Help a Noob: How can I block Hulu on my Home Network?

J

JJYL13

n00b
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
6
Hi,

Thank you in advance for reading this.
I am not very technically proficient and I have tried searching Google but found no solution, so I am posting here asking for your help.

How can I block Hulu access via my home network?
The reason for this is that I have about 10 computers connected to the network and not very much bandwidth, so I would like to limit web access strictly to browsing, emails, etc and not for streaming TV/media.

My network is running on a Linksys WRT160N router that has been flashed with DD-WRT v24-sp2 (04/23/10) std firmware.
I have tried "Website Blocking by URL Address" and "Website Blocking by Keyword" in my router settings but neither seem to take effect. :confused:
 
Last edited:
You need to find the domain that Hulu actually streams from. Blocking domains in a properly working DNS is easy and pretty effective. Are you running a DNS server?
 
I dont know what a DNS server is.... so my guess is that I am not running a DNS server?
What is the protocol to find the domain that Hulu actually streams from?
 
That's one of these cases where it's hard to even find a start. It's like someone asking how to tune their car and when you tell them, they reply that they know what a steering wheel is.

The "protocol" to find the domain is looking at your browser and see whether you can locate the URL of the video. If that doesn't work for some odd reason, tcpdump always works. You could then blackhole the second-level domain in your DNS server.

Additionally, you could resolve the hostname you find and check via whois whether its IP address is some content distribution network or registered to Hulu directly. If it belongs to Hulu directly, you could go ahead and block their complete network in your packet filter.

If all that didn't make sense, you should probably let someone else handle this.

I don't know anything about cars. That's why I don't mess with it. Why this simple rule doesn't work for computers and networks, I don't know.
 
JJYL13 said:
I have tried "Website Blocking by URL Address" and "Website Blocking by Keyword" in my router settings but neither seem to take effect. :confused:
Click to expand...


I've used this on many sites and it works flawlessly, hell if you enter the URL or Keyword of Hulu it wont even connect to any site relating to it lol. It's kind of overkill the way DD-WRT has it with limited options.

Are you sure you're configuring it correctly? DD-WRT is very picky if you don't do certain steps in order and even to the point of clicking "Save" instead of "Apply" first to get it working.
 
Why does everyone flash their router with some custom firmware they don't understand how to operate?

I don't understand the advantage it seems to cause more problems, than it solves.

+1 to Liger88

Also yes what you did should have worked, not sure why it did not.
 
The best solution is most likely the simplest one. Ask the person who is doing it to stop. If they want to access these sites bad enough they will find a way around your attempts to block.
 
schnell said:
The best solution is most likely the simplest one. Ask the person who is doing it to stop. If they want to access these sites bad enough they will find a way around your attempts to block.
Click to expand...

I agree, especially with your lack of knowledge on networking this would be a good way to do it.

You could also use opendns as your dns provider, but then you would need to know where hulu streams from to put it in your opendns blocks like was mentioned earlier.
 
JJYL13 said:
My network is running on a Linksys WRT160N router that has been flashed with DD-WRT v24-sp2 (04/23/10) std firmware.
I have tried "Website Blocking by URL Address" and "Website Blocking by Keyword" in my router settings but neither seem to take effect. :confused:
Click to expand...

You need to enable Access Restrictions for this to take effect.


example.jpg
 
editing the lmhosts file may be more accessible for this individual. Google ' lmhosts ' for info on how to do it. Downside is each computer would need to be touched.
 
RocketTech said:
editing the lmhosts file may be more accessible for this individual. Google ' lmhosts ' for info on how to do it. Downside is each computer would need to be touched.
Click to expand...

Trusting clients never works. If one thinks the users are too stupid to figure it out, it only shows his own stupidity.
 
TCM said:
Trusting clients never works. If one thinks the users are too stupid to figure it out, it only shows his own stupidity.
Click to expand...

Admin permission is needed to edit the lmhosts file. Any administrator granting admin permissions to end users when trying to limit them at the same time is not thinking in a rational manner.
 
RocketTech said:
Admin permission is needed to edit the lmhosts file. Any administrator granting admin permissions to end users when trying to limit them at the same time is not thinking in a rational manner.
Click to expand...

We know nothing about the clients and certainly not that the OP is having control over them. That's why we discuss network-level blocking in the first place. :rolleyes:
 
TCM said:
We know nothing about the clients and certainly not that the OP is having control over them. That's why we discuss network-level blocking in the first place. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Which is why I posted what was clearly labeled as an alternative. Instead of offering opinions on posts of others, I've tried to post useful information.
My personal preference is to use pfSense, but that may be outside the means and abilities of OP. The original Linksys firmware may be the most accessible means to the OP to block the desired site(s).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top