We have a third-party DNS provider at my work that blocks certain sites. When a site is blocked I get redirected to a web page filled with ads to support the provider. I do not want to support the provider. I can’t use something like Goolge DNS since our internal server names resolve through the same provider. Also, for various reasons, it would be a pain to maintain host file entries for the internal servers. So, considering myself stuck with the blocking, I initially made that URL redirect to a custom web page that just said “Blocked”. Then I thought, instead of just seeing that message and getting angry I can purchase some fuzzies and set out to find a site that deserved the ad revenue. Now, I’m not entirely sure ad impression revenue from http://www.causes.com/causes/7416-singularity-institute-for-artificial-intelligence?recruiter_id=141717962 goes to SI and I wouldn’t mind if it went to causes.com, but it was the only SI related site I could find with ads. If anyone thinks any site for any charity may be more efficient (I know this idea isn’t extremely efficient in the first place) I’d like to consider it.
I’m not sure what the average level of computer knowledge is on LW. For now, since I’m lazy, I’ll assume it’s high and just say, if you’d like to to do something like this and you have admin rights on your machine, just add a host file entry to redirect the “blocked site” URL to localhost and create a webpage that just redirects to your preferred charity site with ads. If you’d like more detailed help for Windows or Linux (and maybe Mac), I may be able to help. Also, if anyone thinks of a less involved way of accomplishing the same results I’d like to hear about it, +1 if it works for all browsers without individual configuration, +2 if it doesn’t require admin rights, +bleem if both.
Anger To Warm Fuzzies With DNS
We have a third-party DNS provider at my work that blocks certain sites. When a site is blocked I get redirected to a web page filled with ads to support the provider. I do not want to support the provider. I can’t use something like Goolge DNS since our internal server names resolve through the same provider. Also, for various reasons, it would be a pain to maintain host file entries for the internal servers. So, considering myself stuck with the blocking, I initially made that URL redirect to a custom web page that just said “Blocked”. Then I thought, instead of just seeing that message and getting angry I can purchase some fuzzies and set out to find a site that deserved the ad revenue. Now, I’m not entirely sure ad impression revenue from http://www.causes.com/causes/7416-singularity-institute-for-artificial-intelligence?recruiter_id=141717962 goes to SI and I wouldn’t mind if it went to causes.com, but it was the only SI related site I could find with ads. If anyone thinks any site for any charity may be more efficient (I know this idea isn’t extremely efficient in the first place) I’d like to consider it.
I’m not sure what the average level of computer knowledge is on LW. For now, since I’m lazy, I’ll assume it’s high and just say, if you’d like to to do something like this and you have admin rights on your machine, just add a host file entry to redirect the “blocked site” URL to localhost and create a webpage that just redirects to your preferred charity site with ads. If you’d like more detailed help for Windows or Linux (and maybe Mac), I may be able to help. Also, if anyone thinks of a less involved way of accomplishing the same results I’d like to hear about it, +1 if it works for all browsers without individual configuration, +2 if it doesn’t require admin rights, +bleem if both.