Block Youtube via router

August 11, 2024 6:28 AM

I seem to recall a post about a way to block youtube (or anything) via wifi router. Basically it would do it by not allowing the DNS lookup. I would like to block youtube for the next week or so on my router, but now I can't fine the post. Please either find me the post or better yet, explain like I am 5 how I can block youtube from my Wifi router.
posted by If only I had a penguin... to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Some routers have this functionality out of the box, likely under the heading of parental controls. What kind of router do you have? If it's a completely dumb router that has nothing like that you will have to point it at a DNS that is configured not to return address for youtube domains. You could set this up on a local machine in the house, but that would have to run 24/7 or potentially use a 3rd party service like this : https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/
posted by ill3 at 8:50 AM on August 11

Yeah will depend on your router and the software. For example my tplink doesn’t show parental controls in the browser. Has to be done via the app.
posted by terrapin at 10:02 AM on August 11

It really depends upon what kind of router you have, as the various screens and options are similar across routers and not identical, and explain-it-like-I'm-five instructions seem to call for explicit router-specific step-by-step instructions.
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:00 PM on August 11

You don't say why you're doing this (is it to control kids' access, your own, someone else's?) but as others have said there's no one-size-fits-all way to do this from a router. Some have the ability to redirect DNS, some don't.

If you don't have router that can do this, my suggestion would be to modify the hosts file on the computer you want to do the blocking on.

Here are instructions for the big 3 operating systems

Keep in mind this is relatively easy to circumvent in a variety of ways.
posted by signsofrain at 5:31 PM on August 11

NextDNS is great for things like this. (The free tier should be fine; you don't even really have to sign up for an account to use it.)
posted by sportbucket at 10:22 PM on August 11