If you are like me, while browsing the net, you’ve come across thousands of banner ads. Generally, I am the type of person, that if I want to buy something, I’ll Google it, find it, and purchase it. I rarely if ever actually pay attention to those annoying bandwidth wasting banners that appear on almost every site.
I don’t care that I’m the 1,000,000th visitor to a particular domain, especially since I was the 1,000,000th visitor to the same domain, just yesterday! I don’t want to buy generic Viughra, and I don’t need to enlarge my hoohah.
Come on, there has got to be an easy way to prevent this garbage from hitting my computer.
There is! And it is surprisingly simple to do – and it’s free!
Step 1: The HOSTS File.
The HOSTS File.
This is accomplished by using the HOSTS file. The HOSTS file contains the mappings of IP Addresses to host names. The file is loaded at OSX/Windows Startup, and OSX/Windows checks the HOSTS file BEFORE it looks to your ISP to find the site. Editing the HOSTS file prevents access to the outside sites by redirecting traffic back to your own computer.
The location on OSX: /private/etc/hosts
The location on Windows: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
Step 2: Make your choice how to continue
- Create your own list or you can also download a full list of all your needs Here
- Copy list below
See below additional the complete list to block these ad server sites:
Just copy and paste them in to your Host file.
Step 3: The Host file itself:
Click on the link below to download the file
After you edited the host file go to the last step 4
Step 4:
Flushing you DNS
OSX:
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder; say cache flushed
Windows:
- Click Start.
- Enter cmd in the Start menu search text box.
- Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.
- Run the following command: ipconfig /flushdns.
- Ready restart your computer.
* It can block applications (viruses, Trojans, downloaders) from accessing specific sites, by redirecting any (would be) outgoing communication back to your own computer, preventing it from accessing whatever material it was trying to get.
- It also blocks the ad servers from tracking your movements – in many cases the banner ad would open a separate connection to your computer, which is active even after you leave the banner’s page. This connection reports all the cookies you send, even to other unrelated sites. Yikes!
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It can speed the loading of pages, by skipping the animated GIF files, hit counters, annoying ads, and can block data miners from ever seeing your IP address, and tracking you on the net.
Happy browsing with no more annoying ads
