Stop some devices in my home accessing iplayer and youtube

Thomas_Holding

I have Virgin media, am I right in thinking that using their websafe I can stop certain devices using iplayer and youtube?  This is to make home schooling go better.
Or is there an alternative way of doing this?
Thank you in advance for any help.

Neil_Jones

Browser extensions might be better, something like this for Chrome:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/blocksite-stay-focused-co/eiimnmioipafcokbfikbljfdeojpcgbh?hl=en

There are similar examples for Firefox and maybe Edge (and presumably the Apple store).  Some of them have time blocks too, so say 9-3 and then "normal" after that.

Some more ideas here:

https://freedom.to/blog/8-website-blockers-for-studying-productivity-focus/

The problem you will almost certainly run into if you start blocking at the router level/another device (PiHole for example) is you will forget you've done such a thing when you're trying to get to YouTube after the kids have gone to bed.  It may be more beneficial on a per device basis.

pbartlett

 Cannot advise you about Virgin media but if by device's you mean laptops etc running windows then you can edit the hosts file to point the Web address of these services to 0.0.0.0

Neil_Jones

pbartlett said:

 Cannot advise you about Virgin media but if by device's you mean laptops etc running windows then you can edit the hosts file to point the Web address of these services to 0.0.0.0

There are a handful of websites (mostly Microsoft ones) that "override" an entry you give them in the Hosts file.

Also if you're going to do this. www.youtube.com and youtube.com are effectively two different websites.  So you would need to add them both.  However as I've said above, this is a solution that requires manual flipping every day and there will come a point where you forget you've done it.

Undervalued

Also, on most "devices", aren't they likely to be accessing Youtube and iPlayer via their dedicated apps rather than a web browser?

This is a bit like the questions that crop up from time to time about restricting teenagers from "adult" material on their phones etc. Realistically, education and parenting skills are the answer, not technology.

[Deleted User]

Thomas_Holding said:

I have Virgin media, am I right in thinking that using their websafe I can stop certain devices using iplayer and youtube?  This is to make home schooling go better.
Or is there an alternative way of doing this?
Thank you in advance for any help.

The Virgin Media Web-safe cannot be controlled at device level so it would affect all devices in the household. It isn't 100% reliable either as the local machine can cache the DNS lookup so might not always work unless the device is restarted - ie if already watching YouTube when the timed restrictions come in, it will continue to play the video.

You need to manually enter all the blocked domains into the Web-safe custom filter as well, about a 8 for YouTube, not sure for iPlayer.

Some good examples of doing this for free in the above replies. If you are willing to spend some money, you can get routers with more sophisticated controls that can be done per device and time scheduled - this is included in my Asus router:

Thomas_Holding

pbartlett said:

 Cannot advise you about Virgin media but if by device's you mean laptops etc running windows then you can edit the hosts file to point the Web address of these services to 0.0.0.0

I meant android phones, tablets and also a window PC so a mixture.

Neil_Jones

Thomas_Holding said:

pbartlett said:

 Cannot advise you about Virgin media but if by device's you mean laptops etc running windows then you can edit the hosts file to point the Web address of these services to 0.0.0.0

I meant android phones, tablets and also a window PC so a mixture.

Something like was previously mentioned for the Windows machines.

For the Android device might be more tricky.  PiHole might be worth looking into, although it requires either another machine you can stick Linux on, or a Raspberry Pi.

https://build5nines.com/block-ads-trackers-nsfw-sites-network-using-pi-hole/

In a nutshell you just force all your internet traffic through it and I believe if you do some other digging/configuration you can do scheduling, but I don't know if you can do it through the web interface:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b3hjy85EF0

The main selling point of PiHole is the ability to block web advertisements, but it can do a lot more, and logically speaking it will be able to block websites too.

JustAnotherSaver

I did something similar years ago. We had a family PC and my sister didn't like going on to be stumbling across stuff due to my brother accessing adult sites. 

I can't remember the exact name of it but openDNS rings a bell. I think the icon was an orange thing. Can't remember to be 100% sure.

Anyway I blocked out by category and could also enter in specific websites too. 

This was suggested to me elsewhere. Others chimed in that there was workarounds or whatever because they wanted to show how knowledgeable they were and how THEY would get round it but my brother didn't have the computer know-how to do that, so it worked. 

esuhl

I was going to suggest OpenDNS.  I think you can set it up to block certain content.  Have a look here:

https://signup.opendns.com/homefree/

You'd need to change your router's DNS settings if you want to affect all devices on your network.