Social Media Hosts File

Hey guys. I've been creating and appending a hosts file to block "unproductive" sites from a user for a client of mine. I was wondering if there was a pre-made list available somewhere because I know I am missing things. I need to block sports sites and social media sites. I tried Google but didn't find anything. Maybe my Google-Fu is sub-par. Any suggestions? If there is nothing out there (which I find hard to believe), I will post what I have so far here, and as a community, maybe we can come up with a comprehensive list that we can share with everyone else on the internet with this question. Thanks.

Hmmm, doing this on a pc by pc basis is not the crrect way imo. I know spybot uses for antimalware and dangerous sites but for unproductive tasks, I dont know tbh. When I was put into this situation I usually used the router / dyndns for it.

Sorry to be no help, interesting Q though :P

Here is a start. The problem is that a hosts file is difficult to manage, slows performance and is easy to bypass. I never cared for the user by user approach to network management.

I always used strong personnel policies and traffic log analysis to enforce those policies. Most "surfing" policies were firing offenses after x number of violations. A good set of rules in your bastion host and/or router is also helpful.

I use OpenDNS on my home network and the smaller clients that want filtering

Here is a list of default categories you can filter on:
Academic Fraud
Adult Themes
Adware
Alcohol
Auctions
Automotive
Blogs
Business Services
Chat
Classifieds
Dating
Drugs
Ecommerce/Shopping
Educational Institutions
File storage
Financial institutions
Forums/Message boards
Gambling
Games
German Youth Protection
Government
Hate/Discrimination
Health
Humor
Instant messaging
Jobs/Employment
Lingerie/Bikini
Movies
Music
News/Media
Non-profits
Nudity
P2P/File sharing
Parked Domains
Photo sharing
Podcasts
Politics
Pornography
Portals
Proxy/Anonymizer
Radio
Religious
Research/Reference
Search engines
Sexuality
Social networking
Software/Technology
Sports
Tasteless
Television
Tobacco
Travel
Video sharing
Visual search engines
Weapons
Webmail

OpenDNS alog with http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm Works fine on small networks.

Casual Fridays: Are workplace internet restrictions counterproductive?

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Respondents with more internet restrictions at work are significantly LESS likely to check their work messages while away from work. The message employers may be sending employees by restricting access at work is that work and home life don't mix. Employees who aren't allowed personal internet time at work are less likely to use time at home to monitor their workplace communication.

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In the USA asking non-exempt wage and hour employees to check for workplace communications is a violation of the wage and hour laws if they are not paid for their time.

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Originally Posted by Cider

Hmmm, doing this on a pc by pc basis is not the crrect way imo. I know spybot uses for antimalware and dangerous sites but for unproductive tasks, I dont know tbh. When I was put into this situation I usually used the router / dyndns for it.

Sorry to be no help, interesting Q though :P

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The reason I was using the hosts file was because it is only a single user who needs blocked access.

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Originally Posted by ua549

Here is a start. The problem is that a hosts file is difficult to manage, slows performance and is easy to bypass. I never cared for the user by user approach to network management.

I always used strong personnel policies and traffic log analysis to enforce those policies. Most "surfing" policies were firing offenses after x number of violations. A good set of rules in your bastion host and/or router is also helpful.

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The user is on a domain and has limited access to the system and would not be able to bypass the hosts file directly and isn't skillful enough to work around it otherwise. There is a policy against surfing, but that is just causing people to get fired at a pretty regular rate.

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Originally Posted by dinowuff

I use OpenDNS on my home network and the smaller clients that want filtering

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I could use the OpenDNS but it would need to block only a single user. Since the machine is on a domain, the server is the main DNS. Is there a way to have a single user running off the OpenDNS in this scenario? I currently have OpenDNS as the secondary DNS. If I set OpenDNS as the primary on that machine and the domain controller as the secondary, would that work?

Thanks to all for your input.

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Originally Posted by SirDice

Casual Fridays: Are workplace internet restrictions counterproductive?

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The problem is that the surfing is occurring while there is work to be done. In this case, the user involved does not have to do anything work related outside the office and work emails are only available to him in the office. The decision really comes from the principle of the company, but in all fairness, is a full day of work really too much to ask?

Even if it is just one employee, you could still block it for the entire office... or are there some 'special' employees that are allowed access to those sites? ;)

We used to use a free appliance called 'Untangle' for web filtering... though it is extremely easy to bypass. We have since moved to a more robust solution. Though, Untangle might suit your needs. It allows blocking based on category, and one of the categories is of course, 'social networking'.

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Originally Posted by CyberB0b

but in all fairness, is a full day of work really too much to ask?

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See if you can concentrate for 8 hours straight. I know I can't.

As long as the work gets done me and my boss don't have a problem with it.

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but in all fairness, is a full day of work really too much to ask?

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In a word: "yes" Personally, I have never, ever, contracted to give more than a full day's attendance for payment :D:p

OK, to the subject in hand:

If this is only one worker, or a few in a single office, I wouldn't bother to try anything too complicated, especially if I was expected to support and maintain it.

I would look at "parental control" software, particularly the "industrial strength" ones they use in schools. Sorry I cannot remember any names but at least one is very good at blocking all manner of subjects.

The beauty of the third party solution is that the vendors maintain it ;)

Just a thought :)

There is software called K9 that is free for private use, and cheap for corporate use. We use it at church, just to help people avoid the temptation to venture where they shouldn't. I think it is $2-3 per month. You can block by category, and seems to work pretty well.