I guess that you hate those popup windows telling you to buy super-extra stupidity. You are propably fed up with those gif animations or even flash ads. They distract you, they steal you bandwidth.
There are special pieces of software which can block them, but sometimes they don't work. But by editing only one file you can block whatewer you want (of course with some limitations)
This is tech stuff, but reading it can save you lot of trouble...
Hosts file contains information about network addresses. Each hostname (server name, ie: google.com, computer.company.org) has IP address (192.136.254.8, 79.6.1.1). When your browser points to google, it first searches what IP google has and then connects to what it found. To find that adress he first looks into W file, then it connects to DNS server. Usually nothing is found in hosts file and ewerything is found in DNS.
So you can help your computer in finding servers you visit often: just get their IP and add then to hosts file. But this is not recomended - IP can change from time to time, but name is constant, and when you have bad IP in your hosts then you get usually some kind of error message, or you may even receive different page. (hint: good (or bad) joke is to edit your bosses hosts to connect to p0rn services instead of his favourite news server :). But it rarely works - protocol http/1.1 sends to server which page you want and serve where it is located, so you must set his browser to use http/1.0 or older.)
What if you specify bad IP adress in hosts for purporse? For exapmle: you know that server ads.money.com origins all ads for page you are wiewing, but that page is located on coolnews.com. so you ad to your hosts file line "127.0.0.1 ads.money.com". 127.0.0.1 says your web browser to connect to localhost - the same pc you are siting at, so it won't consume bandwidth. And because your pc is not web server, browser cannot connect to it and recieves no answer. So on page aren't displayed any ads from ads.money.com.
This sounds nice, heh? adding one line can destroy ads or popups. But it has some limitations:
coolnews.com were found on server coolnews.com, blocking then blocks all pages from this server. The is no way to block just coolnews.com/ads folder.hosts file./etc/hosts in Linux, c:\windows\hosts in win98, c:\windows\system32\hosts in winXP. if you are unsure where to find it, use your system search to locate old hosts fileHosts format is simple. it is ascii file named hosts (no extension, just hosts. hosts.txt is wrong and will not work! you may wnat to turn on viewing file extensions in windows.)
each line starts with IP adress, then space, then hostaname. Several hostnames can be defined for one IP.
Coment start with # and ends with newline.
Every hosts. needs this line:
"127.0.0.1 localhost".
# # This is hosts file designed to block ads # # find more about it @ http://sweb.cz/grima.worm/hosts.html # # Version 1.0, 2.XIII.2003 # #.............................. # Default # DO NO DELETE localhost #.............................. 127.0.0.1 localhost #.............................. # Groups #.............................. # DOUBLECLICK FAMILY 127.0.0.1 ad.ca.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 ad.de.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 ad.es.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 ad.fr.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 ad.it.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 ad.jp.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 ad.kr.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 ad.nl.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 ad.no.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 ad.se.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 ad.uk.doubleclick.net # KAZAA FAMILY 127.0.0.1 desktop.kazaa.com 127.0.0.1 update.kazaa.com 127.0.0.1 bravo.kazaa.com 127.0.0.1 alpha.kazaa.com 127.0.0.1 shop.kazaa.com # ALTNET FAMILY 127.0.0.1 media.altnet.com 127.0.0.1 www.altnetp2p.com 127.0.0.1 media.altnet.com # ADRENALINE FAMILY 127.0.0.1 banner.adrenaline.cz 127.0.0.1 adx.adrenaline.cz 127.0.0.1 www.adrenaline.cz 127.0.0.1 ad.adrenalinesk.sk 127.0.0.1 adx.adrenalinesk.sk # BBMEDIA FAMILY 127.0.0.1 adidnes2.bbmedia.cz 127.0.0.1 adarbo2.bbmedia.cz 127.0.0.1 idnes.bbmedia.cz 127.0.0.1 ad2.bbmedia.cz # OSDN Family 127.0.0.1 ssads.osdn.com 127.0.0.1 ads.osdn.com # OSDN Family 127.0.0.1 counter7.sextracker.com 127.0.0.1 counter13.sextracker.com #.............................. # .CZ 127.0.0.1 ad2.billboard.cz 127.0.0.1 bb.underground.cz 127.0.0.1 ad2.lupa.cz 127.0.0.1 pub.globe.cz 127.0.0.1 ad.wz.cz 127.0.0.1 ads.premium.cz 127.0.0.1 ad.iinfo.cz 127.0.0.1 ia.iinfo.cz 127.0.0.1 www.ireklama.cz # .COM 127.0.0.1 ad.keenspot.com 127.0.0.1 servedby.advertising.com 127.0.0.1 www.burstnet.com 127.0.0.1 adfarm.mediaplex.com 127.0.0.1 gavzad.keenspot.com 127.0.0.1 www.jlist.com 127.0.0.1 www.historykillcash.com 127.0.0.1 ads.stupid.com 127.0.0.1 publicidad.baja.com 127.0.0.1 ads.1for1.com 127.0.0.1 banners.friendfinder.com 127.0.0.1 dnads.directnic.com 127.0.0.1 banners.webmasterplan.com 127.0.0.1 www.bonzi.com 127.0.0.1 www.brilliantdigital.com 127.0.0.1 www.b3d.com # .NET 127.0.0.1 a.as-us.falkag.net 127.0.0.1 a1040.g.akamai.net 127.0.0.1 adv.cgiworld.net #.............................. # OTHER 127.0.0.1 ad3.bb.ru 127.0.0.1 dev.bde.com.au
You will surely find new ads "services", you may even add then to your hosts file. if you want to share your findings with others just mail me with url on which page witch ads are located and it will be in next version.