Comments on: Free Website Blocker?

Question: Free Website Blocker?

hermitosis — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 20:06:05 -0800

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?

By: attercoppe

attercoppe — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 20:10:29 -0800

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.

By: meehawl

meehawl — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 20:11:24 -0800

hosts file? Can't get much simpler than that. Just redirect everything you don't like to 127.0.0.1.

By: holloway

holloway — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 20:14:08 -0800

Edit your hosts file?

Windows, Mac (and Linux) share the same syntax. It's a bit manual. but it's free.

By: holloway

holloway — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 20:14:18 -0800

Darn it!

By: dorian

dorian — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 20:15:11 -0800

yeap, hosts file. as a start, the gorilla one is no longer updated but they recommend this mvps one. good stuff.

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 20:27:16 -0800

Adblock extension for Firefox can block sites.

By: Rhomboid

Rhomboid — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 22:53:34 -0800

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.