Software?

[FordNut]

Alright, I've just about had it with all the stupid ads. I'm not talking about mm.net, but a lot of the other forums I go to are pretty bad. What gets me is even yahoo mail is overtaken with ads now. Half the time I can't even open messages because it takes so long for the ads to download.

So, I was at a restaurant a little while back that had the Barracuda web filter, it did a great job of blocking ads. It was great, pages downloaded so fast they just popped up immediately instead of having to wait for all the animated ads to download. A little message from the Barracuda system was displayed in the spot that the ad would have been.

The question, is there any software that you can install to do the same thing or does it require the hardware/software solution? If not, that's a business opportunity that somebody needs to pursue.

[Stoneblue]

What browser? I'm on RR with Firefox and only Netflix pops up/under actually.
I suspect you've either a malware infestation or a toolbar that is causing your problem. Check CNET.com for an ad blocker that they recommend. PM me if you need more help. See ya'

[FordNut]

IE6, it's not popups it's the ads that are integral with the webpage. Not a big deal when I'm using high speed, but most of the time I'm on dialup. It's 28.8-31.2k most of the time, sometimes I can get a blazing 44k connection. At those speeds the ads eat up all the bandwidth. New web developers assume everybody has high speed, I'd like to be able to just filter all their garbage out.

[Stoneblue]

Try Google Chrome its a minimalist browser, and read Last Pass on this page http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10416103-12.html?tag=contentMain;conten tBody

It's a lot less verbose than I and some would say much more pleasant! See ya'

[ImpalaSlayer]

on fire fox i have an addon called adblock plus. takes away all that dumb crap

[Stoneblue]

Yes. Use Adblock plus but not adblock+

[FordNut]

Sounds like I've gotta switch browsers and get a couple of addons, Adblock plus and Flashblock. I really don't care for tab-based browsing but I guess there's not much choice. I'd like to get those two programs for IE, but I'd probably have to upgrade to a newer version of IE to use them anyway.

Downloads are a PITA, most patches are 20 Mb or more these days, do you know how long that takes to download on dialup?

[ImpalaSlayer]

Sounds like I've gotta switch browsers and get a couple of addons, Adblock plus and Flashblock. I really don't care for tab-based browsing but I guess there's not much choice. I'd like to get those two programs for IE, but I'd probably have to upgrade to a newer version of IE to use them anyway.

Downloads are a PITA, most patches are 20 Mb or more these days, do you know how long that takes to download on dialup?


i didnt like the tabs at first either but you get used to it. things run much better on on FF then IE. as for your downloads on dial up, no clue.

[FordNut]

as for your downloads on dial up, no clue.

They never finish, the dialup ISP disconnects after 3 hours.

[ImpalaSlayer]

They never finish, the dialup ISP disconnects after 3 hours.

is high speed not available in your area?

[FordNut]

Not at a reasonable price. Charter Cable has a monopoly where I'm at. No DSL available either.

[ImpalaSlayer]

ouch, ever thought of satellite? it worked pretty good for us untill cable was available. only thing that it fail at was online gaming because of the delay from earth to space

[FordNut]

ouch, ever thought of satellite? it worked pretty good for us untill cable was available. only thing that it fail at was online gaming because of the delay from earth to space

Nah. Not into gaming, dialup is ok except for all the new advertising content on most websites. And software updates take forever so I just don't do it.

[Stoneblue]

If you have a USB flash drive carry it to a friend's home and download the desired files to it. On broadband it should take only a moment or two, carry it home and install from the flash drive. This is how I cut my time down at customers' homes. Or if you are using a laptop, take it over to said friend's home and install directly to laptop.

[BobC]

Not at a reasonable price. Charter Cable has a monopoly where I'm at. No DSL available either.

I get very good speed with the DSL from ATT. I got rid of Charter after I bought 3 HD TV's and found that Charter's bandwidth allowed for something like 6 HD channels.

I got DirectTV and have been very happy with it - except during storms. :lol:

[252life]

Firefox + Adblock Plus and No Script

And for e-mail, Gmail is the best IMO

[dohc324ci]

Brian most web pages are optimized for high speed internet DSL or higher. I cant even remember what dialup feels like anymore its been so long LOL. I REALLY feel for you though. If DSL is not available look for 3G if available in your area like ATT or Verizon? You can get dsl speeds 1.5mbps downloads. I would highly recommend going that route.

Brian

[B.C. Bake]

I don't get it , what's wrong with internet explorer? I have used it along time, about 10 yrs+. Am I missing something "everything works perfect" or am I'm getting hosed or something, fill me in please?:confused:

[FordNut]

I don't get it , what's wrong with internet explorer? I have used it along time, about 10 yrs+. Am I missing something "everything works perfect" or am I'm getting hosed or something, fill me in please?:confused:

At the suggestions posted in this thread I've been looking into it...

IE is proprietary and the way it is written you pretty much have to rebuild it to add in features such as Adblock plus and Flashblock. FireFox and Chrome are written in open source code and these features can be loaded as add-in applications. So with IE you're pretty much stuck with the ads all over the internet these days, but with FireFox or Chrome you can block them before they download. That should save a lot of bandwidth for useful information to download. I'm gonna try it.

[babbage]

Brian you are not stuck with ads, you need to find a list there are many on the net. No software is needed. This is totally free. Firefox is a better browser, unless you visit a site done with .asp (save IE for these)

You merely need to edit your hosts file. On Windows this file is: c:\windows\system32\drivers\et c\hosts

Cut and paste the hosts file from here for starters:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2009/hosts.txt

When you computer renders a webpage the Ads have their own name (e.g. ad.doubleclick.net) your computer has to look those up to find them, when you utilize the hosts file you are overriding external name resolution. This is what the barracuda device does -- it forces the name resolution to local host, which doesn't load anything. (No Ads, No banners) The connection is never made so the page loads much faster.


--Your welcome!

[FordNut]

Cut and paste the hosts file from here for starters:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2009/hosts.txt


File not found?

[babbage]

File not found?

My Bad.

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt

[FordNut]

It's better now. But I also updated FireFox and added AdBlock plus and FlashBlock to it. Trying to get used to it, there are some IE features I wish it had. Since I'm using both, does that make me ambidextrious? or bilingual?

[offroadkarter]

Switch to firefox and get ad block plus, it blocks all advertisements, and if one happens to get by, you can right click and block it and it will save the URL in the list so it doesn't pop up again


Edit: I should really read the whole thread


What features of IE are you missing on firefox? I bet they are in addon form

[FordNut]

Address bar functionality. In FireFox it displays every website visited, even thru links. In IE it only displays the ones you specifically selected in the address bar. I use it as a single click quick link to sites I visit regularly. If I use favorites or google search it takes more effort and it's harder to find the website names.

[offroadkarter]

Address bar functionality. In FireFox it displays every website visited, even thru links. In IE it only displays the ones you specifically selected in the address bar. I use it as a single click quick link to sites I visit regularly. If I use favorites or google search it takes more effort and it's harder to find the website names.

I've found it easier this way, if you type in say "marauder" it will show you every url you've visited with marauder in it... If you click the down arrow with nothing in there it pulls up your most visited pages...


Just start adding bookmarks and your favorite pages to the bookmark toolbar, it makes things much faster than typing :)

[babbage]

You have a ton of crap in your IE Brian. Download crapcleaner aka CCLEANER

Run that once in a while.

[ckadiddle]

My Bad.

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt

Neato! I glanced through that list - it will not only save you downloading adverts, but cut down somewhat on spyware/malware exposure too. I am going to try that out. Thanks for posting!

[RacerX]

BTW. For those that do get infected, combofix, malwarebytes, a2squared then superantispyware will nuke just about everything. Worse case scenario, pull the infected drive, add to a known good system with UPDATED and active antivirus/antispyware software. You may have to boot in safe mode, right click on the infected hard drive, click properties, security, advanced, owner, administrators, check replace ownership, apply, scan drive when done. You must take over the drive competely.