Is It Possible to Block All Poker Software?

WopTittyPop

Hola boardsies!

I'm wondering is there any simple way/software I can get that would block all and any poker related software from being installed onto my computer?

Cheers!

Tails142

Make your kids user profiles on the PC and don't give them admin rights to install programs

Find out the addresses of the common poker websites and block them on your router

OR

Just talk to the offending party and say you dont want them playing poker online

Even if you do block it there are 101 ways around whatever you might do.

Allyall

You could edit your Hosts file, to block all poker sites, or urls that have Poker software links.

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

You would have to find all of the Poker URLS though, to block them, and i would say there are thousands.. Best bet is to look for a list/lists on the internet and copy and paste them into it.

OR...

you could try this. I know nothing about it, except what it says on the site.
It allows a 30 day trial, so you can try it out on your PC before or if, you decide to buy it.


http://www.optenetpc.com/block-poker.html

WopTittyPop

Tails142 wrote: »

Make your kids user profiles on the PC and don't give them admin rights to install programs

Find out the addresses of the common poker websites and block them on your router

OR

Just talk to the offending party and say you dont want them playing poker online

Even if you do block it there are 101 ways around whatever you might do.

I thought about the profile thing, but it's an adult with the addiction and I'm trying to approach it in the "fairest" way possible, if that makes any sense. So setting up a separate profile for the person might make him feel a bit excluded seeing as it's a family computer. Sounds silly I know, but with the condition the person is in it's difficult to take certain approaches without hitting on bad consequences.

He's not very computer savvy at all, so getting around the simplest block will be difficult for him.

I was thinking about blocking IP addresses on the router, but I was just curious to see if there was any handy software out there that blocks them all automatically!

Thank you for your reply though

syklops

A bit more background would be useful. You can play poker via facebook. Are you including that also? Is this a home PC, or a business workstation, or a server?

As the other poster said for every way of blocking it, there are about a dozen ways for bypassing it. A tiered approach for blocking it would probably be best.

WopTittyPop

Allyall wrote: »

You could edit your Hosts file, to block all poker sites, or urls that have Poker software links.

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

You would have to find all of the Poker URLS though, to block them, and i would say there are thousands.. Best bet is to look for a list/lists on the internet and copy and paste them into it.

OR...

you could try this. I know nothing about it, except what it says on the site.
It allows a 30 day trial, so you can try it out on your PC before or if, you decide to buy it.


http://www.optenetpc.com/block-poker.html

I had a look at that optenetpc software, but reading reviews on CNET changed my mind http://download.cnet.com/Optenet-PC-Parental-Control-Software/3000-2162_4-10494321.html#rateit. Apparently it cuts off internet access afterward if you don't decide to buy, and it's very difficult to uninstall if needs be.

I'll have a look into editing the Hosts file and see what I can get from that!

Thanks a million

WopTittyPop

syklops wrote: »

A bit more background would be useful. You can play poker via facebook. Are you including that also? Is this a home PC, or a business workstation, or a server?

As the other poster said for every way of blocking it, there are about a dozen ways for bypassing it. A tiered approach for blocking it would probably be best.

He only uses well known poker software. PaddyPower and Ladbrokes are the two he uses I think.
It's the family home PC.

I'm not too worried about ways of bypassing whatever block I apply because, as I said, he's not computer savvy in the slightest. He would literally just see that there's a block and probably try to just reinstall the software to see if that fixes it, and when it doesn't he'd just leave it!

syklops

WopTittyPop wrote: »

I thought about the profile thing, but it's an adult with the addiction and I'm trying to approach it in the "fairest" way possible, if that makes any sense. So setting up a separate profile for the person might make him feel a bit excluded seeing as it's a family computer. Sounds silly I know, but with the condition the person is in it's difficult to take certain approaches without hitting on bad consequences.

He's not very computer savvy at all, so getting around the simplest block will be difficult for him.

I was thinking about blocking IP addresses on the router, but I was just curious to see if there was any handy software out there that blocks them all automatically!

Thank you for your reply though

Well that clears things up a bit.

TBH, I dont know if this is the route you should be taking. If he/she has an addiction, and they are not at the 'trying to give up' stage yet, then they will find a way around it to get their fix. Addiction is a very powerful driving force, and if they are not computer savvy now, they could easily become savvy to get their rewards. That or they will just go somewhere else for their fix.

My basic advice would be to create a profile for everyone in the house, with their name on it. Tell everyone its so they can have extra privacy, e.g. they cant see each others browsing history. If you have younger ones in the house show them how they can decorate and personalise their profiles, which will add some fun to it. This way he/she is not being excluded from anything. However, no profiles will have the ability to install any programs.

Also, keep an eye on their facebook usage. I know your going to say facebook poker is not the same as real poker sites, because its not real money, but first off it iis gambling, so someone with an addiction will use it, and they have added a feature where you can enter tournaments if you buy facebook.zynga credits, so there is a real world money element to it, and I can see that having a bigger role in its games in the not too distant future.

As with any addiction, pouring all the booze doing the sink, or flushing their stash down the loo only sends them out onto the street for their fix. Instead give them as much support as you can and get them some treatment.

WopTittyPop

syklops wrote: »

Well that clears things up a bit.

TBH, I dont know if this is the route you should be taking. If he/she has an addiction, and they are not at the 'trying to give up' stage yet, then they will find a way around it to get their fix. Addiction is a very powerful driving force, and if they are not computer savvy now, they could easily become savvy to get their rewards. That or they will just go somewhere else for their fix.

My basic advice would be to create a profile for everyone in the house, with their name on it. Tell everyone its so they can have extra privacy, e.g. they cant see each others browsing history. If you have younger ones in the house show them how they can decorate and personalise their profiles, which will add some fun to it. This way he/she is not being excluded from anything. However, no profiles will have the ability to install any programs.

Also, keep an eye on their facebook usage. I know your going to say facebook poker is not the same as real poker sites, because its not real money, but first off it iis gambling, so someone with an addiction will use it, and they have added a feature where you can enter tournaments if you buy facebook.zynga credits, so there is a real world money element to it, and I can see that having a bigger role in its games in the not too distant future.

As with any addiction, pouring all the booze doing the sink, or flushing their stash down the loo only sends them out onto the street for their fix. Instead give them as much support as you can and get them some treatment.

The addiction is long on-going and help is being provided from other directions both professional and personal so, and no offense intended at all, general advice on how to kick the addiction is not what I'm looking for here, but thank you for your advice all the same.

As for the separate profiles, I think I'll take the go ahead with that and restrict his profile from administrators rights. I also thought of as much poker sites as I could and blocked them on the router.

Thanks so much to all for your replies!