How to Block Google Chat & Meet On a Computer?

[sam]

I have an extra desktop computer in my home, and my daughter is using it. She is too young, and I want to block Google Chat and Meet on her desktop PC. Can you help me with it?

[Alex George]

It is an easy task, and I published a tutorial on my blog. Let me republish it for you.


Google Chat is one of the most popular text chat applications. Both desktops and mobile devices support it. Today, we discuss the most effective method to block Google Chat on a computer and network.


What are Google Chat and Meet?
Google Chat and Meet are the two applications introduced by Google to replace Hangouts.

Google Chat is a text chat application, and Google Meet is a video chat application.

Both Apps help people to fulfill their personal and business needs. Both Apps support one-to-one and group communication.


Why Do We Need to Block Google Chat and Meet?
I explained the uses of both Google Chat and Meet. However, we need to block them in some circumstances.

For example, consider your child. Your child may have a personal laptop for study purposes.



But, using an open chat platform like Google Chat may not be secure for your child.

Anyone with the Gmail address of your kid can approach him if your kid is active in Google Chat.

Blocking Google Chat and Meet will help your kid's safety.

Let us check a small office as another example.

You are an office boss, and your employees spend their lion's share of office time on Google Chat. What will you do?

Your first approach will be to stop your employees from chatting on Google Chat. But how will you do it?

You can block Google Chat and Meet for your Office network without any third-party tools.

Let us check how to prevent your kid from accessing Google Chat on his personal computer first. The second part will teach you how to stop Google Chat and Meet ( permanently ) on an office network.

[Alex George]

How to Disable Google Chat On a Computer?

Let us check how we disable Google Chat and Meet on your kid's laptop.

This part explains blocking Google Chat on a Windows PC without extra applications.

I assume your kid is using a Windows account without administrative privileges.

You must sign in to a Windows account with administrative privileges to activate the Google Chat block. The steps are the same for every version of the Windows Operating System (Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 7, etc.).

1. Log into your laptop with a Windows administrator account.
2. Press Windows and Q keys together to start Windows Search.
3. Type notepad and click Run as Administrator.
   
   
   
   You may need to click the drop-down icon to see this option.
4. Click the File and tap on the Open.
   
   
5. Go to the following location.
   
   

   Code: Select all

   C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

   
   
   Open the C drive and choose the Windows folder. Then open the System32 folder. Then open the Drivers folder. Open the ETC folder.
   
   
   
   
   See the arrow mark I put on the screenshot. Select All Files instead of Text Documents.
   
   
6. Now You can see all files stored in this folder.
   
   
   
   Select the hosts file and click Open.
7. You have opened the Windows hosts file. Type the following entries at the bottom of the page and save the changes.
   
   

   Code: Select all

   127.0.0.1       https://chat.google.com
   
   127.0.0.1       https://mail.google.com/chat/u/0/
   
   127.0.0.1        meet.google.com
   
   127.0.0.1        142.250.82.0/24
   
   127.0.0.1        2001:4860:4864:6::/64
   

   
   See the screenshot below.
   
   
8. Click the File and tap on Save.
   
   
   
   You will not find issues saving because you opened the notepad as administrator.
   
   If it does not have administrative privileges, you will see an error message: You do not have permission to open this file.
9. Restart your laptop.

Now onwards, this Windows computer will not load Google Chat and Meet. Your kid will not be able to start Google Chat again.

[Alex George]

How to Disable Google Chat on a Network?
Now we come to the second part of the tutorial. Let us discuss the steps to disable Google Chat and Google Meet on a Local Area Network.

We consider a small office where a dozen devices join a wireless LAN. We can disable the Google Chat and Meet for the entire office by blocking the Google Chat and Meet in the wireless router.

The easiest method to block Google Chat on a router is using the Parental Control feature. Various router/ modem models have different steps for it.

Here we check how to disable Google Chat on a Verizon modem.

1. Connect your Verizon Router to your PC with an Ethernet cable.
2. Type 192.168.1.1 on a browser address bar. Press the Enter key.
3. Click Parental Control under the menu.
   
   
   
   
   Click on New Rule and block Google Chat and Google Meet on the entire network.

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[Phanto]

Very useful information alex, thank you.