Proxy query

[lovingboth]

What I want: to be able to block certain websites from this Win2k PC, without blocking them from a PC that uses this one as a proxy server.

I used to block the sites by adding them to the HOSTS file, set to 127.0.0.1

A tiny webserver sent a realistic sympathetic error message whenever someone wanted a page from 127.0.0.1

Now I have another PC set up, which I'm fine with accessing them. Unfortunately, if I leave them in HOSTS, the proxy - AnalogX's simple Proxy - can't find them. And if I take them out, L12 (and his more annoying friends) can visit them from this PC.

It occurs to me that I could have two proxy servers on this PC. One would be set up to block listed sites, for local use, and the other - the one currently there - would let the other PC see them.

But which proxy to use? Free, small and fast, please. I'm not fussed if it does caching etc.

Or is there another way? It must work with both Firefox and IE, so a Firefox extension that blocks sites is no good.

Comments

[conflux.livejournal.com]

You could just set up both IE and Firefox to have blocked sites? It would mean doing everything twice and setting up L12 as a user that cannot change these settings. This assumes they don't know how to use proxy browsers but none of your methods will work in that case unless you want to scan downloads for key words.

Alternatively how about making the changed hosts file local to the L12 user and running the proxy server as a service ran as another user? No idea how to do all that but in theory it should be possible.