0.1 https://www.zango.com

and save the file

Coveredinbees!!!!

superjaggybunnet wrote:

If you are using MS Internet Explorer go into Tools > Internet Options > Content and then click on the 'Enable' tabn.

You should be able to enter the website address and block it.

How can I do the same thing with firefox?

Toxteth_OGrady

Do what Albertross said. It will block it for all browsers then.

:cool:

TOG

Coveredinbees!!!!

albertross wrote:

start run

notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

add this line

127.0.0.1 https://www.zango.com

and save the file

I did this and it had no effect I can still access the site

albertross_2

did you save the file, and there is a space between 1 and www

Browntoa

guide to editing the hosts file here

http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/how_to_use_hosts.html

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]If you want to make your own Hosts file instead of using the example above, then download this and follow the intructions inside of it for adding entries to the file and for where to place it. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]If you use Windows 2000 or XP Pro, you will want to visit this page before proceeding. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](2.) Try to locate any existing hosts file on your computer: [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Windows 95/98/Me c:\windows\hosts [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Windows NT/2000/XP Pro c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Windows XP Home c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](you may need administrator access for Windows NT/2000/XP) [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]NOTE: Hosts is the name of the hosts file and not another directory name. It does not have an extension (extensions are the .exe, .txt, .doc, etc. endings to filenames) and so appears to be another directory in the example above. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]If you do not have a Hosts file already, you may simply extract the hosts127001.zip file, and place it in your c:\windows\ directory (for Windows 95/98/Me) or your c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\ directory (for Windows NT/2000/XP Pro). XP Home may have the file in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\. If you extracted the hosts127001.zip file to the correct directory, you may skip to step (4.), otherwise proceed to step (3.) [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]CAUTION: If you find that you already have a "Hosts" file on your computer, I recommend that you back it up onto a floppy or into another directory on your hard drive so that you may restore it if you do not like the results of the ad-blocking, or in case something else goes wrong while you are trying to set this up. It is always better to be safe than sorry in the event of an unforeseen mishap. Please make a backup copy. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](3.) You only need to perform this step if you find that you have an existing Hosts file: [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Open your hosts file in Notepad. It should look something like this when you open it: [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]# Copyright (c) 1998 Microsoft Corp. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]#[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP stack for Windows98 [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]# space. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]# For example:[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]127.0.0.1 localhost [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]If your Hosts file looks exactly like that, then you may simply make a backup copy of it and then delete it. After deleting it, extract the hosts127001.zip file into either your c:\windows (for Windows 95/98/Me) or your c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc (for Windows NT/2000/XP Pro) folder and proceed to the next step. Windows XP Home may use the c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ directory. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]If other data is in your Hosts file, you will definitely want a backup before you proceed, so make one now. If your Hosts file looks like the one above, but has extra entries, you will need to do a little more work. For example, if you use the program CookieCop Plus, your Hosts file would look like above with the following entries after the comment section: [/FONT]

127.0.0.1 localhost

127.0.0.1 CookieCop

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]If you find any extra entries in your existing Hosts file, you will want them in your new Hosts file as well. The solution is to make a backup of your current Hosts file, and then extract the hosts127001.zip file to the folder that contained your existing file. Next, you will want to open the new Hosts file with a text editor (if you have Windows 95/98/Me/NT, the list might be too big for Notepad and will open in Wordpad - if you use Windows 2000/XP, this shouldn't happen). [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]After you open the file with a text editor, copy the lines from your backup Hosts file into your new Hosts file. You will only need to copy the lines that start with "127.0.0.1" or another similar IP number, and add them to the bottom of your new list. Save the file in your text editor. You will want to make sure that the file is saved without an extension. You can do this by typing this into the "save as" line when you save the file: [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Hosts" [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Make sure you use the quotes to keep the file from being saved with an extension (like .txt). If you find the file has an extension, you will need to get rid of the extension by renaming the file in Explorer to simply "Hosts". [/FONT]

Coveredinbees!!!!

Yes!! it works now, had a touch of OHS. I was saving the host file as text not as a system file so the system didn't see the changes. This should sort out the little blighter.

jago25_98

I have encountered website blocking in academic and professional environments and it's like banning books.

It's a reactive rather than proactive approach. There are an infinate number of sites , it's a pain for the kid who will waste many hours of thier life trying to figure out what is going on, and then on discovering it spend many more thinking up elaborate ways of bypassing it.

Instead of censorship, how's about supporting the user in their use of IT systems?

I see you are using Firefox, that is good and I'm suprised that you need more.

You could give a guest account that has no rights to run .exe executables. There are also programs to prevent hijackings to consider as well but all these things are not as good as not using Windows, bah.

amcluesent

Easy enough to fool Google into doing and English to English translation and showing the site -

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zango.com&langpair=en%7Cen&hl=en&safe=off&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools