Google

tjones · Oct 18, 2008

Hi, I want to prevent my children from accessing google. Is there anyway I can do this? When I have content editor on the children are able to bypass the need for a password to access a new site by right clicking on the link they want and pasting it into the "I'm feeling lucky" box on google, which then takes them to the site. Please help. frustrated day care mum.

plodr · Oct 19, 2008

You need to add an entry to your hosts file.
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
The hosts file looks like the screen shot at the top of the page. All entries will start with 127.0.0.1
That address is called the local host which simply says, anything behind this address will loop back to your computer. Since google isn't on your computer, you will get some sort of error (usually 404 - site not found).

To see your current hosts file, look here
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC

Open hosts in notepad
and you will see quite a few lines of explanation preceeded by #
(this comments a line out; it stops it from being acted upon0

Go to below 127.0.0.1 localhost and add this line
127.0.0.1 google.com

save the changes and now you should get an error if someone tries to go to google.

tjones · Oct 19, 2008

Hi, I added the text to the notepad file (below), saved & exited but am still able to access google (I searched for google on yahoo, clicked the link and it opened up google). Sorry, I'm not very computer literate. Is there something else I need to do? Thanks.

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# 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.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 google.com
:confused

chaimjm · Oct 19, 2008

You may want to try one of these programs
http://www.netnanny.com/index.html
http://www.cybersitter.com/
http://www.getnetwise.org/
http://www.child-safety-software.com/

bigbazza · Oct 19, 2008

You'd better hope they don't find out about Sputtr at http://www.sputtr.com/ Check it out for yourself. 'enuf said Bazza

sach2 · Oct 19, 2008

Gosh, I better resign my membership at MG. These (daycare age) kids today are all over this 'puter stuff. I never would of thought of using google to get around a site restriction.

plodr · Oct 20, 2008

So basically you need to block the major search sites. I'll see what i can find.

plodr · Oct 20, 2008

List of all the search sites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines
obviously the daycare kids won't know some of the obscure ones so add the most popular.
This will block yahoo searches 127.0.0.1 search.yahoo.com/
127.0.0.1 ask.com
127.0.0.1 live.com
This might be the one to block webcrawler
http://www.webcrawler.com/
127.0.0.1 webcrawler.com

Remember if something appears broken, just put a # in front of the line to turn off the block and see if it is fixed before you remove it completely.

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tjones Private E-2

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bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

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