How to use Avast! Site Blocking feature?

Avast! Free Antivirus comes with a tool called Site Blocking. As the name suggest, the Site Blocking feature supports blocking of websites or URLs. This tool works nicely and can be used for blocking almost all types of websites or web content. Wondering how to use Avast! Site Blocking? Continue reading.

Avast! Site Blocking:

Avast! is one of the most popular 100% freeware anti-virus applications.The Site Blocking in this antivirus software works by preventing access to a set of predefined URLs. For adding URLs to block list, Avast offers an easy to use interface in the control panel. URLs can be used with * and ? wildcards. Avast Web Shield, which monitors your web browsing activities and prevents online threats, is essential for Site Blocking. So, when you use Site Blocking feature, make sure that Web Shield is enabled in your Avast! control panel.

The Site Blocking feature in this security software comes handy in various situations. For example: hiding sites you hate, preventing tracking codes from loading or blocking advertisements on websites. Yes, Avast! Site Blocking can be used as an AdBlocker. All you need to do is collect URLs of online advertising sites (using popular ones will do, while complete list will be a bit long) and add them to the list of blocked URLs in Avast! It works pretty well.

How to use Avast! for blocking websites?

1. Open Avast! Control panel (click on the Avast logo in the taskbar).
2. Go to Security tab in the control panel.
3. Press Tools in the left bar. Site Blocking will appear.
4. Check the Enable site blocking option. In the empty field below, type URL of a website that you want to block. Then press Add button. Similarly add other websites.

Close Avast! Control panel and open the blocked website on your browser. If you entered the URL correctly, you should see a message like the screenshot above.

Note: Avast! Site Blocking tool is ideal for blocking selected few websites and can also be used as an AdBlocker. But it can’t block https. Yes, Avast Site Blocking only works on http URLs, not https.