Manually resolve DNS on LAN to block websites?

[smjpl]

Hi folks,

I am fairly clueless with this stuff so please go easy on me. What i am looking to do is redirect the DNS for certain websites so they can't be accessed while using the internet in our house.

Ex: Don't let anyone go on facebook - change DNS settings for www.facebook.com 0.0.0.0.1

So now they will get an invalid ip address when they try to access www.facebook.com and get a 404 error or something.If I wanted to do this for one computer I would change the HOST file in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc. But I want to do this for any device that tries to access the web using the LAN. So I have to resolve the addresses manually on the router as opposed to each machine. I have gone looking around on my router and what I have found is the Primary & Secondary DNS servers. Both are obtained automatically from ISP.

So I am a little stuck on where to go next. I was under the assumption that to resolve DNS, first the computer would look in the HOST file (local machine), if not found in HOST file it would check the Private DNS server (router but can be changed) and if not found on private DNS it would look in the public DNS (provided by ISP but can be changed). So how do I do what I am looking to do? I thought there would be some page in the router that was going to be the primary (private) DNS and that I could add domain names and ip addresses to in that page. All I can do is set the primary DNS to another IP address. The only thing I could think of doing is to change the IP address of the primary (private) DNS to some other machine but I would be lost on how to actually create a another HOST file (of sorts) for the secondary DNS.

Anyone know what I should be doing? I am looking to learn about computers at the same time so I am not interested in any software that may do something similar.

I could be way off in what I just said so again, if this is the case, I am sorry but please let me know I am way off.

Cheers,

 

[mbreslin1954]

Assuming you are using DHCP from your router, the PCs on your home network will get their DNS from whatever their Gateway IP address is set to, which is usually your router (e.g., 192.168.1.1). The router will usually have its DNS set from your ISP.

You can change your router's DNS to a service such as OPENDNS, which is very fast and also allows you to do filtering. To do filtering through OPENDNS's servers, you first create a free account on their website, indicate your filtering choices, then run a program on your PC to identify your home network with your account and its filtering choices. I believe you can also specify individual IP addresses to block, in addition to general categories (such as "nudity", "social networking", etc.).

Check it out:
http://www.opendns.com/

 

[Beachnative]

Assuming you are using DHCP from your router, the PCs on your home network will get their DNS from whatever their Gateway IP address is set to, which is usually your router (e.g., 192.168.1.1). The router will usually have its DNS set from your ISP.

You can change your router's DNS to a service such as OPENDNS, which is very fast and also allows you to do filtering. To do filtering through OPENDNS's servers, you first create a free account on their website, indicate your filtering choices, then run a program on your PC to identify your home network with your account and its filtering choices. I believe you can also specify individual IP addresses to block, in addition to general categories (such as "nudity", "social networking", etc.).

Check it out:
http://www.opendns.com/

I've never tried that....I am now! Thank you!

 

[mbreslin1954]

Sorry, that answer to an old question showed up accidentally, I deleted it with an edit but I guess you saw it.