Forum Thread: Filtered Internet Service.

Are you looking to block sites for a school or something?

The easiest way would be as the person told you, to install software. If you have a router that supports it, that would be the best way to do it since you wouldn't be able to just turn off the software from the computer.

It would help to know why and where you want to do this.

why? for my kid's protection (be careful little eyes what you see). where? at my house.

As other have stated, if your kid is smart enough or motivated enough he will get through the filter. I know for sure all the filters and firewalls at my high school could not keep me from looking at my myspace (this was a while ago).

I would suggest getting a router that supports open-source firmware as that would give you your best chance in trying to block any content. Usually the recommendation for the best open-source router is this Asus RT-N16: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00387G6R8/

Depends on how computer literate your kid is. If he (If you're getting a filter, I'm assuming it's a he) is fairly computer savvy, then he'll get around it at some point. Whether it's an ISP or a filter, nothing is perfect, and exploits spread rapidly between teenagers. But seriously though, there isn't much you can do. If he knows how to run dual boots than he'll find a way around. Your best bet is to get a filter and hope he never has the inclination to try to bypass it. SonicWall makes some good hardware, and there are plenty of good software products out there. Good Luck

A lot of routers can block content if you look at the settings page, but this can be bypassed using a cirumventor so it probably wouldn't be much use as a long term solution, and your kid will probably find his way around any filter if they're knowledgeable enough to dual boot, it never took me more than a day to get around any restrictions my parents had in place for anything technology related. You could consider adding BIOS passwords to prevent booting from removable media and blocking installations of operating systems as well as installing website blocking software then specifically blocking websites that supply operating systems, that may work?

well, thanks for your help guys. i really appreciate the imput. but again, does anyone know of an ISP that blocks content straight from the ISP server without having me to set it up? that's the only way i can think of the internet being truly safe... just short of hacking the server itself, but they're not that smart..... yet. : /

With a BIOS password so you can't boot from external media, and assuming you have root and your kids don't you could edit your .hosts file to block the sites that they use for… Whatever it is you don't want them doing. Yes, it is an after the fact solution but still. I'm sure you could get clever with it though, for instance: the URL changes when you change the safesearch options on google images. You could try to edit your .hosts so that regardless what safesearch level they choose, it won't let them run searches with it off. Just some thoughts.

as always bird and bear, thanks for the help as well as all of the other null byters as well.