Blocking MySpace

[roddierod]

My wife wants me to block myspace on her WinXP machine but allow it on other machines. If we wanted to block it from all machine it would be a simple entry in my router. But I'm unsure of an effective way on just the one machine. I've tried entering some things in the host file on that machine but that doesn't seem too effective. Anyone have any better ways?

[BSDfan666]

There was a thread similar to this last December.. I mentioned blocking sites at the router level.

http://www.daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=2531

If you really want to do this locally, the hosts file was a valid option.. but antivirus software may revert such changes.

Are you sure you made the correct changes in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts?

Originally Posted by Windows NT/XP Hosts file

# 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 myspace.com
127.0.0.1 www.myspace.com

This does seem like a stopgap measure though, it doesn't cover all possible myspace.com subdomains..

Do you run your own local caching/forwarding DNS server? BIND has an interesting feature called "view", you could create a bogus myspace.com zone and have it only effect your Wife's activity.. presuming she has a static IP address.

/var/named/etc/named.conf:

view "spousal_trickery" {
	match-clients { wifes_computer; };
	recursion yes;

	zone "myspace.com" {
		type master;
		file "master/myspace.com ";
	};
};

/var/named/master/myspace.com:

@	IN	SOA	myspace.com. tooty.myspace.com. (
			?	; serial
			?	; refresh
			?	; retry
			?	; expiration
			? )	; minimum

		NS	localhost.
		A	127.0.0.1
*.myspace.com.	A	127.0.0.1

Just an idea, but probably a bad one.. my other solution was in that thread I linked above.

[roddierod]

Originally Posted by BSDfan666

If you really want to do this locally, the hosts file was a valid option.. but antivirus software may revert such changes.

Are you sure you made the correct changes in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts?

yes this is the file i changed.

This does seem like a stopgap measure though, it doesn't cover all possible myspace.com subdomains..

i found a site that listed something like 20 or 30 myspace subdomains and i added all of them. I'd rather block a range of ip address though.

I don't run bind or anything in front of her machine, although i am considering building a small BSD firewall now.

Thanks for the info, I will keep this in mind.

[anomie]

If you're forced to do this at the host level, also consider WIPFW. I've had success with it on a couple different Windows clients; if you're already familiar with IPFW it should be quick and easy to implement.