how can i block youtube

[matt_jd]

Hi

I've added youtube.com as a blocked site via:

https://my.virginmedia.com/my-apps/onlinesecurity/websafe/settings

but my 10 year old Son is still able to access its content. Not sure if its because its accessed via https but blocking this site doesn't seem to work. It works for other sites. Relying on youtubes settings isn't really an option as he'll change those if they are preventing him from seeing any content. He's very tech-savvy.

Ideally we'd be able to block sites like this for specific times of day?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[shanematthews]

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@c7borg wrote:

I've had this issue and sucessfully blocked it, it's not really that trick so just follow below steps, this will just be for the virgin media box but you can apply it to any other device as you wish:

Press the windows key and type cmd you will now see a black console window, type in nslookup www.youtube.com and you should get a number of ip addresses retruned (these may change over time).

To make the rules easier just use the first two octets of the IP addresses so in my case it was 216.58 and 172.217

Write these down as 216.58.0.0 and 172.217.0.0 these are your destination start addresses

Next log into your virgin media hub

You will want to loo for your mediahub mine was 192.168.0.10 write this down tis is your source IP address

Click advanced settings>Security>IP and Port filtering and click create new rule

Here you will add you rule - note you will need to add a rule for each destination address in this case two

Protocol set it to ALL

Source IP address will be your virgin media box mine was 192.168.0.10

Destination IP address set this to range and use one of the two addresses from above:

Add as 216.58.0.0 to 216.58.254.254

Add the rule then create another rule the same again but this time use the second destination address and input is as

172.217.169.0 to 172.217.169.254

Add the rule and click apply changes and thats it no more youtube.

If it ever starts working again just follow the firs step to see if the IP addresses have changed.

PS.Don't get me wrong Youtube has it's place and is sometime a great resource but we should be given a choice.

PPS.Sorry I did have pictures but for some reason they weren't showing on the post - if this is useful drop a reply and I'll write a better tutorial.

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Until someone just sets their DNS to use googles DNS and all the settings on the VM box become pointless 😛

And without doubt the best way is to just talk to your children, blocking something just makes them look for ways to bypass the block and that just means you failed

[c7borg]

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@shanematthews wrote:

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Until someone just sets their DNS to use googles DNS and all the settings on the VM box become pointless 😛

And without doubt the best way is to just talk to your children, blocking something just makes them look for ways to bypass the block and that just means you failed

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Yes I appreciate that would work for a personal device (ipad,PC etc) but not on the set top box which is what I'm trying to help with - most other devices you can get software to restrict access.

Yes of course just talk to your children, but sometimes the lure is just too much, I'm talking pre 10 year olds here. To be honest if she was older I wouldn't mine her watch You tube so much.

Ps. It hasn't failed in my household as yet so it may well be a valid solution for someone else.

Does anyone want to answer the question "how can I block youtube" ?

[shanematthews]

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@c7borg wrote:

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@shanematthews wrote:

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Until someone just sets their DNS to use googles DNS and all the settings on the VM box become pointless 😛

And without doubt the best way is to just talk to your children, blocking something just makes them look for ways to bypass the block and that just means you failed

---

Yes I appreciate that would work for a personal device (ipad,PC etc) but not on the set top box which is what I'm trying to help with - most other devices you can get software to restrict access.

Yes of course just talk to your children, but sometimes the lure is just too much, I'm talking pre 10 year olds here. To be honest if she was older I wouldn't mine her watch You tube so much.

Ps. It hasn't failed in my household as yet so it may well be a valid solution for someone else.

Does anyone want to answer the question "how can I block youtube" ?

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To be fair the set top box will likely just use the cable connection it already has to access the network so its likely bypassing the VM box itself anyway

So the answer to your question is "You probably can't"

[c7borg]

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@shanematthews wrote:

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To be fair the set top box will likely just use the cable connection it already has to access the network so its likely bypassing the VM box itself anyway

So the answer to your question is "You probably can't"

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The set top box uses the ethernet connection via the router for all it's web apps - and the answer is you can as per my post (and Youtube is still blocked on my set top box)

[magik]

I have this problem, youtube.com listed in websites to block. I can't view it on my laptop but the kids can view it on their mobile devices when connected to the wifi (they have no sims so they are connected to our wifi only), it should not allow them to access but it does.

Very odd. I work in IT and I can't work out why!

There doesn't seem to be any way to contact Virgin Media about this in te support area.

[用心棒]

• is a specific DNS set on the device?
  run https://www.dnsleaktest.com Standard test, does it return virginmedia. net in the result?
• is an app used to access YouTube?

BTW it is likely once this hole is plugged they will find an alternative method.

[c7borg]

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@magik wrote:

I have this problem, youtube.com listed in websites to block. I can't view it on my laptop but the kids can view it on their mobile devices when connected to the wifi (they have no sims so they are connected to our wifi only), it should not allow them to access but it does.

Very odd. I work in IT and I can't work out why!

There doesn't seem to be any way to contact Virgin Media about this in te support area.

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I think for individual devices the only way is to install some form of parental restriction software, I had a friend who had an app on his phone that set watch limits, restrictions for his kids mobile devices on the fly and it gave him a full report of what they were doing. Might seem a little OTT but I guess you don't have to use all the features. It worked well for him and he had teenagers.

It was called family link from the app store - might be worth a try.