How to Block Videos from Loading in Youtube Using TP-Link Router

 Make it look like a site error!

We have number of computers at home. To be able to connect all the PCs to the internet, I network them. I bought a 16-ports Switch/Hub and a TP-Link router. We only have a 384kbps internet connection and when everybody in the family are connected to youtube, I could barely access facebook. When I tried to block Youtube, they were complaining that they couldn't access it anymore.

Today, I realized that you can block videos from loading without blocking the site. All you need to do is to block the video addresses directly. It will appear like there is a problem with Youtube without their knowledge that you have block it.

Here's what I did. Follow the steps carefully.

Step 1: Login to your TP-Link Admin

Default Address: 192.168.1.1
Default Username: admin
Default Password: admin

Step 2: Add New Target Setting

In this section, we are going to define what website to block. In our case, we will block not the homepage of Youtube, only the videos with its player will load.

• Go to Access Control -> Target
• Add New Target Setting
• Change Mode: Domain Name
• Target Description: Youtube
• Domain Name: c.youtube.com

Step 3: Add New Host Setting

In this section, we are going to define what local computer will be affected with the blocking.

• Go to Access Control -> Host
• Add New Host Setting
• Mode: IP Address
• Host Description: All Computers
• LAN IP Address: 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.199

Step 4: Add New Rule

In this section, we will define the connection the target to the host.

• Go to Access Control -> Rule
• Add New Rule
• Rule Name: Youtube Block
• Host: All Computers
• Target: Youtube
• Schedule: Anytime
• Action: Deny
• Status: Enabled

Step 5: Enable Access Control 

Of course, to make sure that this will all work, we have to check that our access control is enabled and check all the other settings are configured accordingly.

• Enable Internet Access Control should be checked
• Default Filter Policy should be Allow
• Our `Youtube Block` rule should be on the list. 
• Very Important: DON'T FORGET TO CLICK SAVE!

Youtube have a lot of cache servers and they load at least 4 video sources when try to play a video but blocking the cache servers are made easy since all you have to do is to block the root subdomain which is c.youtube.com and all the other cache servers will be blocked.

You can also experiment on other video streaming sites.