Ad-blocker Destroys My Markup

I'm testing a new design for my webpage. I set the content type as application/xhtml+xml for all browsers except for the ones that are or pretend to be IE. All works fine and I've made sure that possible database errors and such don't cause the XML not to be well-formed.Then today I asked my friend to try out the new design and he said that it caused XML parsing error... After few questions and a document source sent to me I realized that it was his firewall that blocks ads causing the problem.The ad is a webring icon that just happens to be of the typical size for ads and thus gets recognised. The firewall (Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro) replaces the ad in the most stupid way I cna imagine... While simple tect [AD] would be sufficient (which it does), it changes the image tag "<img>" to <AD-> tag and leaves part of the url inside the tag, not making it an attribute. Now this doesn't matter in HTML browsers which simply skips the tags that they don't understand and doesn't mind about not well-formed markup... But as my document is XML the page cannot be displayed at all. I haven't come up with any other solution except for resizing the image a bit so it won't get caught in the ad filter. I've also thought about *****ing about this to the firewall manufacturer but that's just because I'm pissed of someone being so dumb, this is a commercial product for crying out loud! I guess they haven't heard about this little thing called XML...

Simply said, it's a firewall thing, so why worry about it? If someone uses a adblocker they should be aware that it can lead to problems. If you just tell 'm on your site that it might cause problems with that firewall it should be ok not?

You have a few options:Remove the ad iconMake it an unusual sizeThere is no feasible way to stop firewalls from doing their job, we just need to work around them.

Yes, different Firewalls can do a lot of bad things, even corrupt downloaded files, like when you're using DC++ does not matter which version, Strong or PeerWeb it usually say that Zone Alarm detected on your system, please disable it, because it usually ruin or corrupt the downloaded files. That is why I don't like Firewalls which does more than I need.

Shouldn't there be a way to add an exception for specific sites?Strange if there isn't.My experiences with "firewalls that do more than I need", to quote Quantrux are not very good either. They usually do many things bad instead of few things well. My motto: Keep it simple B)As for *****ing to the manufacturer, do it! You shouldn't have to repeat yourself fifteen times (even though that is sadly often the case), just send one mail explaining the problem.

not sure if this is the right place to post this but i have a free hosting site at the moment which i have used but i wont to get rid of the ads and ideads how to get rid of them