Common Blocking Questions

How does website blocking work?

ActivTrak's website blocking feature works on the machine level, so any machine you have assigned blocking to will block that site for all users using that machine. It works by writing to the /etc/hosts file of the machines operating system.

When a user attempts to access a blocked site they will be redirected to a page that says "This website is not available" "please consult your domain administrator to resolve this issue" and gives them the option to go back to the previous page.

NOTE: If you see any other message than the one given above, the website is NOT being blocked by ActivTrak and you will need to look into any other website blocking tools you may have enabled.

Can I block a website for only select computers? 

Yes, you have the option to create or use a group with ActivTrak's grouping feature and apply the blocking to a specific group of machines. 

NOTE: Any group you choose to use for the blocking feature must be a group of computers. The blocking will not apply if it is a group of users since blocking is done on the machine level.

Can I block applications?

With ActivTrak's website blocking feature you do not have the ability to block access to an application. However, utilizing our alarms, an application can be terminated upon opening. To learn more about this click here.

Can I block websites on a schedule?

No, blocking does not follow any working schedule created using the scheduling feature. Once you block a domain, that domain will be blocked 24/7 until you remove it from being blocked.

Where can I view a list of users that have specific websites blocked?

Login to the dashboard and navigate to the Blocking page using the sidebar. Once there all of the domains that have been blocked can be seen as well as the groups and machines they are blocked on.