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AdTrap Aims To Block All Internet Advertising In Hardware
cylonlover writes "AdTrap is a new low-power, zero configuration device which promises to banish adverts from computers, tablets, and anything else connected to the local network. AdTrap's creators point out that their device works not only with full-sized PCs, but everything else connected to your home internet, such as Apple devices running iOS 6 – and without the need of third-party apps or jailbreaking. In addition to blocking web browser ads, AdTrap is also reported to remove ads from streaming devices like Apple TV and Google TV. A configurable 'whitelist' is offered too, so that users can allow adverts on websites of their choice."
This is why I place ads on the main page of my websites and you can only view content from the popups.
Make them indistinguishable from a normal .png or a piece of text. Or is there some technical reason why this can't be done?
Lo and behold, for I am a sig!
Already does this.. for free.. http://www.howtogeek.com/51477/how-to-remove-advertisements-with-pixelserv-on-dd-wrt/
Why would that matter? Do you really think it is inspecting the packets to do this?
I am betting it is just dropping traffic from known advertising domains.
First, someone is going to Sue them for some asinine reason, based on loss of revenue, or some such nonsense.
Second, Product Placement will become the advertisement of choice, since it's a lot more difficult to remove or block. On websites, it'll be background wallpaper, or in the motif. You want placement? Better pay what it's worth to a site, series or production!
After all, the Ad companies, "need" to bombard us with their dreck, or we won't feel the need to rush out and buy it.
You know, like Cigarettes.
Oh, wait. Those ads were all banned ages ago, and Look at how that worked.
Just sayin'
Presumably even encrypted communication has to come from a url, which is how most adblockers identify ads.
For me, the ads aren't really the problem on webpages any longer. It's the awful cluttered formatting. Every article I read lately has several breaks in the text for unrelated videos or headlines for other articles, and 1/4 to 1/3 of the right side of the page is just a mess of other crap I'm not interested in. Plus, multi-page articles that are only six or eight paragraphs to begin with, just to get more page impressions. That is a sure way to get me to never visit your site again. I'd really like a browser that just gives me the text that I want to read - I'll even take an old-school banner ad at the top if it gets rid of all of the other crap.
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying. - Woody Allen
Even if the ads are encrypted, if the IP of the ad server is blocked, the ads are not getting across.
My concern about a device like this is that it ups the arms race. Right now, I use Adblock, NoScript, and Ghostery on FF, and "click to play" and Adblock on Chrome without issues. With devices like this, websites will start denying content, similar to an old EQ2 wiki site where I had to use greasemonkey to get around the JavaScript.
Ads are less of a concern for me. The fact that ad servers are a very large source for malware is.
What I don't get is the difference between this device and a transparant proxy. Perhaps it might be good to have the device add a squid cache so it not just blocks IP addresses, but generally speeds up browsing.
From the TFA, I'm guessing this is a BlueCoat-lite device.
The problem isnt advertising. The problem is F***ing obnoxious advertising! FLASHFLASHFLASH HEY THING ITS HEY THING! Or, adservers that lag and wont let the site load. And when they do load, see above. So many flash adds that they crash a browser, or make it unworkable. obnoxious, grating, irritating ads. Id happily unblock adds..Its just when I do, I get ALL THAT again. No matter how long its been. Its like its 2000 still.
It's an Android app that takes any input text and randomly capitalizes and bolds fragments, inserts random punctuation, and then adds large lists of /. internal links to the end.
You can do all that. 250 million non tech sophisticateds can't.
I could write my own browser if I wanted to. You're missng the point.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I work for an IT contracting company, and my co-workers do not have Adblock of any type. They go around on the web, VIEWING ADS. I do not understand it, they know a lot about IT, yet do not sterilize their browsers? Who would do that willingly? One of them even uses IE, ON PURPOSE.
I do not think I will ever understand their logic as to why they do not use Adblock, which, when questioned, results in a shrug.
"as for my mobile devices I could simply blacklist IP addresses and domains at my own router and do everything this box claims to do already"
Now pull yourself out of the Slashdot groupthink and pretend you don't know the difference between a router and a modem (and don't care). This is a box you plug in and it gets rid of a lot of ads. No need to install stuff on every computer, no need to fiddle with black-thingies and I-pee addresses (these Internet people think of such such stupid names).
It would be grand if there was an adblocker where you could whitelist sites _AND_ it still doesn't display the ads. I am fine with a select few sites seeing that I received their ads but they don't have to know that my browser isn't displaying them. The ads can go straight to /dev/null
1. They understand that the web sites and services they want need money to operate, and that money comes from ads. When ads no longer pay the bills (because everyone uses some method to avoid them) those 'free' services will no longer exist. You know why newwpapers are dying - because they are losing their major source of revenue, ads. The same thing will happen with the web. How long do you think Google, for instance, would last without advertising revenue?
2. They don't have a pathological fear of ads
3. They may find some ads actually useful
And it's not a wholly owned subsidiary of The Lumber Cartel, which also does not exist, either.
I know the day that free web content and services dry up because there are no more ad revenue streams, the same people complaining stupidly against ads will want to complain about how the web is now hidden behind pay walls. The irony is that most of you won't be able to voice your opinion because you will refuse to pay to access Slashdot.
Actually, I think many of us might value when that day arrives.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
I know these guys, and none of those are a part of their reasoning. As far as my implied "Pathological fear" of ads, I have none. I simply dislike clutter, and I really hate having to watch an ad before I can watch a video on Youtube.
In a similar vein, on sites I visit the most I use Adblock Element hider to get rid of extra unwanted elements that are meaningless to me. For example, share buttons. I will never share content except maybe on Youtube, thus if I commonly use a website, I will hide the "Sharing pane". It is pointless for me, so I would rather have extra reading space, than have something else drawing my attention away from the main purpose of the site.
And if you are really worried about your point #1, the vast majority of web browsing I do is spent on Google-owned websites, and Slashdot. Google does not need the revenue generated by my adviews, and I contribute often enough on Slashdot that I am "Eligible to disable ads". So I am not worried about preventing the sites I visit from much-needed ad revenue.
I'm not going to purchase the product so I am saving them the bandwidth of trying to sell me something I have no interest in.
Besides ads have become one of the major ways virus and malware are spread these days.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
When ads no longer pay the bills (because everyone uses some method to avoid them) those 'free' services will no longer exist.
:)
The free web predates the commercial web.
You know why newwpapers are dying
Because dead trees have no relevance to the modern world, and what little non-local coverage most of them carry, they buy from a syndication service anyway?
How long do you think Google, for instance, would last without advertising revenue?
Google predates ad-sponsored Google.
They don't have a pathological fear of ads
"Loathing" does not equal "Fear", even if both can happen concurrently while having a bad trip in Las Vegas.
They may find some ads actually useful
Okay, now I know you either count as a troll or work as a PR weenie. Useful ads... Heh... Excuse me, I need to go clean the spewed soda out out of me keyboard now.
When ads no longer pay the bills (because everyone uses some method to avoid them) those 'free' services will no longer exist
Nonsense. When ads no longer pay the bills, people will pay for the services they find useful directly. If they don't, and the service goes away, it must not have been that useful.
This will actually be cheaper than ad funding, because ad funding has to make people buy things they wouldn't, and the ad accounts for a very small proportion of those purchases. Suppose I see an ad on slashdot, buy a widget I don't really need for $100, and $1 comes back to slashdot. Wouldn't I be better off economically if I had just paid $10 to slashdot directly and avoided the ad?
Ad funded websites are not free by any stretch of the imagination.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
but to dismiss the entire advertising industry is wrong
I dismissed the entire ad industry as soon as I got background popup videos that were playing sound, and an ad somewhere near the bottom of a long page that was also playing sound at the same time. At that point, it just became a battle of who could make me hate the internet more, so I decided to surrender and make a blanket statement of "I never want to see another ad again, lest I destroy my computer out of sheer rage".
It is not my fault that sound-based advertisements ruined the entire game for everyone.
Watched the video. It's all about their little hardware box (which is some ARM machine), and says nothing about how it blocks ads. At the wire level, you can certainly apply a domain blocklist, for which there are already many free software tools. That gets rid of many ads, but not all of them.
Some (not yet many) sites resist ad blocking. Some Flash-driven videos won't play if you block their ad server. Some get the ads and the video from the same place. Some ad services have each site create a subdomain (like "ads.example.com") for ad serving, so blocking by second level domain doesn't work. Look at the constantly changing blocklists for AdBlock. The problem is almost as bad as signature-based virus detection. The people with this little box say nothing about this.
The one big advantage this device offers is the ability to block ads on closed systems like Apple products. A big disadvantage is that the device has a backdoor into your data stream and could be an attack vector for eavesdropping.
Try reading and understanding what someone said before firing off an idiotic response.
The free web predates the commercial web.
Yep, didn't say otherwise. What I said was a particular web site/service that a particular user wants to use, and which is currently ad-supported, will no longer exist for free if advertising can't pay the bills. The fact that other, different, free sites and services may exist does not change that fact. The fact that road-kill skunks are freely available does not negate people's desire for a nice juicy steak.
Because dead trees have no relevance to the modern world, and what little non-local coverage most of them carry, they buy from a syndication service anyway?
And how are the syndication services going to exist when there is no-one to buy their services?
Google predates ad-sponsored Google.
Not as a viable long-term entity it didn't. Google only existed ad-free (and losing money) long enough to build market share so the could convince advertisers that is was worth their money to advertise there. P&G also give away free samples of detergent, but that does not mean that just giving away free detergent is a viable long-term strategy.
You are truly an idiot if you think there is no such thing as a useful ad. Either that, or you have no clue what advertising actually is.