Block Unwanted Site From Your Router

If you need to keep prying eyes away from certain sites, you don't have to fork out cash for a net monitoring program. You can use your router's settings to block unencrypted websites. If the websites you are trying to block are encrypted, you can use a free service like OpenDNS to filter sites you want to block.

Steps

Using Your Router's Blocking Function

  1. Check if the site you are blocking is encrypted or not. Most home routers cannot block access to encrypted (https://) websites. You can determine if a site is encrypted by looking for a padlock icon to the left of the site's address. If the sites you are trying to block are encrypted, see the next section instead.
  2. Open your router's configuration page. If the sites you want to block aren't encrypted, you can usually block them using your router's built-in tools. To access these, open the router's configuration page in a web browser on a computer that's connected to your network. Common router addresses include:
  3. Enter your router's login information. If you never changed this information, enter in the default administrator account information. For many routers, this is usually "admin" or blank for the username, and "admin" or blank for the password. Check your router's documentation if you don't know the default login information.
  4. Find the "URL Filtering" or "Blocking" section. The location of this will vary depending on your router. You may find this in the "Firewall" menu, or in the "Security" section.[1]
  5. Add the URLs that you want to block. Enter each URL that you want to block on your connected devices. Remember, you won't be able to block https:// addresses, which makes this method increasingly less useful. For full protection, see the next section.
  6. Save your settings. Click the "Save" or "Apply" button to save your settings. Your router will apply the settings and reboot, which may take about a minute.
  7. Test your settings. After saving your settings, try visiting the sites you added to your blocked list. If you can still access the sites, they are likely encrypted and you'll need to use a service like OpenDNS (see the next section).

Using OpenDNS for HTTPS Sites

  1. Sign up for the free version of OpenDNS Home. If you need to block users on your network from accessing specific websites, you'll have much more success with OpenDNS than by blocking them on your router. This is because most home routers do not block https:// websites, and more and more websites are adopting encryption every day. OpenDNS can filter these encrypted sites for everyone on your network.[2]
    • You can sign up for free at opendns.com/home-internet-security/.
  2. Open your router's configuration page. You'll be setting your router to use OpenDNS's DNS servers, which will process your blocked sites. To do this, open the router's configuration page in your computer's web browser. Common router addresses include:
  3. Log in with your router's administrator account. You'll be prompted to log in when you first open your router's configuration page. If you didn't change the login information, the username is usually "admin" and the password is usually "admin" or blank.
  4. Find the "WAN" or "Internet" section. You may find this in the "Basic Setup" section of the router.
  5. Disable automatic DNS. For many routers, you'll need to disable automatic DNS before you are able to enter in your own DNS servers.
  6. Enter the OpenDNS server addresses. You'll see two DNS server fields. Enter each of the following DNS addresses, which point to the OpenDNS servers:
    • 208.67.222.222
    • 208.67.220.220
  7. Save the changes for your router. Click the Save or Apply button and allow your router to reboot with the new DNS settings. This may take a minute or two.
  8. Log into the OpenDNS dashboard. Visit opendns.com and log in with your new account. You'll be taken to the OpenDNS dashboard.
  9. Click the "Settings" tab and enter your home network IP. You can see your home IP address at the very top of the dashboard page. Type this address into the "Add a network" field. This will allow OpenDNS to tell when traffic is coming from your network, and block sites accordingly.
    • You'll need to confirm your network via an email message that is sent to the account you signed up for OpenDNS with.
  10. Open the "Web Content Filtering" section of the Settings tab. This will allow you to set what content is blocked on your network.
  11. Choose from one of the preset filtering levels (optional). You can choose between Low, Medium, and High security. This is great if there is lots of content that you want to block, and OpenDNS updates these lists regularly.
  12. Add specific websites you want to block to the "Manage individual domains" list. You can add as many websites to this list as you'd like. Make sure each one is set to "Always block."
  13. Flush your DNS cache. In order for your new settings to take effect, you'll need to flush your DNS cache. This will happen automatically after a while for every device on your network, but you can do it manually if you need immediate blocking:
    • Windows - Press ⊞ Win+R and type ipconfig /flushdns to flush your DNS. You can now test your filter settings.
    • Mac - Open the Terminal from the Utilities folder. Type dscacheutil -flushcache to flush the DNS, then sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder to restart the DNS service. You'll likely be asked to enter your admin password.
  14. Test your settings. Try accessing the newly-added websites from devices on your network. If you added the websites properly, you should reach the OpenDNS Blocked Site page.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/block-websites-from-your-router-or-using-dns/
  2. ↑ https://support.opendns.com/entries/29273904-help-with-blocking-https-site
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