How to Block Websites on Router 2024: Steps and Tips

Why do you want to block access to certain websites? There are two possible reasons. You want to prevent your children or yourself from accessing porn and other inappropriate web content. You want to improve your focus and productivity by limiting access to distracting websites.

There’s more than one way to block website access. One of the ways is to configure your router’s settings. This article talks about how to block websites on router. Whether you are looking to protect your children from adult websites or quit porn addiction or become more productive, this article can help.

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Is configuring the router a good method to block websites?

It’s possible to block a website at the browser level, at the device level or at the network level. Configuring the router allows you to do it at the network level, and the usefulness and effectiveness depend on your situations and needs.

Here are three facts about this method, which can help you understand if the method works (well) for you.

• If you administer the Wi-Fi network that the involved device (like your child’s smartphone or your work computer) is connected to, you are able to do the configuration. In other words, this method is available if you own the router.
• It’s possible that your router doesn’t provide a way for you to control website access, or allows you to do this in a very basic way, or provides several relevant features for you to play with. It all depends on the router brand and model that you are using.
• After you set your router to block the websites of your choice, these websites will be blocked on a device only when the device is connected to this particular network. For example, these websites will be blocked when your laptop is connected to your home Wi-Fi network and be unblocked and accessible when the laptop is connected to the network in a coffee shop or hotel or your workplace.

If you think this method works for you, you can follow the steps below to change your router’s settings. If this method is not a good choice, you may want to learn about other common ways to block websites.

Steps: How to block websites on router

As mentioned, the settings or features available depend on the specific router brand and model. It’s impossible for me to cover all routers in this article. The good news is that the process of configuring a router to limit access to websites is similar regardless of brand and model of the router.

In addition to details steps that show you how to block websites on a router, this part provides helpful tips.

Step 1. Access your router’s settings.

Generally you can access and change your router’s settings from your router’s webpage or app. Since not every router has an app, here I only talk about how to do it from the webpage.

Open a web browser (preferably on a computer) and visit your router’s webpage. You can find the address of the webpage on the back of the router. If you can’t find it there, try 192.168.1.1 or search for the address online.

Now log in to the webpage by entering the username or password. You can find the default username and password on the back of the router. If you can’t find them there, try “username” and “password”. If you have changed the default ones, just enter your username and password.

Step 2. Find the relevant settings.

There are several sets of settings. You need to find the set of settings that allow you to block web content. This set of settings is usually called Parental Controls, Parental Control or Firewall. On your router, it may be named differently.

On some routers, such settings are somewhat hidden. For example, they are in HomeShield on TP-Link Archer BE900 and in Advanced > HomeCare on TP-Link Archer GX90 AX6000.

Anyway, you should be able to find such settings easily if they are available on your router.

Step 3. Optionally, add the device(s) on which you want to block websites.

If your router allows or requires you to add the device to which the blocking will apply, this step is recommended or necessary. If not, please skip this step.

Typically, you will be asked to create a profile first. This brings great flexibility. Here are some examples.

• Suppose that you have two children. One is 8 years old and the other 16 years old. You can create a profile for each child so that you can create different and more tailored block lists. For instance, you might want to allow the 16 years old child (but not the 8 years old one) to use social media sites.
• You can create a profile for each of your devices. You can block YouTube on your phone if YouTube is a big time waster on your phone. If you need to use YouTube for work or school, you may not want to add YouTube to the block list in the profile created for your computer.

After you create a profile, you can add the corresponding device. Some routers allow users to add multiple devices to a profile, and some only allow one device.

Step 4. Add websites to the block list.

There can be different ways to do this, depending on your router or your preferences.

• Add websites to the block list: Manually add the specific websites that you want to prevent access to.
• Specify the categories of websites that you want to block: Some routers list several website categories. Selecting a certain category will add websites (but not all of them) in this category to the block list. For example, some TP-Link routers have a Content Filter feature, which provides a list of nine website categories. For example, to block porn on router, you need to select the Adult Content category and the Sex Education category, and you might even want to select the Social Networking category because it’s easy to find explicit content like porn on some social media sites. If blocking a certain category doesn’t block a specific unwanted site, you can manually add the site to the block list.
• Add keywords to the block list: Many routers, such as ASUS ZenWiFi AX, also allow users to block websites by keyword. Once you add a certain word to the block list, websites with URLs that contain this word will be blocked. This can be especially helpful if you want to block porn because the URLs of porn websites very likely contain keywords like “porn” or “xxx”. Just add keywords like these to the block list.

You can use one of the ways or a combination of the ways.

If you have created multiple profiles, you need to repeat step 4 for each profile.

After you configure your router like this, whenever the computer, phone or tablet is connected to the Wi-Fi network provided by this router, the websites you’ve specified will be blocked and inaccessible on all the browsers (like Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, Opera or Samsung Internet) on this device.

All websites or a certain website will be unblocked on all devices or a certain device if:

• You remove a certain website from the block list.
• You remove an added device.
• You delete a profile.
• The device is connected to a different Wi-Fi.
• The device uses mobile data.

Tips

• If your router has a whitelist or allow list feature and you want to create a completely porn-free or distraction-free Internet experience, you can try this feature. When turned on and set up, this feature blocks all websites except the ones on the whitelist or allow list. Note that you might not want to keep this feature turned on all the time. Only having access to certain websites can cause inconvenience.
• Some routers provide a feature to block all websites during user-specified hours. This feature can be helpful if you want to prevent yourself or your family from spending time on the Internet during, for example, bedtime.
• If you configure your router’s settings to stop yourself from visiting certain websites, it can be a good idea to ask someone else (like a family member or a friend) to change your router’s login password. Without knowing the password, you are not able to access to your router’s settings to remove websites from the block list, remove your device, or make other changes that allow you to bypass the limit. This tip can be especially helpful if you want to quit watching porn because porn can be so addictive that you may be tempted to change the settings.

What to do if the configuration isn’t available or doesn’t work

If your router doesn’t have an option to block websites, getting a router that has this option can be the choice.

If you don’t own the router or you want to have unwanted websites blocked on a device all the time whether this device is using mobile data or your home Wi-Fi or a different Wi-Fi, you may want to consider other ways of limiting website access.

Below are two common methods available. Both methods work regardless of the method of Internet access (like Wi-Fi or mobile data) or the Wi-Fi network a device uses.

Use a website blocker app

To block certain websites on a Windows PC or Mac, you can use Cisdem AppCrypt. Like routers that offer great website-blocking features, AppCrypt makes it easy for you to add websites to the block list or allow list. You can block a certain website permanently, or you can use the custom schedule feature to block it only during certain times. All the routers that I know of don’t offer a schedule feature as useful as the one in AppCrypt. AppCrypt is hard to bypass due to the password protection.

Free Download macOS 10.12 or later Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7

To block certain websites on an iPhone or iPad, you can use Screen Time, which is a set of settings included in iOS or iPadOS. Screen Time provides you with an option to limit access to all the websites and pages deemed inappropriate by Apple (like porn sites). In addition, it allows you to add specific websites to the block list.

Unlike iOS, Android doesn’t provide a built-in way to restrict website access. Luckily, there are third party solutions. You can find them in Google Play Store.

Use a website-blocking browser extension

Website-blocking extensions are available for most of the popular desktop web browsers, such as Chrome, Edge, Opera, Firefox and Safari. With this method, a website is blocked at the browser level. In other words, a certain website is blocked on very browser that such an extension is installed and set up and not blocked on any other browser on this device.

Conclusion

If configuring the router if the best way for you to block the websites that you’d like to stop access to, then you are lucky. And I hope that the steps on how to block websites on router in this article are helpful to you. If this method alone is not enough, it might be a good idea to use a combination of the methods described in the article.