Windows hosts file block all websites

That means anything before your communication connects to the Internet. For example, the IP address Try typing that in your web browser. It will likely bring up a blank page. Also understand that www. For both of them to take us to the same website both must resolve to the same IP address. Enter the localhost IP of Press the tab key and enter facebook.

Press Enter to go to the next line. Create a second line like the one above, but use www. Open the command prompt and run ping facebook. Now open your web browser and go to facebook. It might still load! You should now see an error page. Maliciously editing the hosts file used to be a common attack by hackers. It also is extremely effective at blocking proxy sites trying to get around the filter rules. It is worth noting that we are an educational orginization, and the filters they sell for commercial organizations are extremely different than the educational ones, idk if it's for the better or worse.

Windows SteadyState is supposed to restrict web access via a whitelist only allowable sites. It's free. A firewall will do it pretty easy. I recommend the old, small Kerio Personal Firewall 2. Make sure to password protect the administration of it. Why block all sites apart from Google though? Doesn't that defeat the point of what Google is for? OpenDNS is great. I have implemented it many times for clients. Its free and can be customized with your own company logos etc.

Another option is something like a squid proxy however this is a little more involved to configure. I'm pretty sure he was using google as an example DNS changes names of domains into IP addresses. For example, You can use a hosts file to change that and redirect the site you want to block to another address. It will allow you to link a certain domain name with any IP address you want. Note: When you block websites using hosts file the websites will only be blocked on the local PC.

To ensure that websites are blocked on multiple computers you need dedicated web filtering software. Ad filtering with the hosts file works exactly the same way as blocking a website does.

Entries for known malicious or spammy domains can be blocked by adding them to the file and redirecting them to another IP address. Web developers can use the hosts file to test and develop websites on their local machine. To make changes to a website before it is made public the web developer will install the site files locally and edit the hosts file on their computer so that it points the sites domain name to the IP address of the environment they want to test in.

Copyright c Microsoft Corp. This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name. The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one space.

For example: Any content on the same line as the symbol will be ignored. Thus, the default file does not actually do anything. If it is not there, it may be hidden. Follow this guide to show hidden files in Windows. If you do not have administrator permission, you will receive an error like this:. Note: You must have administrator privileges to access and edit the hosts file. If you do not run Notepad under administrator privileges, you will only get to view the file and you will be unable to save your changes to the appropriate folder.

Any changes you make will not work unless it is saved in the correct location — saving it in the Documents folder will not allow you to block websites using the hosts file.

Need to restrict internet access in your network? To begin, sign up for a free trial of BrowseControl at CurrentWare. After filling out the form you will be provided with the files you need to get started with BrowseControl. To install BrowseControl, run CurrentWare. From there you can import your Active Directory organizational units or manually create your desired policy groups.

For full installation instructions, please visit our knowledge base at CurrentWare. This feature can be used to block your employees from accessing distracting websites like Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram.

First, decide whether you want to control internet access based on users or computers and select the desired mode. BrowseControl will apply a wildcard to the URL, ensuring that any paths within the domain will be blocked as well.

If you have a large number of websites you would like to block, you can also use the import feature to import an existing list.