Posted on 08/25/2008 10:45:45 AM PDT by Winged Hussar
Web site advertising is often reasonable, and it is the way that many sites earn enough money to deliver their content.
...There are unfortunately advertisers that abuse the privilege of access to people’s computers by pushing ads–usually Shockwave Flash–with excessive bandwidth utilization that slows even DSL Internet connections noticeably. (We banned Doubleclick.net from our computer eight or nine years ago, when we were still using a dial-up connection, because it kept refreshing its banner ads.) Other ads superimpose themselves over the page content, and have no button on which to click to close them. Still others vibrate or jiggle back and forth, and are unpleasant to look at. Adding the domains to Internet Explorer’s “Red Circle” list does not keep them off one’s browser, either.
We have found that the following method (which is apparently what at least one shareware package does) will ban a Web site from all access to one’s Internet browser. You need to find the HOSTS file on your hard drive. Ours is at C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\HOSTS. Edit it as follows to ban Web sites from your computer. Note that you have to add the virtual domain (e.g. ad.doubleclick.net) as well as the base domain (doubleclick.net). Note: the sample banned sites are not part of the original Microsoft material. (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp. ends with ” # 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host.”
(Excerpt) Read more at husaria.wordpress.com ...
As an example, if we put ad.doubleclick.net into our browser line, we get a blank page. We recall banning serving-sys.com from our computer because of a Flash advertisement that covered the page content we were trying to view, and there was no way to close it. It’s possible that the ad did not display properly on the browser we were using, but that is not our problem; it is the advertiser’s responsibility to design the ad so it will work properly on all browsers.The bottom line is that advertisers’ access to people’s computers is a privilege and not a right, and abusive conduct as perceived by the user (such as overuse of connection bandwidth, intrusive ads, opening new browser windows without permission, and so on) is a good way to have a privilege taken away.
Opening a new browser window on my computer without my permission is one of the best ways for an advertiser to make sure his domain cannot even be accessed by my computer, and that his material will never be seen. Intrusive ads, or those that slow my connection, are others.
The above method also could presumably be used by parents or employers to block sexually explicit content, but it could be evaded by anyone who knows how to edit the HOSTS file with Notepad.
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 www.doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 www.doubleclick.net
Suddenly, many of the websites I visit are easier to read and not nearly so annoying. :)
Thanks for that.
Latest Firefox..plus “noscripts” add-on does a dern-tootin good job of knocking out some of the ad headaches.
It can also be evaded by simply converting a host name to an IP address.
Ping for later. Thanks!
HostsMan will block a bunch of adware, spyware, porn, and trojans from your system using this exact method.
Version 3.1.57 can even be set to auto-update.
I have used a free program called Mike’s Ad Blocking Hosts file for several years now. It cuts out a tremendous number of ad-vertising web links.
http://everythingisnt.com/hosts.html
Even ads that only have images can slow the fastest connection to a crawl. What happens is that the ad company requires an iframe in the page that gets loaded up from the ad company's servers. What happens though, is that the ad company's connection isn't so great, and your web browser will not display the entire page until the ad company's server responds. I used to let advertising through when I browsed the web so that the sites I visited would get some money. After experiencing stalls from ads regularly, I stopped them entirely.
To stop ads entirely, get Firefox and install the AdBlock Plus and Flashblock add-ons.
Ping.
bookmark
You should try out the Hostman link above in post 7. It auto-updates the Mike’s file, plus has 3 more Ad blocking hosts files it auto-updates, you can add more to it, including your own ad blocking hosts file manual inclusions and it merges all of the various hosts files automatically.
bookmark for later use, thanks!
BFL
.
The last month or two I have been getting blank pop-up windows (just white space inside the popup, nothing else). Anyone else been experiencing this phenomenon?
I have used shareware popup blockers many times over the years, but in recent years, WinXP’s embedded popup blocker stops all but a very few of the popups, so I choose not to add software if it is not really needed.
NoScript, Adblock and Flashblock.
I was having that happen on msnbc.com recently — another good reason not to have it open! And right after the blank windows appeared the browser was likely to crash.
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