How to Block and Unblock Internet Sites

If you are a parent or have a need to restrict certain parts of the web to specific users, you'll need to know how you can block and unblock internet sites. This is a simple procedure that can be done directly through the built in software in your browser, eliminating the need to purchase an additional program to block and unblock internet sites. The steps below will show you how to create and edit a block list using Microsoft Internet Explorer because it is the most common and widely used web browser.

Instructions

1. Gather a list of all the web sites that you want to block. If you have children you should make sure that you consider the appropriateness of anything that they could potentially see. Be particularly wary of chat rooms and other areas where children have been shown to be vulnerable. This is important since they may unknowingly stumble onto websites like this, even if they are sites that they don't talk about or frequent right now.

2. Open internet explorer and choose the tools menu from the top menu bar and click on it. When the tools drop down menu appears you'll be given a number of choices to pick from, and the next thing that you want to choose is "internet options." This selection will bring you to the internet options multiple tab window.

3. Select the tab which says "content" by clicking on it and you will see a various options that you can choose from. Click on the box that says "parental controls" because this is the setting area that you need to be in order to block and unblock internet sites and their content.

4. Once you are in the "parental controls" section, you'll need to click on the user account of the person that you want to block and unblock internet sites for, which will take you to the parental control panel for their account.

5. After you are in the parental control panel for that particular user, you'll need to click the box under "parental controls" that says "On, enforce current settings" in order to turn on the blocking features.

6. Select the "Windows Vista Web Filter" option under the "windows settings" section on the same page, then click "edit the allow and block list" on the next page. Doing this will bring you to the final page where you can input the URL's of the allowed and blocked websites.

7. Type the names of the internet sites that you want to block and allow in the appropriate boxes and then click ok. Continue to click ok until you are out of all the parental control menus and your changes have been saved. To unblock any of these sites, repeat steps 2-7 to navigate back to the block and allow menu and delete the URL's from the block menu. Then click ok until you are out of the parental control menu and your changes have been saved again.