Are you setting up a PC for a school or an office or maybe you have simply assembled a computer for your child and are in the process of configuring the system? Now do you want to prevent access to certain websites but you don’t know how to do it? If I guessed right or in any case I came close, I am pleased to inform you that you have come across the article that is right for you. In the next paragraphs of this short guide, I will explain how to block sites on Chrome and other web browsers.
Google Chrome is the most used web browser ever. In the first chapter, we will focus only on that.
Block websites on Google Chrome
You can quickly block a site on Google Chrome using one of the many extensions available. However, this is not a very safe procedure, since an average expert user in a very short time would be able to act the block without too much effort. For this reason, in the following paragraphs, I will show you the best extension that allows you to block sites on Chrome, and explain how to block sites on any browser without using third-party extensions or software.
Block Site
The best extension that allows you to block sites on Google Chrome is definitely Block Site. Its operation is really very simple, in fact, after adding the extension to your Web browser, all you have to do is access the site you want to block and then click on the item “Add current site to blacklist.”
- Access this page ;
- Click on the “Add” button;
- Click on “Add extension” ;
- After installing the extension, access the site you intend to block;
- Right-click anywhere on the web page;
- Select the item “Block site” ;
- Click on “Add current site to blacklist”.
The game is done! The site will be immediately blocked and every time you try to access the latter you will see a web page explaining that the latter has been blocked through Block site.
You can unblock the site at any time by clicking on the Blocklist icon at the top right and then clicking on the “X” next to the address of the blocked site.
Block sites on all web browsers
If in addition to blocking sites on Chrome, you want to block various web pages on all other browsers in a much more secure way, you will need to make a change to the host file. Don’t worry, it’s not a very complicated operation. Below I will explain everything in detail.
- Start the Notepad app as administrator. To do this, type “notepad” in the Windows search form, right-click on the first result, and then click on the “Run as administrator” item,
- In the Notepad window, click on “File” in the top left and then click on “Open” ;
- From the menu on the left, select “Local Disk (C :)” ;
- Open the “Windows” folder and then open the “System32” folder ;
- Subsequently, locate and open the “Drivers” folder and finally open the “etc” folder ;
- Alternatively, you can access the folder by clicking on the address bar at the top and typing the following path “C: / Windows / System32 / drivers / etc” followed by pressing the ENTER key ;
- From the drop-down menu at the bottom right select the “All Files” option ;
- Select the “hosts” file and then click on the “Open” button.
A short text file will appear in the Notepad app window, locate the strings 127.0.0.1 localhost or:: 1 localhost. Under the latter, type “127.0.0.1 [address of the site to be blocked]” (eg 127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com then press ENTER and type 127.0.0.1 facebook.com). Next, click on “File” and then click on “Save”.
At this point, trying to access the blocked site you will see the page “Unable to reach the site”.
It is recommended to add all the various site extensions. For example, www.facebook.com, facebook.com, https://www.facebook.com.
What if they are not blocked?
If after saving the file the sites are not blocked, clear the DNS cache or restart your PC.
To add additional sites, simply perform the above procedure by typing the URL of the site to be blocked. Of course, you can remove blocked sites at any time by accessing the host’s file, deleting the site address, and saving the host file again.
