blocking websites

[Kristian Rink]

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Chris;


Am Thu, 31 Aug 2006 23:09:24 -0500
schrieb "Chris Lemire" <linux.user400354 at gmail.com>:

> Is there any better way to block websites than using iptables? I
> would like to block all website's on the myspace server. 

For that, using some proxy software is a better approach. Squid has
already been mentioned before, maybe something "lighter" like privoxy
or wwwoffle will also do. To do so, however, you either have to set
your browsers to use that very proxy for the request or set up
transparent proxying so they have to go through it no matter whether or
not they want to.


However, be aware that blocking access to network sites might be
considered a form of censorship and, thus, not be what you want to do.
Perhaps there are better options - why exactly do you want to block
myspace (personally, I can think of thousands of reasons to do so, but
what are yours)?



> I'd also like to block all instant messaging chatting from this
> computer. 

This should be done pretty easily using iptables by either locking down
the protocols needed by those IM tools or (better) to set up a few
rules on what connections are explicitely allowed and block the rest.

Anyhow, given your users are smart enough, be warned that those
restrictions might be null and void the very moment your users either
discover how to do tunneling or find out that there are web-based IM
environments that rely upon HTTP exclusively. ;)

Cheers,
Kris


- -- 
Kristian Rink *  http://zimmer428.net * jab: kawazu at jabber.ccc.de
icq: 48874445 *  fon: ++49 176 2447 2771
"One dreaming alone, it will be only a dream; many dreaming together
is the beginning of a new reality." (Hundertwasser)


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