Allow or Block Local Network Access to Websites in Microsoft Edge

Don’t want websites you visit to access your local network? Here’s how to configure Microsoft Edge to block websites from accessing your local network.

Most don’t know this, but the website you visit in Microsoft Edge can access devices on your local network. By default, when a website requires local access, Microsoft Edge will show a permission prompt that lets you accept or deny. In case you are wondering, local network access for websites is a pretty useful feature. For example, for media streaming & casting and smart home management

While this is a useful feature, websites asking to access your local network can be annoying and even scary at times. This is especially true if you don’t know why a website is asking for local network access permission. Thankfully, on Microsoft Edge, you can completely block local network access for all websites. Or, you can also pick and choose which websites to allow or block.

In this Microsoft Edge guide, I will show you how to block local network access to all websites, allow only specific websites to have local access, and block access to specific websites. Let’s get started.

Block Local Network Access to All Websites in Microsoft Edge

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Search and open “Microsoft Edge“.
3. Click the “Menu” icon (three horizontal dots).
4. Select the “Settings” option.
5. Click the “Privacy, search, and services” tab on the sidebar.
6. Click the “Site permissions” option.
7. Click the “All permissions” option.
8. Scroll and click the “Local network” option.
9. Turn OFF the “Ask before accessing” toggle.
10. With that, you’ve fully disabled local network access to websites in Microsoft Edge.

Block Local Network Access to Specific Websites in Microsoft Edge

If you’d rather block specific websites from accessing the local network rather than disable the feature completely, you can add them to the block list. Here’s how.

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Search and open “Microsoft Edge“.
3. Click the “Menu” icon (three horizontal dots).
4. Select the “Settings” option.
5. Click the “Privacy, search, and services” tab on the sidebar.
6. Click the “Site permissions” option.
7. Click the “All permissions” option.
8. Scroll and click the “Local network” option.
9. Ensure the “Ask before accessing” toggle is turned ON.
10. Click the “Add site” button next to “Not allowed to access other devices on your local network“.
11. Type the full website address (ex: google.com) and click “Add“.
12. If you have more websites to block, repeat steps 10 & 11.
13. With that, you’ve blocked specific websites from accessing your local devices.
14. You can close the Settings tab.

Allow Local Network Access to Specific Websites in Microsoft Edge

Just as you can block specific sites, you can also always allow specific websites to access your local network devices. To do that, you have to add those websites to the allow list.

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Search and open “Microsoft Edge“.
3. Click the “Menu” icon (three horizontal dots).
4. Select the “Settings” option.
5. Click the “Privacy, search, and services” tab on the sidebar.
6. Click the “Site permissions” option.
7. Click the “All permissions” option.
8. Scroll and click the “Local network” option.
9. Ensure the “Ask before accessing” toggle is turned ON.
10. Click the “Add site” button next to “Allowed to access other devices on your local network“.
11. Type the full website address (ex: google.com) and click “Add“.
12. If you have more websites to block, repeat steps 10 & 11.
13. With that, you’ve allowed specific websites to access your local devices.
14. You can close the Settings tab.

Important note: Once you add a website to the allow list, Edge will no longer show the permission prompt. It is allowed to query and access your local network whenever it wants. As such, only use the allow list for websites you trust.

That is all. It is that simple to allow or block local network access to websites in Microsoft Edge on Windows 11. If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.