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Block Websites from your Router or using DNS
September 20th, 2012 by Aseem Kishore | File in: Featured Posts (http://helpdeskgeek.com/category/featured-posts/), How-To
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Looking for a way to block websites in your home so that anyone connected to your network cannot access them? There are
lots of programs out there that you can install on a PC or Mac to block or filter websites, but I don’t like these solutions
because you have to manually install it on each computer and for any new devices that get connected to the network, they
won’t be blocked.
On top of that, what if you want to block the site on other devices connected to wifi like tablets or smartphones? Well, instead
of blocking websites on a device by device basis, you can block websites from your wireless router! This is great because all
traffic on your internal network has to pass through your router. If you block it here, there is no need to install any software on
any computer or to make any changes to the settings on any computer.
This means you don’t have to bother with proxy servers, group policy or secret software running on machines in order to
block a few websites. In this article, I’ll show you how you can use your router or use DNS to block websites. All the action
takes place on your router.
Block Websites on Router
Just about every router today now has the option to block or filter websites right on the router. For example, I have a Netgear
N600 wireless router and there is a whole section called Conte nt Filte ring. You’ll need to log into the web interface of your
router in order to access these settings.
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It even has the option to allow trusted IP addresses to access the blocked sites, so you can give your computer a static IP
address and add it to the list. This way, you can browse everything, but no one else will be able too. In addition to blocking
websites, Netgear also has options for blocking services, so you can block all FTP traffic or all AIM traffic. You can create alerts
and get emails when someone tries to visit a blocked website.
2. Not all routers will have the same number of features like Netgear, but there is usually at least a minimum ability to block
websites. If your router simply doesn’t have any mechanism for blocking sites via the software, then you can try using DNS.
Block Websites using DNS
On your router, you can also block websites by using another DNS service provider other than your ISP. OpenDNS is an
awesome DNS service provider that gives you free content filtering for home use. All you have to do is sign up for a free
account and change the DNS servers on your router to point to the OpenDNS servers.
OpenDNS even has a section on how to change the DNS settings for just about every router out there. You can check out this
link to change yours:
https://store.opendns.com/setup/router/ (https://store.opendns.com/setup/router/)
Note that you should sign up for a free Home account, not a Premium DNS account. The Home account is what gives you the
ability to block individual websites. It’s great that the service is free and OpenDNS may actually be faster than your ISP DNS
servers.
Those are two excellent ways of blocking websites on your home network without having to configure a single computer or
device. It’s the easiest way and provides the widest coverage since you’re blocking the websites at the source. If you have any
questions, post a comment and I’ll try to help. Enjoy!
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ASE E M KISHOR E
Founder of Help Desk Geek and managing editor.
He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in
2010 to blog full-time.
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Welcome to Help Desk Geek- a blog full of help desk tips for
IT Professionals. My name is Aseem Kishore and I work as a
Systems Analyst in Dallas, TX. I graduated from Emory
University in Atlanta, GA in 2002 with a degree in Computer
Science and Mathematics.
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