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WebWasher (Windows only) blocks whatever you are talking about, and a half dozen other ads on that page.

It is great software, and just changed to "donation-ware" the other day, so go download it.

More "techy" than other blockers I have seen, and so is very customizable. I haven't seen a popup or ad in years (other than the coffee porn posted the other day on /.)

Forgot to mention:

There's a version for Windows, MacOS and Linux (with glibc 2.1)

See their download page.

Webwasher Classic will get rid of most in-line ads like this as well. You can either replace the graphics with your own, or choose not to show them at all.

Best of all, it's FREE for personal use.

As such, most crapware is not opt-in - only experienced and security-aware users know how to configure their systems to avoid it. Binning Internet Explorer is a good start, but using web-filtering software to block ActiveX, Java and Javascript (like Proxomitron, WebWasher or a firewall like Outpost), an application firewall (like System Safety Monitor) and a crapware scanner like AdAware or Spybot Search and Destroy are also necessary steps.

Linux users should not be complacent here either - almost all crapware currently targets Windows but can be written to run on Linux once it gains signifcant usage amongst mainstream users. Check Adware and Under-Ware - The Definitive Guide for a history of crapware.

Here. The version free for non-commercial use is no longer available, though (pity!)

There are several HTTP proxies which filter popups. Webwasher offers a commercial solution. A webproxy is at a disadvantage compared to a webbrowser because the browser can take temporal script behaviour into account much easier than the proxy.

This is how our webwasher calls it:

--snip--
Request Blocked by DynaBLocator

Your request to URL "http://www.gator.com/" has been blocked by the WebWasher DynaBLocator module. The URL is listed in categories (Computer Crime) which are not allowed by your administrator at this time.
--/snip--

And they're right!

Since the ads are inserted at the ISP theres no way to even block them

To insert them, it has to alter the HTML returned by a webserver as it passes through...essentially, it's a proxy server that munges content to insert ads. There are other proxy servers (WebWasher comes to mind as an example) that do the opposite--they examine the HTML they receive and alter it to remove ads, scripts, and other nastiness. Since your browser will also issue an HTTP GET request for the extra ads, ad-filtering proxies that work by redirecting certain types of requests (Squid can do this) should still be effective as well...you just need to create another rule to block your ISP's ad server.

Did you have Windows? If you did, it was probably WebWasher. It is free for home use. The download link is buried in the front page, so here's a direct link to the WebWasher Classic site: http://www.webwasher.com/client/home/index.html?la ng=de_EN

Did you have Windows? If you did, it was probably WebWasher. It is free for home use. The download link is buried in the front page, so here's a direct link to the WebWasher Classic site: http://www.webwasher.com/client/home/index.html?la ng=de_EN

Webwasher will happily filter out shockwave/flash animations and will allow them for sites you specify. They do make a Linux version as well, though it is kind of flaky compared to the Windows version.

Would someone please post the new "standard sizes" for ads, so WebWasher can be set to block them by size? Thanks.

Just use Webwasher. They've got clients for Linux, Mac and Windows. Webwasher (providing you get it configured correctly) will not only block pop-ups, but will remove ads on webpages. You can either replace them with your own image (to keep the page formatting correct) or have them display nothing at all.

Best of all, its FREE for home use.

btw, the anti-leech theft monitor didn't detect my popup blocker (webwasher). It sounds like another snake oil scheme to me.

Opera is a great browser to use for that reason. Disable plugins with F12 plus a click. However, if I want to automate it I prefer to use Webwasher along with it. If you get the Windows version, get the beta, it's got the flash killing features in it. What I like about Webwasher is I can exclude sites which the flash animation is actually useful. They make a Mac and Linux version as well.

Sometimes the best tool isn't always open source.

Just wanted to insert a link to Webwasher, great windows ad/javascript/self-proxy program. For IE only...it's the sort of thing to use on your parent's computer, etc.

If you run an adblocker like WebWasher you can disable the onload and onunload events already. I do that by default.

Oh, did I mention I'm surfing through webwasher.

I've noticed some sites intentionally block/cripple Opera.

To get around that you can use a proxy and change your user agent string to:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; Actually 0pera 6.03)

(or something similar...)

And fool 'dem com-pee-u-ters!

Skew the respondent audience by making it a web survey

Spin the questions and couch them in terms with multiple interpretations ... and call it a valid representation. Check the so-called survey results... there is just short of zero (and I'm being generous) information about how this study was conducted.

I have downloaded copyrighted software and not paid for it. Was it illegal? No -- it was "free for personal use" (e.g. WebWasher.) You know how guilty I feel about that? Not at all -- until now. Now, I feel terrible, because I helped the BSA fudge better numbers by fitting into that 57%.

Jackasses.

let me interrupt this topic with this excellent product:

Webwasher that is 30 days free for evaluation. (and happens to work just fine after 30 days).

Buy it! It's great

Try this!

Try using free ad-blocking software such as webwasher. I have been using it since June 1999 and so far it has blocked over 116,000 ad images.

WebWasher

Hey all,

In Windows I use Webwasher, a great program from Germany, to maintain complete control over what web servers are doing to my computer while surfing. It blocks that popup crap and gives you lots of controls to secure yourself against ads (malicious or not), webbugs, cookies, animations, etc. Also, once configured it can be easily clicked on or off from the system tray if it's giving you problems with a site.

I must've put it on about a half-dozen computers owned by friends & family, and each of them have been very happy with it.

webwasher and proxomitron do a good job of cleaning the marketing carbuncles off of a lot of sites. W/O webwasher, the onion would crash my browser.

Or you could save a few bucks and download WebWasher, which is free of charge...

To view this page without the large, annoying advertising images, add "images.slashdot.org" to your WebWasher URL block list.

First ad-blocking post!
But not First post. That honour went to the guy smootching Robo Troll's ass.

Why would I pay for a banner free subscription of anything if there are nice products like WebWasher for free? It even keeps my Opera-Banner away :-)

There are ads in google? I see I've been missing from communal experience since I use WebWasher..

I just wonder if I'm the only person who's getting tired of the academic "nobody must make money out of anything" attitude in /.? Get a job, hippie.

What an annoying site. Won't display anything if you're using WebWasher to block banner ads, it just says "WebWasher not allowed".

Just FYI if you're using WebWasher, in the "Proxy Engine" section of the options, turn on "No identification as WebWasher with server", and you'll be let straight in.

What's the sense in blocking WebWasher? If you block people, people aren't going to see your ads anyway, the people blocking them are exactly the people who aren't going to click on them anyway. And especially as WebWasher has an option to hide itself!

Hi all,

I use the Windows version of Webwasher,which has the option to act as a forwarding server.

Hi all,

I use the Windows version of Webwasher,which has the option to act as a forwarding server.

I'm using Opera 5.2(and 6.0 on another comp) and WebWasher 3.0. So far the only way that I've been able to force it to display the adds is by going to the demo page at united virtualities.

I've tried every other posted url and I've been quite unable to get it to display adds :) I think the only reason it displays on the demo page is the whole thing is flash.

Links:
http://www.opera.com
webwasher.com
http://www.unitedvirtualities.com/

• Filtered images: 97,578
• 
  Filtered windows: 3,868
  Filtered scripts: 13,558
  Filtered layers: 1,094
  Filtered frames: 3,059
  Filtered forms: 978
  Filtered cookies: 54,518
  Images received: 191,787
  Connections made: 285,527
  Statistics since Fri, 15 Jun 2001.

Problem solved.

Don't like ads and banners and pop-ups and pop-unders, etc? Take a look at things like WebWasher and Junkbuster. It can certainly keep the sighted among us from ripping our eyes out in frustration as the whole interface hangs waiting to load that pop-up. No doubt that will help those who do not have the benefit of sight from getting to the core of what they seek on the WWW.

~~~

Everyone knows bandwidth is not free. We should all realise that someone has to create the content that we consume.

Now, I am not sure whether a subscription scheme is a good idea or not, but surely most people will not have a problem with bigger ads, since most of us either ignore them, or run one or other of the filtering proxies such as Junkbuster or WebWasher. Let's just hope andover.net don't find a way around that :-)

But the idea of some of these proxy servers (well at least WebWasher, the one I use and know) is also to speed up browsing by not downloading the advert images, which take up bandwidth. What if the proxy sends the HTTP request but then cuts the connection, ignoring whatever the ad server wanted to send to it.. but will the bounced packets create extra traffic around routers, I don't know TCP/IP that well..

How about I advise the offending web site that they are one among many, and that I can view the same content somewhere else where I am not FORCED to look at ads

You can't make me watch ads on television, or listen to them on the radio, or read them in the paper. What makes them think I should be forced to watch them on my computer screen? Any site that trys something like this will lose viewers big time.... I'm using webwasher right now. It prevents those pop-up windows from appearing on a Nimda infected web server and and it even cancels out Salon's new click-through ads (not that I read much on Salon anyway).

Go ahead, try out your new "forced ads"... I'm ready for ya.

You can either subscribe (please do) or you can use a product like WebWasher to filter out the ads. It does an excellent job, is free for non-corporate users, and comes in Linux versions. It works with Netscape, IE, and Opera (haven't tried with Mozilla, but WW doesn't seem to recognize that I have it installed).

I don't want any of the ads, so I use Bugnosis to detect the web bugs and the free WebWasher proxy with IE to scrub out the cruft, which is somehow available for free on Linux, though I'm told that Squid and Junkbusters can do the same. AdSubtract is another alternative that comes packages with the ZoneAlarm firewall these days, but I found it to not be as flexible as WebWasher. Unfortunately there are a few sites that do not work with WebWasher, most notably EBay and no matter how I tell it not to touch EBay's cookies and content, it still blocks something that keeps that site from working.

What is needed is some sort of plugin that works directly with the browser, sets all pages and cookies to be filtered out by default, and which lets you just right click on a page to tell it this site is OK to not filter and remember to let these cookies through. All browsers have the cookie feature, but management is usually a pain with what they provide and often left up to third party tools like all of the above. Sounds like Mozilla has some of this built it, so I'll give it a try...it may be time to make a switch. IE6 is supposed to have some of this cookie control, though I'm not sure if it's to that level of convenience.

I haven't seen an ad or a web bug on pages since I've made that change. I look forward to being popup/under and ad free in the future.

It's worse than that. Gator's not actually going to replace the ads like a proxy would -- they're still being loaded, but Gator will superimpose new ones over the old ones. The real problem here is that sites like Yahoo! that make money by selling ad impressions are going to have more problems finding sponsors -- thanks to Gator, advertisers will be paying for ad impressions that nobody sees. At least when I use WebWasher or the like nobody's paying for the ads I'm not seeing. (Plus, I had to personally decided to install WebWasher, which limits its impact to the number of tech savvy people that know about ad filters -- how many people voluntarily installed Gator, as compared to how many got it by installing Crap Puzzle Bobble Clone or the like?)

Personally, this whole thing stinks of extortion to me -- you have to pay Gator an additional fee to get your ad in their circulation, or your ad gets covered up.

Crap, I must have missed those since I'm running Web Washer.

My personal favourite ad-busting program (Windows/Linux/Mac) is WebWasher. It removed everything that has ever annoyed me (scripts that run on close, scripted changes of the window size, status bar, scripts that prevent you from using the right mouse button, cookies, looping gif animations, and of course banners, popups, cookies) and is free for personal use. Every advertising annoyance gone. (With the additional help of Ad-Aware, of course.) Of course, Mozilla could probably do that all as well (as others have mentioned), but WebWasher is a cross-browser solution.

Someone complained about my mentioning the WebWasher product before, but I have to bring it up here since it's right on topic. WebWasher is a program that's free for personal use and available for Linux as well as Windows. It gets rids of cookies and all the other cruft, but most important of all, I don't get sprayed in the face with popups when I use my browser.

The point is, if you avoid loading these ads, they become an ineffective method of advertising and as marketing sees decreased results from pouring money into them, they'll be less willing to use them. That, or they'll just increase the frequency of the pops so that other people will suffer. It doesn't matter to me because I don't see them and I'm not contributing to their revenue. In a sense, I wish that the banner market was still charging lots of $$$ for these so that they'd be wasting more money per ad campaign before realizing it was being filtered out.

TO be balanced with the non-commercial products, I understand that this filtering can also be done with Squid to be effective on a site-wide basis.

Works on Linux, Windows, Mac. Works with any broswer that supports proxys. Stops all forms of HTML evil. (Well they COULD add a custom filter option, but they've done a bang-up job of catching everything that drove me nuts already) No more Popups, window resizes, launching of scripts on program exit, banner ads, cookie management. Dozens of other filters. FREE for personal use! WebWasher

www.webwasher.com works well for Windows browsers.

--
Aaron J. Shaver
http://aaronshaver.com/