How To Block Websites Using a D-Link Router?

I am writing this article to answer a question from Sarah Qamar, a preliminary school teacher and a friend of mine. Her school has a library with ten desktop computers for students to browse the Internet.

She asked me if there were any router settings to prevent her students from accessing unwanted websites. I checked her library. It is a simple network with a D-link wireless router.

If you want to block users from accessing certain websites in your office or home, a D-Link router can help you. It has a website filter that can deny access to specified websites from all computers connected to it.

This website filter feature of D-Link can help you prevent your kids in the home or staff in the office from accessing unwanted or dangerous websites.

The unwanted list includes adult websites, Social network sites like Facebook or Twitter, Chat websites, or even Google.

Mathew Vadakkan asked if his D-Link DIR-1360 Wireless Router has this feature. He dropped a comment in one of the older posts on CoreNetworkZ Tech Solutions, and I think this post is the better place to answer him.

The answer is yes. I will explain the steps to activate the Website filter feature in the D-Link DIR series router.

By simply enabling website filtering with the exact domain name, you can block users connected to DLink Router from accessing any time-wasting websites like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

You can also use the same feature to secure your kids in the home from accessing unwanted websites. Steps to enable website filtering on D-Link Router are:

1. Log into the D-Link Router using the IP address 192.168.0.1. Use admin as the username and leave the password field blank.

   

2. Click the Advanced tab on the top of the page and click the website filter. Make sure you have selected the option DENY computers access ONLY these sites.

   

3. Type the website domain address and the name on the specific fields. For example, if you want to stop employees at your office from using Facebook, add the Facebook address here. After saving the list, it will not allow anyone in your office to access Facebook.

   

   Do not forget to click the 'Save Settings' button after adding the names and URLs of websites you want to block.

   Rahim Taha, a stock trading firm owner, asked me if he could block Facebook and Instagram using the D-Link router. I believe this solution satisfies Rahim.

Blocking social media sites and online chats in a company is always a herculean task for managers because it can reduce the efficiency of office staff at work.

For those office managers who want to stop staff from spending work time on social media sites, the D-Link router is a great help. Also, parents who wish to prevent their kids from browsing unwanted websites can feel safe after enabling a website filter on the D-Link router.

Nimin James, an IT professional, mentioned the limitations of the D-Link Website Filter feature. It supports only the port 80. That means port 443 traffic is possible even after blocking a domain name.

Do you understand it? In plain words, any website with https:// can bypass this D-Link router restriction. So, I do not recommend it anymore.