How to block a website

If you want to keep your employees from wasting time or to protect your children from online threats, then it would be a good idea to block certain websites. To find out exactly how to block sites quickly and easily, keep on reading.

Block a website in a specific browser

To block a website in Internet Explorer, load Internet explorer and click
Tools - Internet Options - Privacy. Then, under the window Privacy, click on Sites and enter the site address that you want to block. To perform a web block in Firefox, you will need to download an add-on. BlockSite BlockSite is probably the best one. Go to Firefox and click
Tools - Add-ons - Get Add-ons. Then, select Browse All Add-ons, enter blocksite in the search bar and install the add-on. To get websites blocked in Google Chrome, click on the wrench symbol in the right corner at the top, and click Tools - Under the Hood - Change Proxy Settings and then Security. After that, click Restricted Sites and add the website that you wish to block.

Edit your Host file

Editing your Host file will allow you to block a site in all browsers. To get access to the Host file, click Start - All Programs – Accessories and then Command Prompt. In the DOS command window, type notepad C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts. Find the line 127.0.0.1 localhost and add the site that you want to block after the prefix “127.0.0.1”. The good thing about this method is that you can block as many websites as you want and in all the web browsers. In case you want to access blocked websites, you can go back and delete the entries and this will unblock blocked sites.

Use software

There is a type of software available that can act as a URL blocker or a web blocker. This type of software may not always be free, but it has some advantages. For example, your children or employees may discover how to undo the previous blocks and open blocked sites. With the use of a program, this won’t be so easy. The only thing you need to do is to download the site blocker program, and enter the complete web address that you want to block. After that, every time the users try to load the website, they will get "error 404 - page cannot be found". This is a natural looking error code that won’t make people very suspicious.