 Vista Parental Controls - Specifically Web Blocking, Is this the right forum or is there a better one? |
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 Apr 23 2008, 10:13 AM
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New Member  Group: Members Posts: 8 Joined: 22-April 08 Member No.: 204,598  |
 I have Parental Controls set up on a Limited account. The website tracking seems to be working fine as well as the few sites I have explicitly blocked. However, I would *REALLY* love to know if there is a site that provides a setup list of sites that a parent may want to block, both adult and proxy sites. Also, the lack of Help in Vista on the topic and on the web is a little baffling. Can you use * or ? wildcards in the block/allow URL lists? Like *.adult_site.com or ad???.adult_site.com or even know that adult_site.com will block anything that uses that domain or subdomain? My kids appear to be using web based IM clients, Yahoo! and AIM, but they don't appear in the IM/Chat logs. Does anyone here use standalone clients that trigger the Parental Controls? |
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Apr 23 2008, 10:49 AM
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 Bleeping entraÎner Group: HJT Team Coach Posts: 1,510 Joined: 24-September 04 Member No.: 2,990 |
You can set up a hosts file that will block many unwanted sites:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.zip (154 kb) http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt (670 kb) Note: the "text" version makes a good reference for determining possible unwanted sites. How To: Download and Extract the HOSTS file http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts2.htm HOSTS File - Frequently Asked Questions http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hostsfaq.htm Sign up for HOSTS file update notices http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/updates.htm -------------------- MS MVP Windows-Security 2006-2008
Member of UNITE, the Unified Network of Instructors and Trusted Eliminators Admin PC Pitstop |
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May 12 2008, 10:31 AM
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 8 Joined: 22-April 08 Member No.: 204,598 |
I do use the hosts file to block some sites already, but this may not actually trigger the Vista Parental Controls dialog. Seems to me that the implementation of Parental Controls in Vista allows them to market the feature even if it does not actually do a whole lot without messing about in a clumsy, one by one entry system and the lack of third party (IM in particular) support. Hell, does MSN Messenger even work within the context of Vista Parental Controls?
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May 13 2008, 06:24 AM
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 Forum Addict Group: Moderator Posts: 12,367 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
As I recall, you can use wildcard characters, but I'd suggest that you test it on your system before committing to it (since my memory isn't what it used to be).
I'd suggest that the AIM, MSN Messenger, YIM programs would be best blocked using the Program blocking feature - not the Web Controls. You can make your own block list from the Hosts file - but it's gonna take a bit of work. To see the syntax I created a two entry block list and got this code when I opened it in Notepad: CODE <WebAddresses><URL AllowBlock="2">http://de.com/</URL><URL AllowBlock="2">http://ed.com/</URL></WebAddresses> It looks a bit too complicated for easy manipulation, so I converted it to this: CODE <WebAddresses> <URL AllowBlock="2">http://de.com/</URL> <URL AllowBlock="2">http://ed.com/</URL> </WebAddresses> and imported it (successfully) into Parental Controls So, you'll need a list of web sites in text format. Then search and replace the "http" with "</URL><URL AllowBlock="2">http" Here's where I get a bit lost, but I think you'll have to strip out the first </URL> (bolded here): CODE <WebAddresses> [b]</URL>[/b]<URL AllowBlock="2">http://www.ed.com/ </URL><URL AllowBlock="2">http://www.de.com/ </WebAddresses> and then add it to the last entry so it looks like this: CODE <WebAddresses> <URL AllowBlock="2">http://www.ed.com/ </URL><URL AllowBlock="2">http://www.de.com/[b]</URL>[/b] </WebAddresses> This worked with my simple 2 item list, but your results may vary. -------------------- - John
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