Universal Ad/Site Blocker

A lightweight, universal site blocker for Linux. It blocks access to specified websites across all browsers and applications by redirecting traffic at the system level (/etc/hosts) and serving a custom "Access Denied" page.

Features

• Universal Blocking: Works with Firefox, Chrome, Opera, curl, wget, etc.
• Lightweight: Written in Bash. No heavy dependencies.
• Customizable: Easy to add/remove sites via a simple text file.
• System Integration: Runs as a systemd service for automatic startup.

Installation

1. Clone the repository (or download the files).
2. Run the installer with root privileges:

sudo ./install.sh

The installer will:

• Install netcat if missing.
• Create a configuration file at ~/.blockedsites.
• Install the service and start it.

Usage

Adding Sites to Block

1. Open ~/.blockedsites in your favorite text editor.
2. Add the domain names you want to block (one per line).

   example.com
   facebook.com
   tiktok.com
   

3. Restart the service to apply changes:

   sudo systemctl restart universal-blocker

Unblocking Sites

1. Remove the domain from ~/.blockedsites.
2. Restart the service:

   sudo systemctl restart universal-blocker

Uninstallation

To remove the blocker and restore your system:

sudo ./uninstall.sh

How It Works

How It Works

1. DNS Override: The service adds entries to /etc/hosts pointing blocked domains to 127.0.0.1 (localhost).
2. Local Redirection: When you try to visit a blocked site, your computer connects to localhost.
   • If you have a local web server running (e.g., for development), you will see your local site.
   • If nothing is running on port 80, you will see a "Connection Refused" error.
   • In either case, the blocked site is inaccessible.