Hi friends. You might have seen that in your college or schools, some sites like Facebook, Orkut, YouTube etc were disabled. Do you know how they do it...? It can be done easily by editing windows HOSTS file. Please note that this is not the only way to block websites in a pc, so many colleges and schools use Deep Freeze software also to block websites in their pcs. But you can check the HOSTS file also and if your college used this method, you can easily gain access to the blocked sites by your college.
So, let me clear what actually that HOSTS file is. The HOSTS file does not have an extension, but it is a plain text file which can be opened via notepad. This file allows you to manually associate IP addresses with domain names so the Domain Name Server (DNS) can quickly resolve an address. To block a website, we need to associate that websites's domain name with the ip 127.0.0.1 (sometimes, it is 0.0.0.0 also) which is your computer's localhost server ip. So, to block a website, we associate the ip of our localhost with the domain name of the site and if someone tries to open the blocked site, he gets error or redirected to the local computer server (if you have installed a server, like WAMP Server or XAMP Server software in your pc). By editing HOSTS file, you can redirect specific websites to your custom sites also by assigning the website's ip address with the domain name. So, let's do it:
> Open C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
> There, search for the file named "HOSTS".
> Now, open that file with notepad (simply open notepad and drag and drop HOSTS file in it).
> Now you will see the hosts file text.
> Now, to block a site, let's assume it to be Facebook, add this line at the end of the hosts file,
> Now save (press ctrl + S) the file and close it.
> Try to open facebook. You will not be able to open that..!!
> To re enable facebook, simply delete 127.0.0.1 facebook.com from the HOSTS file and save and close the file and that's all, you will be able to open facebook again.
So, using this method, you can block the sites which you don't want to let opened in your pc.
Alternatively, you can use HostsMan app to edit the HOSTS file and block websites.