Banning sites...

[mercyGurl]

So I've decided there are a few sites I'd like to ban because when I get on them they waste my time and allow me to procrastinate from my school work and/or stay up late.

Is there any way I can do that on my computer without installing some stupid parental control software?

[sandie]

Does that include this one? :p

[KarenAlexa]

I've blocked a few sites on my Mac using the command line so I assume you could do it on Windows in similar fashion -- google it.

[middletree]

So I've decided there are a few sites I'd like to ban because when I get on them they waste my time and allow me to procrastinate from my school work and/or stay up late.

Is there any way I can do that on my computer without installing some stupid parental control software?
You can ban a site in each browser, but it must be done within the browser. If you are using a firewall, you could do it that way, but those instructions will come with whatever firewall you happen to be using.

Or, you could exercise self-control, which is listed under "Fruit of the Spirit". ;)

[Corrine]

Couldn't she just go to Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Security -> Sites, and then add the sites there? It doesn't look as though it would keep her out of those sites, just make them much more difficult to use.

[middletree]

Couldn't she just go to Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Security -> Sites, and then add the sites there? It doesn't look as though it would keep her out of those sites, just make them much more difficult to use.
That would just work for IE.

[Gandalf]

You could edit the hosts file located in windows\system32\drivers\ etc (it's just called "hosts" with no file extension - open it in Notepad or another text editor).

Each line of that file defines a mapping between a hostname and IP address that the computer will use before trying to look up the name through a DNS server as normal. If you set the banned sites to 127.0.0.1 (localhost = the local machine), they won't work any more on that computer. For example,
127.0.0.1 www.timewastingsite.com
as a line in the hosts file would cause any program on your computer that's looking for www.timewastingsite.com to think that refers to the computer itself. It won't find a webserver running locally, so the browser will just go to an error page. A reboot might be required to make changes take effect, or running the command
ipconfig /flushdns
at a command prompt might be sufficient.

It's a brute force approach, but it'd work. Some people do this for webservers that host advertising, as a crude method of blocking banner ads, etc. (Adblock and other such extensions in Firefox are a much more effective and user-friendly approach).

Self-control might, as James suggested, be easier than lying to your computer about where to find the website. Anything you blocked, you could unblock if you wanted. :)

[middletree]

The Hosts file will work. I'll just add to Brian's instructions by saying that for this method to work, make sure you enter a carriage return at the end of the last line. In other words, hit the Enter key and make the cursor go to the next line. For some reason, Windows is unpredictable in how it reads items on the last line of the Hosts and Services files. So you make your last entry be the second-to-last line.

[mercyGurl]

Thanks all;)

The way I see it, if I have to go there to change it to get back to working, then by then I'll come to my senses and realize that it will be a waste of my time.;)

[Corrine]

We used to have a solitaire game that kept track of how many hours you played. When it got to 48 hours, two entire days of my life, I dumped it. :rolleyes: You just don't realize how much time you spend doing nothing on the computer.