How to BLOCK Facebook, Twitter & other social net-sites

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How to BLOCK Facebook, Twitter & other social net-sites

Postby tulisanes1860 » Fri Jul 01, 2011 4:18 pm

pls help.

i am a dad who wanted his kids to put more time to studying and putting the internet to wise use. however, my kids would ask permission to use the internet for research, but when i'm not looking they are on the social networking sites. once they notice i'm there, they'll minimize the browser or go to another tab.

hey, it's ok for my wife and i that our kids are keeping touch with friends using these social networking sites -being great inventions of this era. but we made it clear to them there is proper time for everything: a time to spend with friends and a time to spend studying.

iNet Protector was doing wonders at first until i noticed my kids were on facebook at a blocked schedule time. i knew i put all the known social networking sites in the BLOCKED SITES (and allowed everything else) but how was my son able to access facebook?

it took me two months to discover how this was possible when i caught another son of mine red-handed. HE TOLD ME THAT INSTEAD OF JUST USING "HTTP," THEY USED "HTTPS."

thus, instead of http://www.facebook.com/, they typed in https://www.facebook.com/. all my sons used the same for twitter and similar sites.

now, please, how can i block FACEBOOK (specially), twitter and the other social networking sites so my kids can get good grades by studying more? :roll:
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Re: How to BLOCK Facebook, Twitter & other social net-sites

Postby Aivars » Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:05 pm

Hi,

when we created this product, we intended it as a productivity tool that limits all internet (with exceptions for some "good" programs and resources) so that people could do more instead of wasting away their time in internet. Now more and more of our customers want to use iNet Protector for blocking social sites and I'll just be frank and admit that we were not ready for that. Currently iNet Protector can't protect both http://site and https://site, unless you don't use blocking mode but exceptions mode and add all sites that your children are allowed to use.

Since lots of people want to use iNet Protector as Facebook blocker lately, we are planning to address this in the next version (or in a new product). I'm sorry that the current functionality of iNet Protector can't help you.
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Re: How to BLOCK Facebook, Twitter & other social net-sites

Postby tulisanes1860 » Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:00 pm

ok, i'll accept that but not without disappointment. you really have a good product there! i guess the mark of something really, really good is seeing there is effort put in to always improve and never stopping even when satisfied.

i'm looking forward to that next version (or new product) you mentioned.

a suggestion: i've been looking all over for this but none i can find, how about being able to load the blocked page but it prompts you for a password with a small floating window at the center.

i imagine that my kid calls me up, telling me that he just finished homework and wants to connect to friends on facebook. i say sure and give him the password for the day. like each day there can be a pre-programmed password for each day of the week. it would also be neat texting to my kid the password when i think he's ready.

thanks for replying honestly.
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Re: How to BLOCK Facebook, Twitter & other social net-sites

Postby Aivars » Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:48 pm

The limited access password has also been requested before, thanks for reminding it! We haven't discussed the details yet but as I see it, I think that it should be possible to generate the one-time password (or one-hour password or one-day password) from web (like you said, you might want to give the password while at work and it would be nice if it could be generated on-line in case you haven't set it up at home). There are lots of possibilities of how exactly this could work and we need to discuss and figure out which way would make the most sense.
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Re: How to BLOCK Facebook, Twitter & other social net-sites

Postby RobertJSawyer » Wed Jan 18, 2012 3:10 am

Aivars wrote:
Currently iNet Protector can't protect both http://site and https://site, unless you don't use blocking mode but exceptions mode and add all sites that your children are allowed to use.

I just want to be sure I'm understanding what you're saying. There's nothing in the English UI for iNet Protector labelled "blocking mode" and "exceptions mode." For "blocking mode," do you mean the sites listed on the "Blocked Sites" tab when the box "Block websites listed here" is checked?

And for "exceptions mode," do you mean when that box is not checked, and you're instead allowing sites listed on the "Allowed Sites" tab?

Just exactly how DO you block Twitter using what you're referring to as "exceptions mode"? Thanks!

====

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Re: How to BLOCK Facebook, Twitter & other social net-sites

Postby Aivars » Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:15 pm

Exactly - to use exceptions mode, go to Blocked Sites tab in Settings and either uncheck "Block websites listed here" or select "Allow only Allowed Programs, Services, Sites and IPs".

After that select Allowed Sites tab and press Auto Detect. Click Start Learning Mode. Then open the sites that you want to be allowed in browser, after that click Stop Learning Mode. You'll see a list of all resources that were accessed and would be allowed. You probably want to uncheck Internet Explorer (or FireFox or Chrome) from the list, otherwise *all* browser accessed internet resources would be allowed (which means all sites).

The downside of this approach is that you need a list of sites that are allowed, but that's the only way to be truly safe because otherwise there might be ways to access twitter in some other ways via some special program or service.
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