Free Website Blocker?

November 27, 2005 8:06 PM

Can anyone recommend a good (free) program that would let me block specific websites? Not just a filter by category such as porn etc. So far everything I find is either not useul or not free. I use a PC at home and a mac at work, so one that works for both would be ideal, but I'll take what I can get. Suggestions?
posted by hermitosis to computers & internet (7 comments total)

For your home use, do you have a router? Many have built in blacklists. At work, it may depend on your IT department, if there is one.
posted by attercoppe at 8:10 PM on November 27, 2005

hosts file? Can't get much simpler than that. Just redirect everything you don't like to 127.0.0.1.
posted by meehawl at 8:11 PM on November 27, 2005

Edit your hosts file?

Windows, Mac (and Linux) share the same syntax. It's a bit manual. but it's free.
posted by holloway at 8:14 PM on November 27, 2005

Darn it!
posted by holloway at 8:14 PM on November 27, 2005

yeap, hosts file. as a start, the gorilla one is no longer updated but they recommend this mvps one. good stuff.
posted by dorian at 8:15 PM on November 27, 2005

Adblock extension for Firefox can block sites.
posted by orthogonality at 8:27 PM on November 27, 2005

Privoxy will work well too, and is cross platform. Putting crap in the hosts file is so low-tech. With privoxy you get to pick the blocked sites by regular expressions, you get a nice html response saying the site is blocked, and you don't have to wait for a timeout or a popup about not being able to connect to 127.0.0.1. Using the hosts file for that is just barbaric in comparison.
posted by Rhomboid at 10:53 PM on November 27, 2005