Surf With Less Ads windows hosts file

[torosandoval 0]

thanks a lot

[sujith 0]

Nope.I think they are universal.That is if you edit the host file it will take care of all the needs.

But with new browsers out wouldn't this hack be kind of pointless now? Yeah This could help out the machines you need to jump start with a car battery. But with the proper protection you don't have to worry about ads. I believe Firefox has a plug-in that blocks all ad's completely.

If you want to get a good enormous list of ad severs for host file you can get it from here

[http://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/index.php]

If you are an opera user you can get the host file customized to your program at the following page :

[http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/]

 

As I told in the above post go to your opera directory (i.e profile).You can find where your profile is located by clicking Help|About Opera .Usually it will be in

 

C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Opera\Opera\profile\

edit the urlfilter.ini file and add the list of file servers just copy it and paste it there.Simple isn't it?

 

I have a question too where is Firefox's ad block extension storing its ad servers list ?

[kage1405241539 0]

Hey sorry, this might sound ignorant but what's the difference between the programs listed above and the adblock plugin for firefox?That's what I am using, the adblock plugin.
It also has a blacklist and can also be updated.
It's works fine for my pc and laptop, so what is the advantage of using such programs?
Am I right that those programs can blacklist whole sites (domains) where adblock is only capable of blocking certain aspects of the site (popups,pictures)
And also since they are blacklisted they don't get loaded (saves bandwith)?
But I think adblock restricts certain images from loading too, or will they just simply never be displayed?
So the only advantage I see is, If you want to blacklist _whole_ domains you will use such tools.
e.g when a popup tries to load a certain domain it redirects you to your own computer?!

yea im firefox adblock aswell but for the bit about restricting images, sometimes images dont load for heaps of reasons but the easiest is right click on the image and choose "show image".again might not work for heaps of reason aswell

[sujith 0]

I sometimes use Opera's "Show Images" "Hide Images" "Only Cached Images" buttom etc.They make browsing easy and simple on slow connections (which I am using, still on age old dial up ) OR slow servers.Firefox is not really good for speed,In My View.For speed nothing beats Opera, I think the same is true for Maxthon also it is extremly light weight.

[richierich1m 0]

I think this method could be difficult to do and may also cause harm to your pc and can create problrm in google ads like suppose a site design id divided in two parts a sidew part and then the main content ,suppose that the sidebar has ad's and as the sidebars will not load as they they dont exist in url 127.0.0.* so i feel t5hat the content part wont even open up becaus eof this and may cause problems and also a lot of them instead why not use firefox adblocker but if you ask me i feel that its really not good to block ad's because i am in the opposite side of table i provide free service on net only to earn through ad's if people don't <- snipped -> 's ,free services would go away}

[bluefish1405241537 0]

I think this method could be difficult to do and may also cause harm to your pc and can create problrm in google ads like suppose a site design id divided in two parts a sidew part and then the main content ,suppose that the sidebar has ad's and as the sidebars will not load as they they dont exist in url 127.0.0.* so i feel t5hat the content part wont even open up becaus eof this and may cause problems and also a lot of them instead why not use firefox adblocker
but if you ask me i feel that its really not good to block ad's because i am in the opposite side of table i provide free service on net only to earn through ad's if people don't <- snipped -> 's ,free services would go away

The content will still work - you see, when you put an add on your site, the image/frame is not usually hosted on the same website. So your page will show, but ads that try to load will fail because they are located on the redirected server.}

[quinciest 0]

wow nice filethankssssnow i won't disturb by advertising

[.:Brian:. 0]

Well although this works, i don't really care for the method.For one, I found that doing this makes my computer really slow....(Detecting proxy settings....) takes forever for the first time I start up Internet explorer every time I turn on my computer.Second, getting rid of ads really isn't all that fair to the owners of the web sites. This is because they no longer earn as much income, also it makes it so that advertisers themselves don't get their ads shown as much.I prefer to browse the internet with ads, you never know when you can find something useful through an ad.

[delivi 0]

thanx for sharing your great find, that was really veryuseful.

 

But I think the newbies can use the addons for browsers that block Ads.

Edited February 25, 2007 by livingston (see edit history)

[sujith 0]

Well although this works, i don't really care for the method.
For one, I found that doing this makes my computer really slow....(Detecting proxy settings....) takes forever for the first time I start up Internet explorer every time I turn on my computer.

Second, getting rid of ads really isn't all that fair to the owners of the web sites. This is because they no longer earn as much income, also it makes it so that advertisers themselves don't get their ads shown as much.

I prefer to browse the internet with ads, you never know when you can find something useful through an ad.

If you use ad muncher, a software that can block all the ads in tha page the PC will work just fine as it is a specialized program for blocking advertisements.

[mortalmatt 0]

I use the hosts file from that website as well! It's great for blocking the common ad servers. I also would suggest using AdMuncher. It's a great, small program that sits in your systray and will block any images and popups etc. that you would like. It's very easy to add in custom blocks on any certain website; whereas, a hosts file addition is used to block a whole webserver.

[xerxes1405241546 0]

wouln't this slow down browsing, to verify the web address.

Your computer needs to connect to DNS servers whenever a domain is specified (http://www.domain.com/) instead of a raw IP address, so storing any addresses locally is way faster.

what's the difference between the programs listed above and the adblock plugin for firefox?

To put it clearly: adblock lets you download the add but blocks the display of such ad, other mentioned programs block the computer from even connecting to the ad server, effectively halting the add download.

This could help out the machines you need to jump start with a car battery. But with the proper protection you don't have to worry about ads. I believe firefox has a plug-in that blocks all ad's completely.

Again, adblock just blocks the display of ads, not their downloading. If you have an old machine (and slow net connection) the machine will probably be more burdened with the download processing rather than the sole display of said ads. Then again, there are flash ads which slowly make Internet unusable on old machines anyway.

makes my computer really slow

A known problem in Windows XP and 2000, following is a solution:

Open My Computer, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services - Scroll down to "DNS Client", Right-click and select: Properties - Click the drop-down arrow for "Startup type" - Select: Manual, click Apply\Ok and restart.

Second, getting rid of ads really isn't all that fair to the owners of the web sites.

I agree with that absolutely. When I was starting my "adventure" with broadband Net I was so much into ad blocking... But then I've realised that blocking stops revenue site owners expect to get, which in turn may destroy the pages I surf through, in the long run (especially the private or non-profit ones). Let's remember that hosting is not always free, and not everybody has so much luck to be able to pay for services like those of Xisto. If somebody is putting an ad on his site, they have a reason for that, and we should respect it. If you don't like some particular kinds of ads, just don't visit the sites that employ them.
On the other hand, I agree that most commercial pages overuse different ads systems considerably, and more efficient ways should be found to stop intrusive pop-ups of all kinds. Still, ads integrated into pages don't bother me at all.

AdMuncher. It's a great, small program that sits in your systray

Let's remember that on a secure system, unexpected pop-ups are usually a sign of an unwanted malware infection. If a trojan gets installed on my system, I would like to see the pop-ups as a warning and take action ASAP. Edited June 2, 2007 by xerxes (see edit history)

[dserban 0]

On the other hand, I agree that most commercial pages overuse different ads systems considerably, and more efficient ways should be found to stop intrusive pop-ups of all kinds. Still, ads integrated into pages don't bother me at all.

I happen to have strong opinions about what constitutes fair use for ads integrated into pages.

The way I see it, there are three models for making money from a free website, two of which encourage the site owner to continue providing great services to you, the visitor.
- Sites which offer both free and premium services. These sites should be allowed to show integrated ads that promote their own premium services when you browse their free services section. Blocking these ads is unfair because it will destroy a legitimate business model.
- Sites with no ads where they show a "donate via Paypal" button. These "donate" buttons should not be blocked by any ad blocking software - and they usually aren't.
- Sites that make money by promoting premium services other than their own. Example: Some hobbyist has written free, open-source CD burning software and published the beta version on his site. Google AdSense gains insight into the contents of the page and will show an ad promoting overpriced, overmarketed CD burning software written by underpaid developers in a cheap country. Those developers get 1 cent for every sold copy of the software and the site owner gets 1 cent for every click-through. If you are like me, you begin to wonder where the rest of the money goes.

In conclusion, blocking ads is a matter of personal preference, and in the long run will destroy business models which are not based on creating real value. In the long run, it will ensure that consumers get fair value for their money, and that service providers receive fair payment for their work.

[Downlinker 0]

Great stuff! I had this in my old computer, and the internet worked really fast! I installed this in my Vista machine, and i think it works good! Only thing was my security software to detect the changes

[Downlinker 0]

awww, it didn't work, the security software blocked the ads, and where working against the filter I only need what it is my machine. It really SLOOOVED it down ALOT!