How to Block Sites Using Internet Explorer

Managing internet access for yourself as well as the members of your family can be tricky. Certain sites may need to be blocked for the sake of young children who are allowed to use the internet. Other sites should be blocked from all users, even yourself, to protect your computer from viruses or cookies. Fortunately, Internet Explorer provides tools to allow users to customize their online experience in both areas. You can set security and privacy settings that will provide a safe online experience for everyone in your home.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Internet access
• Internet Explorer

Instructions

1. Open Internet Explorer. Click on the "Tools" menu, mouse down to "Pop-up Blocker" and click on "Pop-up Blocker Settings...." Select the filter level to determine how strict you want your computer to be about pop up windows. Enter any sites that you do want to see pop-ups for in the list of allowed sites. This will block pop up windows from most web pages.

2. Go back to the "Tools" menu and select "Internet Options." Open the "Privacy" tab and set your privacy settings to reflect the level of restrictions that you want your browser to enforce. The options that you select here will prompt your computer to stop you from visiting sites that will put cookies on your computer or otherwise compromise your privacy.

3. Open the "Content" tab of the "Internet Options" box. To select specific sites that you want to block from your computer, enable the Content Advisor.

4. Open the "Approved Sites" tab in the Content Advisor box. Enter the web addresses of sites that you want to allow or disallow on your web browser. To block all sites from a certain domain, place an asterisk before the site address. This will not only block the main page of that site, it will block all subsequent sites on that domain.

5. Create a supervisor password. This password will allow you access to blocked sites should you choose to enter them. Setting a supervisor password is an effective way to block certain sites from children that the adults in the household may still want to view.

Tips & Warnings

• The exact menus you may need to navigate to block websites from your computer may vary slightly with different versions of Internet Explorer. However, the same basic features should be available.

References

• Internet Explorer 8, Illustrated Essentials; Katherine T. Pinard; 2009
• The Ultimate Guide to Internet Safety; Victoria Roddel; 2008
• Block Pop-Up Windows with Internet Explorer