Is There An Effective Way To Kill Banner Ads?

2MuchC0ffeeMan asks: "Is there a way, in Windows or Linux, to kill ads? I saw a browser the other day for the Mac, and it could recognize and NOT load banner ads. Are there programs out there that take this a step further, and reject cookies from whoever is sending the ad? The thing is, I hate how the internet is becoming a huge database of user information. Surveys, user history, usernames, and preferences are becoming the buisness of tomorrow. With people like amazon.com now selling user info, I would like to take a stand against this kind of practice." By now, most readers have heard about Junkbuster, and a few of you may know about Guidescope but many new Internet users may not, and there are probably other cookie/ad blocking sites out there that others might find useful. What are the possibilities that future browsers may incorporate ad blocking technuqies and what is the best way (aside from a "cookie-domain kill file" to detect a banner ad?

Comments

Re:One way...

[costas]

Have you tried Xitami? it's free, it's lite-weight and highly configurable. Definitely reccommended (sorry, no link off the top of my head).

Naviscope

[Hooha Man]

Try naviscope [http://www.naviscope.com] for a Windows filter. It's the best I've found by some distance.
It can also, optionally, filter cookies, java, popups as well as improving privacy (blocks system info, referrer info). It also does handy stuff like keep your system clock accurate.
You can set up different filtering options for different sites very easily.
Best of all, free to use.
Another good method to block irritating advertisers is using the hosts file, though this can cause slow timeout problems with Netscape.


<O O&gt
( \/ )
X X

One way...

[Quietust]

...that I find rather useful is to effectively blacklist the adbar sites. One way to do this (on your own system) is to add them to your hosts file (either c:\windows\hosts or /etc/hosts) to resolve to something like 255.255.255.255 or 0.0.0.0 (sample line: "255.255.255.255 ad.doubleclick.net"); most TCP/IP stacks (read: Winsock) will immediately error and refuse to connect to such IPs. If that doesn't work, put 127.0.0.1 instead and run a tiny program on port 80 to give a null response on all connect attempts (or just immediately disconnect).

A good list of adbar sites to blacklist:

ads.1for1.com
connect.247media.ads.link4ads.com
ads.admonitor.net
ads.amazingmedia.com
view.avenuea.com
image.avea.a7.avenuea.com
www.banerz.com
www.burstnet.com
www.commission-junction.com
ad.doubleclick.net
netgrav.ea.com
adimg.egroups.com
js-adex3.flycast.com
ad-adex3.flycast.com
jeeves.flycast.com
ads.focalink.com
ads01.focalink.com
ads02.focalink.com

...

ads34.focalink.com
ads35.focalink.com
w25.hitbox.com
www.hostreview.com
adforce.imgis.com
ad.linksynergy.com
ads.msn.com
ads.mysimon.com
server3.pennyweb.com
adserver.ugo.com
oz.valueclick.com
www.virtuads.com
a32.g.a.yimg.com
a372.g.a.yimg.com
us.a1.yimg.com

It's also a good idea to add in some of the 'nasty' sites the trolls post on /. (like goatse.cx), so if you accidentally click on such a link, you'll just get an error message instead of actually seeing the page.

-- Sig (120 chars) --
Your friendly neighborhood mIRC scripter.

Re:One way...

[anticypher]

What simple program can be run on windoze boxes to give a null response to all requests on 127.0.0.1? I know how to do it on my linux boxes, it's called apache (ok, so its not a simple little program, but it works)

I've tried a few free and shareware simple web servers, but none of them are configurable enough to always return a 1x1 clear gif pixel to any request. Mostly they just sit there and eventually time out, which slows browsing to a crawl, especially on the cascaded pages which wait until all banner ads have been fetched before rendering the whole page.

the AC

Useful links

[Hooha Man]

[http://www.idcide.com] - an add-on for IE (not 5.5, yet) which informs you if the site you are visiting uses a tracking network. Also prevents cookies leaving your computer. Warning: this program sometimes causes IE to crash when I close the IE window. Nothing else crashes, and it's never crashed when actually in use. There should be a version for IE 5.5 and Netscape soon.

[http://grc.com] Steve Gibson's pages. Lots of cool stuff, including information on how ad companies are abusing the privacy of net users.

[http://lavasoft.de] Look for 'Ad-Aware' - IMO the best spyware remover (see Steve Gibson's pages for a description).

[http://homestead.deja.com/user.raymarron/] Hostess, a useful Windows app to aid adding entries to the hosts file.

[http://accs-net.com/hosts/] Info on using the hosts file. Has an example hosts file.

[http://accs-net.com/smallfish/] Excellent privacy site, links and info.


I'd post my hosts file but it currently has 7225 entries.

<O O&gt
( \/ )
X X

Squid

[booch]

You can set up Squid to filter them out. I'm not sure of the details, but I know that it isn't too difficult. As an added bonus, Squid also speeds up many web pages, because its primary function is as a web cache and proxy.

You can also set up ipchains to filter out certain IP addresses.

Re:Squid

[Sloppy]

You can do it with Squid by using a redirector like Sleezeball. It's very slick, and in my case, it ended up replacing JunkBuster.

---

Long term solution:

[rjamestaylor]

Don't click them.

They'll die on their own (as they are beginning to do, if you've noticed that dot-commers with business models based on page view ad sales...are in the outs investment-wise).

Another way: don't keep silent when your company uses them on its web sites -- complain loudly...

Anybody else think this is a strange topic for Slash-banner-ad-revenue-model-Dot?

hmmm...Well, it hasn't made front page...

Now hiring experienced client- & server-side developers

Re:Long term solution:

[Kris_J]

Anybody else think this is a strange topic for Slash-banner-ad-revenue-model-Dot?

Yes, although I suspect that the trained mammals are actively trying to find another revenue model as I type. I think we need an Ask Slashdot about the next internet revenue model after banner ads. I favour a subscription model or "product placement" (something like Deja has been trying -- eg; turn the word "Pepsi" in a message into an affiliate link to Pepsi Co.)

And my suggestion for a filtering windows package is Proxomitron -- works best with IE5.x so you can disable javascript errors (it kicks up a few).

IE's security zones

[scotpurl]

I tend to add the "banned" sites to my list of Restricted Sites in IE. Not perfect, and I still see the banner ads -- but no cookies, no doubleclick activex controls, etc.

Not slick, I know, but hey, might be of use to someone....

A neat trick for those behind proxies.

[brad.hill]

You can create an autoconfig file in JavaScript and tell your browser to bypass the proxy for ad sites, thus using your firewall for an ad blocker. The only problem is that you have to load the JavaScript code ad sites want to send you. Browsers degrade a page gracefully if they can't find an image, but they usually fail hard if they can't find a bit of JavaScript code.

Here's an example file. Save it as any filename you like, and set it as the location of your "Automatic Proxy Configuration" in your browser of choice.

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {
//If only a hostname, go directly.
if (isPlainHostName(host)) {
return "DIRECT";
}

// Remove a few ads
if (
(
url.indexOf("/RealMedia/") > 0
|| url.indexOf("ads.x10.com") > 0
|| url.indexOf("ads3.zdnet.com") > 0
|| url.indexOf("/ads/") > 0
|| url.indexOf("/Ads/") > 0
|| url.indexOf("/adverts/") > 0
|| url.indexOf("/adserver/") > 0
|| ( dnsDomainIs( host,"doubleclick.net") && url.indexOf("/adj/") == -1)
|| dnsDomainIs( host,"focalink.com")
|| dnsDomainIs( host,"adbureau.net")
|| dnsDomainIs( host,"ads.imgis.com")
|| dnsDomainIs( host,"ad.preferences.com")
|| dnsDomainIs( host,"view.avenuea.com")
)
&& url.indexOf(".js") == -1
&& url.indexOf("jx.ads") == -1
&& url.indexOf("js.ng") == -1
&& url.indexOf("jsad") == -1
&& url.indexOf("jscript") == -1
&& url.indexOf("addyn") == -1
&& url.indexOf("type=script") == -1
)
{
return "DIRECT";
}
else
{
return "PROXY /*Your proxy addr and port here*/";
}
}

Better link for Junkbuster

[Pseudonymus Bosch]

While the link in the article to Junkbusters is good, development seems to have stopped.

You can get a better version with updated blocklists and more Windows-looking from Stefan Waldherr.
__

Not loading image == No cookies

[whatnotever]

The program you mentioned will also not accept cookies from the ad sites, most likely. The cookies get sent in the HTTP headers whenever the browser requests an ad banner. If the banner isn't requested, the cookies won't get sent.

Incidentally, I'm writing a simple win32 program that employs the javascript-proxy-autoconfig method. Netscape automatically asks localhost, port 10401 (who knows where that came from...) for an ad, and my program happily returns a 1x1 transparent gif. It's amazingly simple, yet powerful... The program isn't quite fit for public consumption, really, and there are many other things out there that do the same trick, I'm sure...

Do a google search for "proxy autoconfig block banner ads" or similar things, and you'll find plenty.

Re:Mozilla has the anwser

[blakestah]

Yes, mozilla really is constructed to "do the right thing".

A web browser should be constructed to benefit the user. Mozilla allows you to selectively block ads from sites without prompting you over and over again. It also allows the same flexibility in dealing with cookies.

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that every web browser shouldn't have this simple capability built in. Except that the consumer has not demanded it, and there seems to be a bit of a monopoly on Windoze/Mac web browsers.

Mozilla has the anwser

[Tester]

I now use mozilla as my main browser. The latest nightly build has now reached a level of quality sufficient for most of my browsing. And it has the ability to block the loading of images from certain sites. If there is a banner on a page, just right-click on the banner and chose "Block images from this site". There are actually very few banner serving sites. Doubleclick being everywhere, and I mean really everywhere. there are a few others, but just blocking doubleclick has an enormous effect...

Guidescope sees everywhere you surf

[wa1hco]

Am I the only one that thinks the Guidescope thing is dangerous? They get a message about every site you hit. Do you really trust that their privacy policy as stated today will remain the same? Do you really want a central clearing house with records of your web history subject to subpoena in a lawsuit?

Junkbuster and most of the other suggestions here blocks the stuff you don't want at your own computer, without sending out any info.

Also, how does Guidescope intend to make money? Maybe the Opt-In thing will provide enough revenue because the database has more value to advertisers, but you have to visit their site again to get your ads.

The whole thing feels very strange. I suspect it's an advertising/marketing thing to lull users into a false sense of security.

Out! Out! Damn banner!

[ptbrown]

I've been using Proxomitron in Windows for some time know. It can parse HTTP headers as well as content. I prefer it to firewall-based solutions since I can bypass the filtering with just a click in the system tray.

For Mac, you can use iCab (as mentioned but not named in the article). To add filtering to any Mac browser, there's WebFree(68k) or WebWasher(PPC)

But if you really want to kill 100% of annoying banner ads, use Lynx, w3m, links, or (Mac only) WannaBe^2.