Fed up with pop up ads?

Posted on March 09, 2002

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by Alan Lloyd (AlanL)

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Alan Lloyd

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User since: November 29, 2001

Last login: September 12, 2006

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Are you fed up with waiting for popups to load just to find out if it's an advert or part of the site you are looking at?

What is a hosts file?

The hosts file sits on your computer and tells the browser where to look for certain pages. Utilizing this file is a good way of cutting down on those annoying adverts. All you have to do is add a line of code for each ad server you want to block; then your browser will look for a certain page on your computer instead of trying to load it from the net.

What to add

127.0.0.1 ad.au.doubleclick.net

Every time your computer receives a request to load a page from ad.au.doubleclick.net, instead of trying to load that page it will look for it on 127.0.0.1 -- this is your computer. When it can't find the page, your computer will load a 404 error page instead.

This will speed up your browser because it doesn't have to load the page from the net. The more of these lines you add to your hosts file the more ads you can block.

These lines will also work when an ad is in a frame on a page as well. So with some big commercial sites you will notice a speed increase loading the page, as some or all the ads will be blocked.

Where is my hosts file?

To find your hosts file just perform a search for files or folders looking for "hosts.*"

To get a list of ad servers to start you off, just go to http://liveinthemix.org/hosts.php

If you have any questions, please drop me a line alan%40liveinthemix.org or ask on thelist.

Alan Lloyd

You got to laugh at the complete fools left at evolt. They are sad power hungry people with nothing left............

27 comments on this article. Log in to add your comment | Rate this article:

hosts files..

Submitted by shanx24 on March 10, 2002 - 19:03.

interesting article, but i think the word "popup ads" is a little bit misleading. basically, your article could apply to non-popup ads as well?

for a lot of hosts (which are also regularly updated) this is a good link. i guess the new version of zonealarm also blocks ads if you set it up to do so...

cheers,
-shanx

blocking ads

Submitted by Junglee on March 11, 2002 - 02:32.

thanks for the updated list.. i had a slightly older one...
I also use a freeware software called proxomitron which is pretty decent for killing popup ads

another method i use is to enable the IE prompt for active scripting (do yu want to run scripts on this page ..yes or no..) if i say no it kills the popup from launching...can be a bit tiresome when yu gotta click no on each page...!

proxomitron..

Submitted by shanx24 on March 11, 2002 - 02:39.

i used to love proxomitron on my windows 2000, but for some reason it does jack on win xp (or is it my IE 6?).

I would not mind ads so much...

Submitted by chozsun on March 11, 2002 - 07:00.

... (of course, I run Opera to shutdown popup windows) but it seems that most of the time that the ad server is running out of Russia on a 14.4 modem. This article is godsend... if it works.

WARNING! Do not attempt on Win2K!

Submitted by neoliminal on March 11, 2002 - 15:18.

Do not try this solution with Windows 2000. It will slow your machine down to a crawl. I'm not entirely sure what the issues is with Win2K, but it makes the computer unusable.

Works fine on my win 2K

Submitted by AlanL on March 11, 2002 - 16:20.

Hi neoliminal
This works great on both my win 9X and 2K boxes. Hasn't slowed it down at all. Although I suppose all installs can be different. But I dont have a problem.

Some software for doing so..

Submitted by shanx24 on March 11, 2002 - 19:51.

Some software for doing so. Just got this from cnet...Cnet recommends ad-blocking software.

watch out for slowdowns or mystery 404s

Submitted by jessamyn on March 11, 2002 - 22:16.

if you are a frequent user of Yahoo or other web sites that have ad-servers as well as content-servers, make sure you check the hosts file if you are suiddenly getting unexplained "file not found" messages. I found that I could not make travel reservations on travel.yahoo.com until I removed rd.yahoo.com from my hosts file.

Pop-up : Top Online Shopping Frustrations

Submitted by Luc on March 12, 2002 - 05:27.

In a study, Retail Forward has ranked the Top Five Online Shopping Frustrations
(among online shoppers).

Pop-up boxes when visiting/shopping a site:	52%
Banner advertisements:	50%
Congested Web pages (e.g., too many advertisements, images or information on Web pages) :	35%
Slow load times	26%
Difficult to find a specific product	20%

When looking at this study pop-up boxes are "really" annoying and I can understand the title of your article: "fed up with pop up ads?"

At the same time, don't loose money! a lot of pop ups on eRetail sites are offering free shipping and special prices.

Luc - www.eshopability.com

How i block

Submitted by Redgore on March 12, 2002 - 15:41.

I block pop ups and ads using my firewall which is called outpost (works better than the "buzz" programs tiny and zone alarm) If you find that a pop up has been removed and you want to see it you can turn it off easily. You can limit ads by size etc

My 2 cents

Submitted by wilburworm on March 13, 2002 - 00:14.

As a simple, higher level approach to blocking ads, I use AbSubtract Pro. It works in virtually any browser (with proxy support), and can filter pop-ups, ads, cookies, javascript, background sounds, and other such annoying things that people insist on putting in their pages.

Do yourself a favour and check it out.

www.adsubtract.com

One issue with this....

Submitted by GlobalMind on March 13, 2002 - 23:02.

Greetings.

I have been using this method for some time now, and there is one little issue with removing ads from your surfing this way.

If you are on a page with a number of ads you will notice that they all will display 404 errors in their allocated IFRAME or DIV, TD -- whatever. Now, try to use your browser BACK button....guess what? Another request is made for each of those links. So you end up hitting BACK several times to actually get back to the previous page.

I have found a slight workaround is to use the drop down on the BACK button and select the page you want. Interestingly enough you will also see in there all of the ad server links.

Another idea I had on this but have not yet attempted would be to actually try to some sort of redirect of the names to some other IP address that one may have setup say in their home network. Basically anything that would return something else but a 404 error would do the trick.

Lastly, I also use PopUp Killer, which works pretty well. The only hitch on any of these automatic apps is that they may kill something you actually want. Be sure to work with your exceptions list for those cases.

Someone else mentioned blocking Javascript as perhaps an "annoying" thing added to a page...annoying? Javascript has great utility for a number of reasons, and shouldn't be killed off on a whim.

Best App for killing ads

Submitted by shotgun on October 15, 2002 - 22:34.

I used PopUp Killer but their support died. I am now using Free Surfer, which is the best app for killing those pesky pop-up (or pop-under) ads. Find it at: www.emsproject.com/FS. You can even kill animated gifs and Flash ads!

Popupless bliss

Submitted by lineartube on October 16, 2002 - 13:12.

Currently, I use Mozilla combined with Ad aware. I use Ad aware once a week to check cookies, registry and other nasties and Mozilla to browse the web, with the"Open unrequested windows" unchecked.

Win 2K Issue...

Submitted by KiloFarad on October 26, 2002 - 08:17.

If 127.0.0.1 isn�t working as desired (i.e. slow), try 0.0.0.0. I've found it to speed things up quite a bit on one of my machines.

host.* alterations working pretty well...

Submitted by racerdeb on February 21, 2003 - 12:02.

I did however receive 1 popup since making the changes to the host file. It was sent out by www.gainnetwork.net and apparently tons of people are complaining about them. They have created a how to uninstall GAIN supported applications from your computer so that the pop ups stop! Definitely find out their ad server name & address and add it to the host list!

New spyware remover

Submitted by shotgun on February 21, 2003 - 18:06.

There's a new kid in the block for spyware removing, since Ad-aware has gone commercial. It's called Spybot Search & Destroy (Spybot S&D) from Patrick M. Kolla. Its available (free, of course) from his website at http://patrick.kolla.de. It picks up where Ad-aware left behind.

Sorry

Submitted by shotgun on February 21, 2003 - 18:16.

The website for Spybot S&D was changed to http://spybot.eon.net.au. Sorry for the confusion, the previous link was to a german page.

Mozilla kills 'em all...

Submitted by irishlad on September 16, 2003 - 11:22.

This doesn't really "stop" pop-ups (as the title could possibly imply). It just makes it so the advertisement doesn't load (regardless of whether it's not a popup).
Mozilla's ability to "block unrequested windows" seems to block everything without blocking the things that I DO want.
Additionally, Mozilla has really nice junk mail controls and cookie permissions, too. You can cut down on the security problems there, too.
I've also tried the Spybot software (to kill some spyware on a client computer that Adaware did not find) and it seems to work nicely.

Kazaa Lite

Submitted by skaruzg on September 16, 2003 - 12:21.

Older versions of Kazaa Lite intall described this trick. There was also attached a well expanded hosts file with addresses of the biggest spammers.

Forget IE

Submitted by Xanadu on September 17, 2003 - 05:34.

Of course you should do one of two things here: One, set up something like MyIE2 that gives IE a pop-up killer, or two simply install Mozilla or Opera. I switched to Mozilla after being sick of popup ads and also sites that take over your computer by opening fullscreen while they load new sites in the background! My point though is that Mozilla 1.5 shows a symbol when a popup occurs so you can unblock popups from that site. (Handy as a lot of design sites like to open with a splash screen followed by a popup. Forums also use them to alert you of any new private messages.) Using the Preferences you have full control over what sites to ban and also the type of popup (eg: unrequested or all).

Been using this for years

Submitted by stuey on September 17, 2003 - 07:30.

try this one http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/ its the biggest file I've found in years.

Re: Forget IE

Submitted by Jeff Howden on September 17, 2003 - 08:37.

Chris,

Why switch an entire browser when all you're trying to do is block popups?

There are a couple of solutions to the problem actually, that don't involve changing browsers.

Disable scripting in all but the Trusted zone. Then, as you encounter sites you don't mind being able to use scripting, you add them to the Trusted zone.
Run a browser wrapper like MyIE2 or Avant that includes a popup blocker.
Install a third-party plug-in that includes popup blocking. The new Google toolbar has a popup blocker that's second to none.

Thanks,

.jeff

Forget IE? Sooner or later perhaps.

Submitted by gray_eminence on September 17, 2003 - 13:38.

.jeff

Why switch just to block pop-ups? That's a really good point. I want to stir the pot a bit by asking if the majority of computer users (certainly not referring to this crowd) cannot shutdown their computer, is it really easier to setup trusted zones, browser wrappers, or toolbars (regardless who provides them). Alan Lloyd's suggestion is one that I've never considered, but no matter what we suggest, the best choice is whichever works the easiest - and it'll be different for everyone.

Among those who frequent evolt, there are plenty of power-users who are not afraid of playing with hosts and installing software. Often we are the ones who bring suggestions to the non-technical users of all ages who ask if you have any secret tricks which are not too technical. I've been teaching computers to all kinds of users for years and many people do not recognize that the [downloaded]-toolbar was not provided directly by Microsoft. Between Hotbars, Gator, misc. spyware, cookies, privacy concerns, HTML pop-up ads, Messenger pop-ups, firewalls... it's too much for the average person.

I would argue that, to a point, this is the way it should be. An accountant should be an expert in the field of accounting, not checking for security patches and Windows/software patches every day. Switching browser is a good choice not because we can to 'stick it to the man' or make a statement, but has to do with user-friendliness. With two or three programs installed the user has to keep tabs on all of them, whereas the majority of people can find a simple selection box in the Mozilla [or, name your choice browser] preferences.

You want searching? Mozilla and most other non-IE browsers make it clear you can switch. Have a large monitor, or bad vision? The 'other' brands let you enlarge text where IE won't. I've personally seen many seniors switch just so they could read CNN.com without a mangnifing glass. These are benefits which are hard to sell (it took ages for me to switch) but you'd never go back. Even though these browsers have more features than anyone can keep track of, they are in one place and one place only. Even the preferences for add-on's at mozdev.org appear in the main preferences window.

Consistancy saves that valuable then the time a person would spend trying to compare several IE add-on's and praying that some loophole in the licence doesn't allow for even more spyware to be installed. Consistancy saves us having to re-learn a new interface, which can be daunting for the average person. Most people switched from Netscape to IE... they can switch to a newer, innovative browser today and get friendly with the features they want, or they can continue to hack-into IE.

No one wants to switch, but we all switched to IE at some point. It was 'weird' at first too, but it really was the best for a long time. Times have changed. I tried Mozilla because it seemed that I could avoid testing my websites in it. It grew on me.

So to specifically respond to your question, there's 2 answers: the quick-and-dirty, or long-term. If we start encouraging others to use modern browsers with the features they want, then they won't be encouraged to say "yes" then next time their offered a utility that "blocks ads, updates your clock, makes you coffee..." If you don't care to change, install a toolbar like the great one from Google. Like Luc points out, this problem is serious and it's not going to go away. It's only a matter of time though... if you haven't switched yet, you'll kick yourself for it later.

My reasons for changing

Submitted by Xanadu on September 19, 2003 - 06:34.

I didn't change just to block pop-ups, but to use all the great extra features in Mozilla, along with the extra code it can handle. Once you start using it, there's a wealth of extras in there, such as the DOM Inspector, image blocking, etc.

.jeff wrote "Run a browser wrapper like MyIE2 or Avant that includes a popup blocker.". I mentioned MyIE2 as the first option in my post. (Forgot to add about the new Google toolbar as well.)

Replacing ads blocked by HOSTS file w/ images

Submitted by CrimsonStrange on August 17, 2004 - 20:34.

I use a program called "eDexter" to replace 99% of the blocked image ads/banners/flash ads
being served from whatever server addresses I've got blocked in my HOSTS file.
And you can use your own images, if you wanna customize things, y'know.

Here's the company/site URL to find out more about eDexter: Pyrenean.com

I haven't noticed any significant slowdown on my Windows2000 machine by using the HOSTS file, or by using eDexter.
At last check, my HOSTS file was around 45k big.
I do remember reading somewhere that Windows2000 systems don't like very large HOSTS files, "large" being like 200-300k, etc.
I've discovered that things like Google's search & pop-up blocker toolbar are usually the culprits when it comes to a sluggish or slow-opening Internet Explorer.
( although I'm very fond of Google's toolbar, and won't part with it unless I'm forced to! It's the most reliable and user-friendly pop-up stopper I've seen yet. )

But there will NEVER be a 100% effective way to remove all ads & banners & pop-ups, because there are just too many different methods to call on images & pages.

I hate popups as well, I use

Submitted by EngrTun on April 12, 2007 - 00:54.

I hate popups as well, I use proxomitron and google toolbar to keep them away.

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