How to block websites temporarily?

Question

is there any way to temporarily block websites in Ubuntu 11.10?

For example let's say ... Facebook (or any other website) is just available from 8pm or just for five minutes within two hours or anything? :D

Thank you!

Answer 1

The tool I'd recommend is Get-Shit-Done. It edits your host file so that you cannot access blocked domains using any browser. However, it does not have a scheduler (although you could use cron for that).

Stay Focusd is Chrome Extension that does something similar.

I personally use a secondary profile in Chrome, with the Whitelist extension, so that it blocks all websites, other than absolutely necessary ones

Answer 2

If you use Firefox, the LeechBlock add-on looks like it might do what you wish.

Answer 3

Open Terminal (ALT+F2).

Type sudo -i in the input field. Check the Run in terminal option. Finally click Run button.

Type your password if necessary and press enter. Then enter the following commands.

gedit /etc/hosts

You will get Gedit Text Editor window.

For example, we need to block Facebook add the following lines just after 127.0.0.1 localhost.

0.0.0.1 facebook.com    
0.0.0.1 www.facebook.com

By doing this, it will block the site in all browsers including Google Chrome, Chromium, Mozilla.

That's it. When you now open www.facebook.com or facebook.com, you cannot access it. To enable back Facebook, remove the lines we added from the file /etc/hosts.

Source - Subin's Blog