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So I tried blocking some websites for obvious reasons but I can still keep going to these sites even when I 'supposedly' blocked them.

I've edited the /etc/hosts file so it looks like this (example being Facebook)

0.0.0.0       https://www.facebook.com
0.0.0.0       facebook.com
0.0.0.0       www.facebook.com

Yet I can still access Facebook. What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: Only Chrome seems to block out the website, though I can still access it trough Safari and Firefox.

I'm running OS X Yosemite

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8
  • @Steven Still possible to acces the website
    – user3142255
    Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 16:03
  • 1
    @Steven 0.0.0.0 is not same as 127.0.0.1, change it to 127.0.0.1 and see if it works
    – clhy
    Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 16:05
  • @Steven Still possible, I wanted to use 0.0.0.0 so I didn't have to wait for the timeout. The question is towards unix systems.
    – user3142255
    Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 16:08
  • 0.0.0.0 is a better option than 127.0.0.1.
    – qasdfdsaq
    Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 16:21
  • @Steven I've updated the OP. Not a duplicate since it listens to the file, only in Chrome. I also have other sites in there that I need to disable to access certain files when not at work and re-enable them at work. That works.
    – user3142255
    Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 16:29

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
10

Use the following instead:

127.0.0.1      facebook.com
127.0.0.1      www.facebook.com

The IP address 127.0.0.1 is the localhost, aka local loopback, address for your system. By using 127.0.0.1, you are telling your system that facebook.com's IP address is the address of your system itself, effectively making FaceBook unreachable, since the system will get the IP address for the site from the hosts file rather than performing a DNS lookup. The first entry you put in the file, https://www.facebook.com, doesn't belong there. The file provides a static mechanism for translating a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) to an IP address, so should only contain FQDNs or host names with associated IP addresses, not those prefixed by a protocol, such as HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, etc.

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5
  • I've tried this before but it only works when using Chrome. If I tried to access the website with Firefox or Safari I would still be able to reach it
    – user3142255
    Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 16:15
  • 4
    127.0.0.1 is nonsensical and inferior to 0.0.0.0
    – qasdfdsaq
    Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 16:22
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    @RandomPerson, Firefox has its own DNS cache. Clear the Firefox cache and try again. Safari may also be using a cached DNS entry. Rebooting would likely clear any cached entries.
    – moonpoint
    Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 16:24
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    @moonpoint Rebooted and cleared cache. Both still have access to the website
    – user3142255
    Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 16:29
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    @RandomPerson, what do you see if you ping facebook.com from within a Terminal window? You mentioned you are using Yosemite; when I added an entry to /etc/hosts on an OS X 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion) system, access was blocked. But there is a report of a similar problem on the Apple StackExchange site by someone running Yosemite at OS X 10.10.1 /etc/hosts & /private/etc/hosts file is being ignored and not resolving - see JB Smith's fix for blocking Facebook there.
    – moonpoint
    Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 17:37

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