Webkinz with Full Parental Controls SOLVED!
One of the major reasons to upgrade to Leopard in our family was for the enhanced Parental Controls. I especially like the hours and time limiting feature, which help my 9-year old get enough sleep when she’d rather be on the Mac!
Imagine my extreme chagrin when Webkinz, my daughter’s favorite site, would not allow her to login, despite various attempts to add it via administrator.
After much trial and error, I’ve gotten Webkinz to run flawlessly WITH FULL PARENTAL controls (access only to pre-listed websites).
Disclaimer: I'm not an expert, but I do know enough to be dangerous and semi-useful with command line utilities and files. Leopard is poorly documented right now, and our tribal knowledge is low. Nonetheless, here's what worked...
First, it helps to understand what we’re trying to do here. It seems that the Webkinz website actually uses a variety of IP addresses to communicate with your Mac.
Webkinz.com homepage is located at 66.48.69.100 (you can verify this by opening Terminal and typing
*ping webkinz.com*
Additionally, Webkinz uses
66.48.69.98
66.48.69.99
66.48.69.102
66.48.69.104
66.48.69.123
66.48.83.160
66.48.83.161
66.48.83.162
66.48.83.163
66.48.83.164
66.48.83.165
_AND the undocumented 66.48.69.117_
(and maybe more, for all I know).
So, we need to tell your Mac to allow all these website IP’s to communicate unimpeded with Safari.
Step 1:
Remove all your failed attempts in Parental Control Settings. Under Content / Allow access to only these websites, you will see some IP’s, likely from the above list, listed at the bottom of the window. Remove them with the minus sign button.
Step 2.
Add fake “placeholder” website names. I called mine fake98.com, fake 99.com, etc. Match the above list. The name and address can be the exact same (Name = fake98.com, address = fake98.com), and you don’t need to add the http://www……
Step 3.
Edit your /etc/var/hosts file. Here’s where we will link the webnames and IP addresses to each other.:
*shift-command-G /etc*
Make a copy of the hosts file on your Desktop.
Edit via Textedit to look something like below (Your Mileage May Vary!).
Save WITHOUT .TXT extension.
Change attributes of ORIGINAL Hosts file in /etc directory (Command-I) to allow yourself read-write privileges. C
Drag and drop edited file on to the original file. You should see an “authenticate” window, and a prompt asking you if you want to replace the original older file. Yes, Yes.
Step 4.
(You may be done at the end of Step 3, but I followed this hint, too. Someone much more clever with Leopard will set me straight, but hey, it works!)
I duplicated this information into the mysterious depths of Leopard by using the dscl terminal command, thus:
*sudo dscl localhost –create /Local/Default/Hosts/fake98.com IPAddress 66.48.69.98*
Repeat for the whole list.
*sudo dscl localhost –create /Local/Default/Hosts/fake99.com IPAddress 66.48.69.99*
*sudo dscl localhost –create /Local/Default/Hosts/fake102.com IPAddress 66.48.69.102*
Check your entries with
*dscl localhost –readall /Local/Default/Hosts*
You can Undo with
*sudo dscl localhost –delete /Local/Default/Hosts/fake98.com*
*You’re done!*
If you’re still having problems, check out your
/private/var/log/apache2/access_log
file.
You will likely see an IP address closely related to one of the above repeated ad nauseam in the file as the IP is blocked but “knocks on the door” trying to load the Webkinz play area.. Add to the above repeated IP to the host file and dscl database and you should be good to go.
Final comment:
Yes, I know it worked just fine in Tiger without all this. However, I’m not terribly pleased with Webkinz – especially the undocumented .117 IP address. Their technical help page leaves out this key address. For all I know, there may be others, too. Apple seems at some level to be trying to do EXACTLY what they claim – no access to an un-documented web page. Their own documentation and overall ease of function, by the way, can stand serious improvement.
Best of Luck!
Imagine my extreme chagrin when Webkinz, my daughter’s favorite site, would not allow her to login, despite various attempts to add it via administrator.
After much trial and error, I’ve gotten Webkinz to run flawlessly WITH FULL PARENTAL controls (access only to pre-listed websites).
Disclaimer: I'm not an expert, but I do know enough to be dangerous and semi-useful with command line utilities and files. Leopard is poorly documented right now, and our tribal knowledge is low. Nonetheless, here's what worked...
First, it helps to understand what we’re trying to do here. It seems that the Webkinz website actually uses a variety of IP addresses to communicate with your Mac.
Webkinz.com homepage is located at 66.48.69.100 (you can verify this by opening Terminal and typing
*ping webkinz.com*
Additionally, Webkinz uses
66.48.69.98
66.48.69.99
66.48.69.102
66.48.69.104
66.48.69.123
66.48.83.160
66.48.83.161
66.48.83.162
66.48.83.163
66.48.83.164
66.48.83.165
_AND the undocumented 66.48.69.117_
(and maybe more, for all I know).
So, we need to tell your Mac to allow all these website IP’s to communicate unimpeded with Safari.
Step 1:
Remove all your failed attempts in Parental Control Settings. Under Content / Allow access to only these websites, you will see some IP’s, likely from the above list, listed at the bottom of the window. Remove them with the minus sign button.
Step 2.
Add fake “placeholder” website names. I called mine fake98.com, fake 99.com, etc. Match the above list. The name and address can be the exact same (Name = fake98.com, address = fake98.com), and you don’t need to add the http://www……
Step 3.
Edit your /etc/var/hosts file. Here’s where we will link the webnames and IP addresses to each other.:
*shift-command-G /etc*
Make a copy of the hosts file on your Desktop.
Edit via Textedit to look something like below (Your Mileage May Vary!).
Save WITHOUT .TXT extension.
Change attributes of ORIGINAL Hosts file in /etc directory (Command-I) to allow yourself read-write privileges. C
Drag and drop edited file on to the original file. You should see an “authenticate” window, and a prompt asking you if you want to replace the original older file. Yes, Yes.
Step 4.
(You may be done at the end of Step 3, but I followed this hint, too. Someone much more clever with Leopard will set me straight, but hey, it works!)
I duplicated this information into the mysterious depths of Leopard by using the dscl terminal command, thus:
*sudo dscl localhost –create /Local/Default/Hosts/fake98.com IPAddress 66.48.69.98*
Repeat for the whole list.
*sudo dscl localhost –create /Local/Default/Hosts/fake99.com IPAddress 66.48.69.99*
*sudo dscl localhost –create /Local/Default/Hosts/fake102.com IPAddress 66.48.69.102*
Check your entries with
*dscl localhost –readall /Local/Default/Hosts*
You can Undo with
*sudo dscl localhost –delete /Local/Default/Hosts/fake98.com*
*You’re done!*
If you’re still having problems, check out your
/private/var/log/apache2/access_log
file.
You will likely see an IP address closely related to one of the above repeated ad nauseam in the file as the IP is blocked but “knocks on the door” trying to load the Webkinz play area.. Add to the above repeated IP to the host file and dscl database and you should be good to go.
Final comment:
Yes, I know it worked just fine in Tiger without all this. However, I’m not terribly pleased with Webkinz – especially the undocumented .117 IP address. Their technical help page leaves out this key address. For all I know, there may be others, too. Apple seems at some level to be trying to do EXACTLY what they claim – no access to an un-documented web page. Their own documentation and overall ease of function, by the way, can stand serious improvement.
Best of Luck!
iMac 20" intel, Mac OS X (10.5.1)
