26 replies to this topic

[grabacontroller]

How do you block ads in Opera? They said that Opera 9 has a built in ad blocker but I don't see it.

[rridgely]

Yeah its a little hidden and not very developed,meaning you cant download filters you have to manually add in everything you want to block.
Go to tools>Advanced>Blocked Content and then you enter in the things you want to add. Or you can right click and choose to block it.

The easiest way to block ads is to use a host file. Then you can block all ads automatically in all browsers.

Look at this:
http://www.mvps.org/...p2002/hosts.htm

Follow all the directions to install it and prevent slow down.

[grabacontroller]

Ah I'll just use Ad Muncher from http://admuncher.com which blocks ads in Opera, IE, and Firefox for a one time fee of $25.

[rridgely]

If you have money to blow than go for it. But the host file uses no ram and is free.

[Tarun]

Here's a couple of recommended things from the Opera website.

Opera AdBlock

Download this file and save it as urlfilter.ini in the Opera profile directory. On a windows XP machine, that will most probably be at C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Opera\Opera\Profile

Leave the HOSTS file alone. It is NOT meant to block ads.

[rridgely]

Tarun, on Jul 22 2006, 11:01 PM, said:

Here's a couple of recommended things from the Opera website.

Opera AdBlock

Download this file and save it as urlfilter.ini in the Opera profile directory. On a windows XP machine, that will most probably be at C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Opera\Opera\Profile

Cool link! I didn't think about looking around in the opera file for the filter list. I guess I was just too lazy.(didn't really like opera much anyway.) I wonder why they wouldn't include this in the GUI like adblock. Oh well at least they made it possible this time.

Quote

Leave the HOSTS file alone. It is NOT meant to block ads.

Nope, almost every major pc/security site endorses the idea of using a host file for protection and adblocking. I don't know why exactly your against it but it does work. If its the DNS Client debate that exclusivly makes you not like the idea then fine but I don't think that most users care about that. The first time they open IE and no longer see ads all over the place will outweigh the extra .5 seconds it might take to load a page.

[Tarun]

rridgely, on Jul 22 2006, 11:22 PM, said:

Nope, almost every major pc/security site endorses the idea of using a host file for protection and adblocking. I don't know why exactly your against it but it does work. If its the DNS Client debate that exclusivly makes you not like the idea then fine but I don't think that most users care about that. The first time they open IE and no longer see ads all over the place will outweigh the extra .5 seconds it might take to load a page.

It's another "prefetch cleaning is good" thing.

[rridgely]

Tarun, on Jul 22 2006, 11:38 PM, said:

It's another "prefetch cleaning is good" thing.

Are you trying to tell me that you've submitted to the Mastertech school of computing.
No seriously though his site is about the only one that I can find that dosen't recommend the host file.

But I guess if we are going to go buy the "prefetch cleaning is good thing," then I can say that I notice no difference wether I clean my prefetch or not. But I do notice a difference when I open up IE on a computer that I stuck the host file on.

[JohnDemolition]

grabacontroller, on Jul 22 2006, 07:03 PM, said:

Ah I'll just use Ad Muncher from http://admuncher.com which blocks ads in Opera, IE, and Firefox for a one time fee of $25.

AdMuncher is freeware

[rridgely]

JohnDemolition, on Jul 23 2006, 01:29 AM, said:

AdMuncher is freeware

I dont think so..
http://admuncher.com/register.shtml

[JohnDemolition]

hmm. i thought it was. oh well

[Glenn]

JohnDemolition, on Jul 23 2006, 12:29 AM, said:

AdMuncher is freeware

30-day free trial, US$24.95 thereafter

[Tarun]

rridgely, on Jul 22 2006, 11:44 PM, said:

Are you trying to tell me that you've submitted to the Mastertech school of computing.
No seriously though his site is about the only one that I can find that dosen't recommend the host file.

But I guess if we are going to go buy the "prefetch cleaning is good thing," then I can say that I notice no difference wether I clean my prefetch or not. But I do notice a difference when I open up IE on a computer that I stuck the host file on.

Well, if you've looked over his pages recently, most of his information is actually correct.

Large Hosts Files also cause Internet related slowdowns. Oh, was what Microsoft said not enough fact for you? Apparently not. Time to enroll in tech school kiddo.

Information Week - Server Pipeline said:

The Hosts file is an archaic part of networking setups that was originally meant to be used on a LAN; it tells a PC the fixed numeric address of the internal server(s)--the LAN Host(s)--so the PC doesn't have to go looking for them through all possible addresses. It can save time when "discovering" a LAN.

But the Hosts file can be used for other purposes, too. For example, some less-than-stellar Internet speed-up software tries to shave a few fractions of a second off an Internet connection by placing the numeric address of external Web sites in the Hosts file so a Web browser won't have to look up the addresses externally. This works--as long as the site's numeric IP address never changes.

But IP addresses do change--and they're supposed to be able to. The Web operates via "dynamic" naming, where a human-friendly name (e.g., "informationweek.com") is actually an alias for the real address, which is numeric (in this example, 66.77.24.10). The numeric address can and will change from time to time as a site or server is moved or reconfigured.

People with out-of-date addresses hardwired into their hosts file will no longer be able to connect to any site whose numeric address has changed--the hosts entry will permanently point them to a dead location!

In fact, the hosts file is sometimes abused this way by hijacking software that writes a new, fake hosts file onto a system, substituting a bad numeric address (such as a porn site) for common locations such as Microsoft.com, Yahoo.com, Google.com, and so on: When a user tries to access any of the sites in the fake host file, they're redirected to the new site, such as the porn page.

Some "security" software tries to hijack the Hosts file in a benign way; and users can do it on their own as well: You use the Hosts file to associate a known-safe, numeric address with the names of sites you want to block. When the user or any process on the PC then tries to access a blocked site, it is instead directed to the safe location.

This works, but runs into the same problem as mentioned previously: A Hosts file is static, and the Web is extremely dynamic. It's almost impossible to update a Hosts file frequently enough to guard against all threats; and even if you did, you'd probably also run into problems in accidentally blocking good sites that happened to move to new numeric addresses.

There's lots more information on Hosts file abuse here, but I don't recommend its use for anything other than the original, and now archaic, purpose for which it was intended. Anything else is a misuse of the Hosts files, and runs a high risk of causing unnecessary service calls in the future when the user can't connect to some valid site they want to get to.

Source...

Does it make sense yet?

Microsoft HOSTS file said:

# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.

It's not made to block ads. So don't be stupid when it comes to the HOSTS file. Use it sparingly, only to block certain websites that ABSOLUTELY HAVE to be blocked. Why are HOSTS files being used to block ads all over the net? Because uneducated people with no technical experience at all go around propagating that it's a good thing, but it is not. Even Microsoft has said how the misuse of the HOSTS file can and will slow down your computer AND increase network traffic.


As for prefetch, it actually does alter boot time and application load times. If you have it enabled for Boot and App Launch, you get applications loading much, much faster.

[Jawbax]

Ta for the Ad-Muncher link

[Andavari]

Tarun, on Jul 23 2006, 03:05 PM, said:

Why are HOSTS files being used to block ads all over the net? Because uneducated children with no technical experience at all (such as yourself) go around propagating that it's a good thing, but it is not. Even Microsoft has said how the misuse of the HOSTS file can and will slow down your computer AND increase network traffic.

Yeah but the article you quoted is talking about IP addresses, not URL's, however I myself don't like the concept of blocking IP addresses because eventually it does lead to a problem.
The line in your quote that's in red (and another incident - wouldn't you like to know) has pretty much made me make up my mind on you - wouldn't you like to know that too? I'm not telling.

[hazelnut]

It is about time that people who put their opinions on this forum are not ridiculed by others. Calling people uneducated children because they don't happen to have the same opinions as yourself is a bit below the belt.
This is a forum, not a playground.

[rridgely]

Wow, it must make you feel really good to try and insult me every time we don't agree on something. I would care if it didn't always backfire and in turn make you look childish and petty. Don't insult me again, I promise you wont like what I post next.

As andavari already stated hosts files like the MVPS Hosts don't block IP addresses they block URL's. The article you quoted uses the same type of logic that we seem to run into a lot on the internet. The "more secure" vs "secure" debate. It seems to think since the Hosts file can't block all bad sites(too many) then you shouldn't use it at all. This as we know could go for about everything on computers and if we went by that logic we would never use any software. About potential slowdown, well I havent noticed any. I even downloaded fasterfox and disabled all of its features except the site load timer so that I could test how fast sites are loading with and without the hosts file and there was no real difference.

http://www.bleepingc...tutorial51.html
http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-045.htm
http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Hosts_file
http://www.castlecop...nested-0-0.html

http://wiki.castlecops.com/Malware_Prevent...nt_Re-infection
http://accs-net.com/...hosts.html(this site found on above link)

These are some of the most respected sites on the internet. But I guess they are all just run by uneducated children.

[Andavari]

Furthermore...

Information was taken from MVPS.org:
http://www.mvps.org/...02/hostsfaq.htm

Editing the HOSTS file

• IP addresses are invalid as HOSTS file entries. (re: 127.0.0.1 123.456.78.9)

[JohnDemolition]

can somebody split this topic or something? the topic is supposed to be about Opera's Ad Blocker and not about the HOSTS file. this discussion is just silly when i look at it.

[Tarun]

I guess for some of you, it really is that hard to comprehend what Microsoft said about HOSTS files. That's pretty sad that you wouldn't investigate it at the very source. The place where the people who MADE this stuff would KNOW about it for certain.

Now, here's the really funny part. I cite Microsoft KBs as my sources. Obviously they know how the HOSTS file works best. Everyone else cites unofficial websites that are merely speculating how the HOSTS files work. They tell you a load of crap because they want you to use their HOSTS file to block ads and other stuff that really does not need to be blocked. Steve Gibson of GRC doesn't understand this at all. This is why he too is laughed at by so many from the tech support world. If they knew how to use them properly, you would not see them being used for ad-blocking.

Many of you also continue to talk about URLs. Well, what do you think typing www.google.com does? It contacts a DNS server to get an IP address. That's just like you looking up a store in the phone book to get the phone number. URL's are just a user-friendly name that redirects you to the Google website's IP address. The Internet operates via "dynamic" naming, where a human friendly name (www.google.com) is actually an alias for the real address, which is numeric. Pretty easy, isn't it?

rridgely, on Jul 24 2006, 10:21 AM, said:

As andavari already stated hosts files like the MVPS Hosts don't block IP addresses they block URL's.

No, that's incorrect. A HOSTS file doesn't block URLs. It redirects them to a specified IP address.

Example. Google's IP address is 64.233.161.104. In your HOSTS file, if you want to be redirected to Google by typing in say pwned.com. So in your HOSTS file you would have the following:
64.233.161.104 pwned.com
Now, when you type pwned.com you are redirected to Google's website. That is what a HOSTS file is for, and that is what it is meant to do.

If you block ads by making them redirect to localhost (that is the IP of 127.0.0.1 which is in the HOSTS file as a redirect also), they will continue to try and connect to your localhost, instead of simply being stopped from loading. They will try to load roughly three times or more before they finally give up. Is this really that hard to understand?

HOSTS files are also not meant to block malware. Using a special HOSTS file to block ads or malware is false security and a waste. Malware can very easily modify your HOSTS file, even if you set it to read only. Frequently malware can edit your HOSTS file to redirect your browser to other unwanted websites. The CoolWebSearch hijackers are masters of altering your read-only HOSTS file. It even says so on Merijns website (see below). Malware can also redirect Windows to use a HOSTS File that has nothing to do with the one you keep updating.


At the top of Merjin's website on the frontpage.

Quote

Can't reach this page from a CWS infected computer? Try using http://216.180.233.1...rijn/index.html.

Also, under his download page.

Quote

Did you get here from Cool-search.net, Linklist.cc, Drxcount.biz, Real-yellow-page.com, List2004.com?
If you got directed here from Cool-search or another Coolwebsearch domain, please understand that I did not create Coolwebsearch or put it onto your browser . The information you have is FALSE.

I provide a free service here to help people remove a trojan from their system, and naturally the people who created the trojan don't like that and try to discredit me. Don't believe everything you read.

If you still don't trust me enough to allow me to help you, take your matters elsewhere and try other antispyware tools.

Unable to download?
If you are unable to download any of the files here and are redirected to a porn page, search page or just denied access to the file, try these alternate links that should always work:

HijackThis direct download: http://216.180.233.1.../HijackThis.exe

The redirection is probably because of a Coolwebsearch variant (CWS.Aff.Tooncomics or CWS.Dreplace) that intercepts your download to prevent downloading my programs.

How did it intercept the download? The HOSTS file that it alters. HOSTS files are not meant to be used for ad blocking or added security, because they can very easily be overwritten; even if set to read-only.

To further your education, you can read the following:
Microsoft TCP/IP Host Name Resolution Order - A very good read that teaches you how the HOSTS file truly works and is meant to function.
The History of DNS
Differences Between the HOSTS and LMHOSTS Files in Windows NT

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.