Blocking web pages

MagicToaster

There is a particular web page I want to block. Is there any way I can modify FireFox's settings so that the page can't be accessed or do I have to go and download some software to handle this?

matt has a problem

Go to C:\>Windows>System32>Drivers>etc (there actually is a folder called "etc") and double-click the 'hosts' file. When it asks what program you want to use to open it choose wordpad. You should see a bunch of entries prefaced with #, then below that should be 127.0.0.1, possibly followed by a website or other URL. Go to the bottom of that list, put in 127.0.0.1 followed by a space then www.theurlyouwanttoblock.com (or .net, .edu, whatever the site ends with). Close the hosts file and say YES when it asks if you want to save. This will just redirect to a 'can't establish a connection" error whenever someone tries to access the site.

MisterGrok

You should also make an entry without the www.

matt has a problem

Also, this only works on the computer whos hosts file you modify of course. If you're wanting to block it on multiple computers that share a connection, you'll have to do that through the router, the procedure for which varies a bit depending on the router. Or, you know, modify the hosts file on every computer.

MagicToaster

Ah! This worked beautifully! Thanks dude!

Æthelred

There's a Firefox add-on called Leechblock that's a little more user-friendly, for anyone else who's interested. It has lots of options - like blocking sites only on particular days, for example.