Determine and block webpages

[falco85]

How can I determine what webpage a web browser is on and then how can I block that webpage if it has certain words on it? this will be sort of a "net nanny" type program.

[brackett]

Usually, you'd do that thru a proxy server - making all requests go thru a server which can filter as needed. Microsoft's ISA, Squid, etc. all employ that approach.

The way you worded you question makes me think you want to do this client side...that's a difficult road, I think. Much easier to control the network side, or you'd have to force a particular (possibly custom built) browser. For a home PC, you could set up a proxy server on the local machine and redirect requests thru there.

[Void]

There was a way to connect to IE and view each page that it visited in VB 6 but I can't remember how. Also, what brackett said makes a lot of sense. It would be near impossible to do this client side with the array of browsers out there.

[falco85]

Yes, I was wanting to do it from the client side. This sounds like an impossible project. Is there a way to just log the urls visited?

[brackett]

Again, you'd have to force everything thru a proxy server, control what browser is used, or hook into the network stack. If this is for a kiosk type scenario, the first 2 are reasonably accomplished. If not, you can go with the 3rd option by running something like Ethereal and logging packets destined for port 80/443.

[falco85]

Hmm, sounds like I'm going to just use a proxy....