How Do I Block Individual Web Pages?

If you have a computer that other people can use, restrict access to the websites that you do not want loaded onto your machine. Perhaps you have children and do not want them to accidentally stumble across adult-oriented sites, or maybe you have roommates that may potentially bring up pages that can install viruses on your operating system. No matter the reason, use the utilities available on your computer to block the individual Web pages that you don't want accessed.

Instructions

Block Web Pages on Mac

1. Select the "Utilities" option from the "Finder" menu and double click the "Terminal" title in the "Finder" window.

2. Enter the "sudo pico /etc/hosts" command. Be sure to press the space bar after the word "sudo" and "pico" to type this in correctly.

3. Type in your computer's administration password after the "Password:" entry that appears and press the "Return" button.

4. Press the down arrow on your keyboard to make the block cursor go to the last line of the presented code. Enter "127.0.0.1" and type in the name of the Web page that you want to block in "name.com" format (for example, "myspace.com"). Each page must be on a separate line so press the "Return" button after every entry to go to the next line and enter a new website. For instance:
   127.0.0.1 twitter.com
   127.0.0.1 facebook.com

5. Press the "Control" and "X" buttons at the same time and then press the "Y" button when prompted. Press the "Return" button to confirm that you want to save your changes and then quit the "Terminal" utility when done.

6. Restart your computer and then bring up a browser window to type in the blocked Web page address. The browser will display a "Seeing this instead of the website you expected?" notice instead of loading the blocked page.

Block Web Pages on Windows

1. Click the "Start" button and then click the "Run" option from the menu list.

2. Type "notepad c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts" in the "Open" text field and then click the "OK" button. This action brings up the Notepad window.

3. Scroll to the bottom until you see the "127.0.0.1 localhost" entry and then press the "Enter" button on your keyboard.

4. Enter "127.0.0.1," press the space bar and type in the Web page address in "name.com" format. For example: 127.0.0.1 bebo.com

5. Save your file and restart your computer. If you try to load the blocked page in a browser window, an "Unable to connect" message will appear.

References

• Digital Inspiration: How Parents Can Block Certain Websites from Children at Home

Resources

• MacDevCenter: Learning the Mac OS X Terminal
• Microsoft: Using Notepad