There are many different reasons why you might want to know how to block a website on your computer. Maybe you want to block spammy sites, or restrict what your children can access online. Blocking websites can also be used to increase productivity in the office by blocking all those time wasting sites online like YouTube and Facebook.

There are many different options available when it comes to blocking a website. You can simply edit your hosts file, install software to block groups and categories of websites or even buy a piece of hardware that can help you restrict access on your entire network. What you use depends a lot on what you want to block and who you want to block it from.

How to Block Access to a Website

The easiest way to block a website on a computer is to login and then open notepad as an administrator and add an entry to your hosts file. The hosts file is located in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ and can only be edited by an administrator. To open up notepad as system administrator, right click the notepad icon (or other text editor program) and select “Run as Administrator”. You can open the hosts file without being an administrator but you won’t be able to save anything you edited or changed.

To block a host simply add a line to the bottom of your hosts file like this: “127.0.0.1 blockedsite.com”. With blockedsite.com being the site you actually want to block. You should also add “127.0.0.01 www.blockedsite.com” to block the “www” variation as well. This effectively points the computer to itself when it tries to connect to one of these blocked sites. After you’ve added the lines you need to the hosts file, save it and your changes will be effective immediately.

This method works great if you can be sure that no one else will be able to access an administrator account on the computer you are trying to block a website on. If someone can login as admin they can easily remove the lines you added to the hosts file to regain access to the websites. If this is the case, a hardware solution may be better for you.

How to Block a Website on Google Chrome

Unfortunately, there is no built-in mechanism to block a website in Google Chrome. The only way to block a website in Chrome is to use the hosts file method mentioned above, use third party software or use a hardware solution for your entire network.  Many people have requested that Google incorporate this feature so it’s possible it may be developed in a future version of Google’s Chrome browser.

How to Block a Website on Safari

To block a website on your Mac you will need to first login as an administrator. Next you can open up your System Preferences and select “Accounts” under “System”. You will need to create an extra account that will be restricted, as the administrator has no restrictions. Once you have created a new account go to “Parental Controls” in System Preferences. In Parental Controls select the “Content” tab to set website restriction details. You can block sites with inappropriate content or set a specific list of sites that can be accesses. The settings you change will only affect the account that you are currently editing.

How to Protect Your PC from Online Threats

There are a number of different ways you may be at risk online including viruses, Trojans, malware, adware, phishing, identity theft, key loggers and more. It’s important to install software that can help protect your PC against the many threats it faces every day.

The most important thing you can do to protect your computer online is to always install all available updates for your operating system and your web browser. Outdated operating systems and web browsers are easy targets for hackers. Updates will often repair security threats and keep hackers at bay. With new threats being created every day, staying up to date has never been more important. It’s also extremely important to have the right software to help protect your PC.

HijackThis is a great program to help protect your computer against Trojans and other browser hijackers and exploits. It comes with a program called TeaTimer that will proactively protect your computer against unwanted registry changes and hacks. It will warn you whenever a program is trying to make changes to your registry, which is the most common way your computer becomes infected. It’s important to note that the scan this program performs does not determine what is good and what is bad, so you must be an expert users to use this program most effectively, although the TeaTimer application is a must have for every computer.

AVG Antivirus is one of the most popular free antivirus solutions available online. It has been available for 10 years and is regularly updated to protect your computer against all the latest threats found online. The free version will automatically update and scan your computer regularly to determine if you have been infected and eliminate all threats found. It will also scan your emails in Windows Live Mail or Microsoft Outlook and even alert you when you try to visit a dangerous website that’s known to infect computers.

Malwarebytes is another must have download for protecting your computer from the many threats found online. Malware is typically more malicious than your run of the mill virus. Malware will hijack your browser or even bring your computer grinding to a halt. Malware isn’t always detected by antivirus software, so it’s important to have specialized software just for malware like Malwarebytes.

When removing infections from your computer it’s important to always start in safe mode. Safe mode will prevent many viruses, Trojans and malware programs from starting when you first boot up which will allow you to finally remove them. To get into safe mode in Windows, hit F8 the second your computer exits the initial bios startup screen. Hitting F8 will bring up your boot menu and allow you to select safe mode.

After safe mode loads, you can begin scanning your computer with Malwarebytes, AVG and HijackThis to remove any infections.  If these programs aren’t able to take care of your problem, your may be able to find software custom made to remove an individual infection. Searching for your symptoms online can help you to determine exactly what you’ve got. Booting up in Safe Mode with Networking Support should allow you to be able to go online and do some research.

Keeping Your Children Safe Online

Parents need to be aware of their children’s browsing habits online, especially with the popularity of social networking sites like MySpace and Faceboook. You never know who might try to talk to them or influence them online. It’s important to protect your children from potential online predators that are known to be on all the major social networking sites.

Before outright blocking these sites, which can be important in your children’s social lives, you might want to try to educate your children about the real dangers that can be found online. Let them know it’s not ok to talk to strangers online just like it’s not ok to talk to strangers in real life.

Keeping your computer in a living area of your home will help you keep an eye on your children when they go online. Letting young children have their own computers in their rooms or other private places only invites trouble. They should know that you’re keeping an eye on what they’re doing so they don’t try to get away with anything.

If your children are able to access a computer in a private place or in your home when you aren’t there to monitor their activities, you should install some parental control software. Parental control software will allow you to filter the sites that your children have access to including pornographic sites, hate sites, questionable chat rooms and other dangerous sites on the internet.

Net Nanny is one of the most popular parental control software packages available. Net Nanny offers website filtering as well as integration with all the popular search engines, returning only clean, kid friendly results. Not only that, but if your children attempt to disable Net Nanny, it will be re-enabled instantly, in real time, even during a live search. The only way to completely disable Net Nanny is from an administrator account, which only you should know the login to.

Not only does Net Nanny provide web protection, it also provides protection against other ways your children may access inappropriate content online. Other dangerous parts of the internet include download sites, chat rooms, instant messaging, forums and email. Net Nanny also features a predator and cyber bully alert system that will monitor the content of instant messages and emails to alert you of any potential bullies or predators talking with your children. You can even receive alerts sent directly to your cell phone allowing you to intervene immediately when your child is doing something they shouldn’t be doing online. You can also monitor your children’s social network activity with the click of a button.

If your children are particularly computer savvy and can easily hack their way into your administrator account or disable software, you may be interested in a hardware option rather than a software option. Products like NETBLOX and Netgear Live Parental Controls can be used to limit access to certain websites and inappropriate content online. They don’t typically have as many features as software packages do though.

If you have a serious problem with your children and they’ve become out of control with their actions online you may be interested in a more comprehensive solution, allowing you to monitor all of their activities online and on your computer. Software like Spector Pro and PC Pandora can report every action taken on your computer allowing you to see exactly what your children have been up to, rather than just blocking what they do. This is probably a little overboard for most parents, but it can be a good option when absolutely necessary.

Conclusion

It’s never been more important to protect yourself, your PC and your family against the many threats that can be found online. Finding good protection doesn’t have to be difficult. A good antivirus program and parental control software can go a long way in getting you some peace of mind online. Most of the time when people want to know how to block a website, there is actually some other issue going on such as an out of control kid, or a malware infection that’s redirecting all your searches to a bogus site. It’s important to solve the root issue rather than just trying to block a single site. Odds are blocking websites will be become an ongoing battle without a proper solution.