Host Minder: A useful and simple app to block unwanted domains

Whatever the Operating system used by many in their home or office computers, one of the things that they usually wish to be able to do with ease, is to indicate to it at will, what are the unwanted websites, that is web domains will be blocked so that they cannot be freely navigated.

However, there is a useful and simple app called "Host Minder" which is very easy to use, so it serves efficiently as an excellent parental control system about some of our appreciated GNU / Linux Distros.

UbuntuCE: Nueva versión 2021.07.29 disponible basada en Ubuntu 20.04

UbuntuCE: New version 2021.07.29 available based on Ubuntu 20.04

Certainly in offices or organizations, this work of block unwanted web domains is usually carried out centrally, through web content filtering systems from specialized servers and systems. But from home computers, there are usually no simple and efficient software solutions at the same time.

And this is usually essential, especially for those cases in which the Free and open operating systems should be used by children and adolescents o sensitive people because of their religious or cultural beliefs, and you do not want them to be freely exposed to violent, obscene or sexual content, among others.

Origin of Host Minder

"Host Minder" is a native application of Ubuntu Christian Edition (Ubuntu CE), which is a GNU / Linux Distro that recently we have dedicated a recent publication, because it has been updated to a new version 2021.07.29, based on ubuntu 20.04.

"Ubuntu Christian Edition (UbuntuCE) is a free and open source operating system geared towards Christians. It is based on the popular Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu is a complete Linux-based operating system, available for free with both community and professional support. The goal of UbuntuCE is to bring the power and security of Ubuntu to Christians.

The Christian Edition of Ubuntu also includes fully integrated parental controls for web content, powered by Dansguardian. A graphical tool has also been developed to adjust parental control settings specifically for Ubuntu Christian Edition." UbuntuCE: New version 2021.07.29 available based on Ubuntu 20.04

UbuntuCE: New version 2021.07.29 available based on Ubuntu 20.04

Host Minder: Simple app to block unwanted websites

What is Host Minder?

According to UbuntuCE official website on GitHub, the application «Hostminder» It is described as follows:

"It is an application used to block unwanted web domains. It has a simple graphical user interface that allows you to easily update the file «/etc/hosts»From your GNU / Linux Distro to one of StevenBlack's four consolidated hosts / hosts files. These consolidated host files allow you to block websites of various categories, such as: Ads, Porn, Gaming, Social Networks and Fake News."

Given the, "Host Minder" uses four consolidated hosts files, offers four "Levels of protection", which are:

Bass: Ads / Porn.
Medium: Ads / Porn / Gambling.
High: Ads / Porn / Gaming / Social.
Max: Ads / Porn / Gambling / Social / Fake News.

When activating "Host Minder", the file entries «/etc/hosts» Existing files are added to the downloaded hosts file within a special section. In addition, all protection levels also include the activation of Google SafeSearch.

Implementation on supported GNU / Linux Distros

For our practical implementation example, we will use as usual the usual Respin Linux called Miracles GNU / Linux, which is based on MX Linux 19 (Debian 10), and that has been built following our «Guide to Snapshot MX Linux».

Download, installation and use

According to "Host Minder" installation section on GitHub there 3 options to implement said software tool on Distros based on Ubuntu, and other compatible ones. However, we have chosen the alternative method of add the UbuntuCE Repositories and install what we want, for example: "Host Minder".

Said method or procedure is as follows:

curl -s --compressed "https://repo.ubuntuce.com/KEY.gpg" | sudo apt-key add -
sudo curl -s --compressed -o /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntuce.list "https://repo.ubuntuce.com/ubuntuce.list"
sudo apt update
sudo apt install hostminder

Screen shots

Below we will show some screenshots of its implementation about our Operating System:

Execution of command commands in terminal (console)

Running Host Minder via Applications Menu

Host Minder Configuration and Activation

Content validation of new configured host file

Verification of blocking of unwanted web domains

Parental Control Alternatives for Linux

Summary

In summary, "Host Minder" is a great software solution created by the developers of ubuntuce for block unwanted websites on users' computers, both at home and in offices. Also, it can be implemented in many Distros compatible with Ubuntu y Debian GNU / Linux.

We hope that this publication will be very useful for the entire «Comunidad de Software Libre y Código Abierto» and of great contribution to the improvement, growth and diffusion of the ecosystem of applications available for «GNU/Linux». And do not stop sharing it with others, on your favorite websites, channels, groups or communities of social networks or messaging systems. Finally, visit our home page at «DesdeLinux» to explore more news, and join our official channel Telegram from DesdeLinux.