[brendandonhu]

There have been several discussions going on about different ways of Blocking ads and I decided to make it easy and post them all here.

1. Use a HOSTS file to block known servers that display Ads, and speed up your surfing by storing IPs locally, correct IPs for your fave sites, and 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1 for ad servers. The Zeros go faster but sometimes present problems.
2. Run AdShield (freeware) , an IE toolbar that allows you to right click on an ad, Click Add To Block List and youll never see it again. Also blocks pop-ups. You can import other peoples block lists, the .abl files.
3.Use Hostess (freeware) to easily manage your HOST file. It has an interface that catalogs and allows you to edit C:\windows\hosts (thats a file, but with no extenstion)

[So0o0Confuse]

having tried a number of them (free & otherwise), the only one that does its job 90% of the time is called NoAds its free from Southbaypc.com.. just be careful - those pop up ad people are getting sneaky, every once in a while, an ad will appear with no header on the very top strip on the window - just your browser name, and if it's added into the stop popup list, the next time you go to open your browser it will start to open then suddenly dissappear and will keep doing this untill you open noAds and find it in the list usually looks like " -- Netdscape " or similar but no ad name, just delete it from the list then open browse

[brendandonhu]

I have never heard of NoAds, although I suspect its the same thing as AdShield, which allows you to select an ad, and its gone.

Brendon- This is a good head's up - how about adding the links to the software you've listed.

[brendandonhu]

Ill add those later, gotto do some other stuff now.

[mischiefschild]

Hi all,
   does this work with opera as well as with IE??
Opera offers the ability to kill the annoying pop-ups, but this does have its drawbacks, Like the chat feature for TSG wont open..(it is a popup) LoL... So if this program works with Opera it would be great, If you know please advise that way I dont have totake the time to download it and install if it doesnt, I have a dialup and at times it really is a pain download a useless program
<BR><BR><B>Mischief</B>

[brendandonhu]

Adshield doesnt work in Opera but a hosts file will.

AdShield
http://www.adshield.org/

Noads
http://www.southbaypc.com/NoAds/

Hosts File Info
http://www.smartin-designs.com/

Hostess
http://accs-net.com/hostess/

My hosts file is too big to post as an attachment, if you would like a copy, send me brendandonhue@comcast.net
It is a mix of 3 or 4 different host files you can download.

[So0o0Confuse]

Yes NoAds Has a tab for Opera & for AOL As we well as IE & Netscape 4XXx & 6.XXx ( but i direct mine to my Netscape 4.80 & Netscape 7.0 insread and it works great) and it locates IE all by itself .
I think the only difference between NoAds And Shield is that NoAds will automatically Add Almost all the pop ups automatically its only rarely when you nne to do it manually
here is a sample list of waht the blocked list looks like:

[JavaScript Application]
=[ Free Gamez ]= - Netscape
Advertisement - Microsoft Internet Explorer
ADVERTISEMENT - Netscape
Advertisement - Netscape6
NEWGALS.COM - DAILY ADDED NEW GALLERIES - Netscape ( <--PORN)
SEARCHGALS.COM - THE SEX SEARCH ENGINE - Netscape
SWOL - Pop-up - Netscape
-- - ad Netscape <- if you get any with the ' - -- just edit and add ' ad ' in it so your browser wont close as i stated in earlier post

[brendandonhu]

AdShield auto blocks scripted popups by interpreting the HTML and ignoring it. Its block list consists of servers known for serving ads such as ads.doubleclick.net.

[terryxp]

I use tweakxp, which has ad blocking, as well as pop up blocking. Works very well I might ad, it even blocked Brendans solar cooking site because it contained, "pages".... My surfing has been much more enjoyable. It even keeps a log file so you can see whats up. And you can add any ads, popups you want, as well as deactivate by the taskbar icon in case it blocks a site you'd like to see....

[Hally]

Like you all I've tried a few ad blockers & recently I was introduced to AdShield, this is the one for me. . . Highly Recommended
Hally

[Jeerajat]

HI Zonelarm 3 has ad blocking in it u can try that too.

[brendandonhu]

Thats a good solution if you already have ZoneAlarm, but if you dont, you shouldnt pay for it with that purpose in mind because there are plenty of freeware programs that accomplish the same thing.