Blocking specific websites - community advice did not work

[miamami]

Hi - I tried blocking a website using information from this brave community post:

How to block specific websites on Brave?

Hello, I am trying to block a specific website on MacOS browser. How can I do this on Brave? I found this article from a previous year but it appears to be outdated: How to block specific websites Thanks!

I followed the instructions and it didn’t work. The website can still be visited

[289wk]

How to Block a Website in Brave Browser: A Step-by-Step Guide

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Unfortunately, the Brave Support Help Center (that is, again unfortunately, out-of-date) does not have the answer (I looked over all of the 82 or so results; the top 3 were):

[miamami]

hi 289wk, unfortunately, those instructions are also out of date! It seems there is no way, unless you install a third party app (those apps tend to be lackluster).
Privacy & Security

The security section

I checked here - also a no go… surprisingly

[289wk]

How to Block Websites using Hosts File in Windows

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/141019-block-websites-using-hosts-file-windows.html

[Saoiray]

@miamami I’m going to stray away from random links as has been shared so far. Let me just make sure I kind of make sure to step back and get a better picture here. What are you trying to do and what results are you getting in the way you have tried so far?

Like if you just don’t want it to load anything from Facebook, then you would put in ||facebook.com^

From there if went to try to go to facebook.com it would reflect something like below:

Obviously you would be able to bypass this. If you want something more in-depth, you’d need to be blocking from DNS and all. Even best to do from router/modem rather than device or browser.

But really is good to have a better clarification of your needs.

[miamami]

Hi Saoiray - the links were not helpful.
I want to block access to a website on brave, that website being reddit.com. access as in blocked. I did not want to use a third party app which is why I was wondering if there was a way to block individual websites. I tried entering
||reddit.com^ into the custom filters section under content filters and it does not work. that is fne tho i can just get a third party app

[Saoiray]

@miamami

||reddit.com^ into the custom filters section under content filters and it does not work.

Keep in mind for it to work, you need to have your Shields blocking to Aggressive.

But you see I have that placed there among some other things and had hit Save Changes. Then when I try to go to Reddit:

Again though, that allows me to hit Proceed to continue and if the Shields settings are reduced, could enter.

So wasn’t sure if you’re asking about more of a parental control type of thing or if just this simple thing is all you needed?

[Saoiray]

Other Option

You could just set up controls to block a domain on your entire device. Though keep in mind the part below would be able to be bypassed with something like Private with Tor or potentially a VPN. But still…

Block Reddit on a Single Device (Windows)

1. Open Notepad as Administrator.

2. Click Open and go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts. You will open this location into Notepad (If you have multiple that show for hosts, choose the one that is a File and ignore anything that may be ICS or whatever)

3. Add the following to the bottom of the document:

   127.0.0.1 reddit.com
   127.0.0.1 www.reddit.com
   127.0.0.1 old.reddit.com
   

If you did the above right, your document should look something like below before you close Notepad

4. Save the file and restart the browser.

Once that’s saved and closed, any browser you use and try to open Reddit on will be like below: