February 21, 2003

Block Web Ads With Host File

I was reading my subscription to PC Magazine this morning and came across an article on Blocking Web Ads using the windows host file (you can find an online version of it here.) I've never heard of this being done before and everyone I've asked about it today hasn't heard of it either.

If you do a search on Google for "ad blocking hosts file windows" as the article suggests you come up with over 7000 results! Its more than a little daunting to try to pick one out of all those results.

Has anyone done this? Who's host file do you use? I bet I could come up with a pretty comprehensive one myself if I could find the time.

Posted in Computing & Tech News by usrbingeek at 2003-02-21 22:47 ET (GMT-5) | 3 Comments | Permalink

Comments

Been using HOST files to block ads for well over a year now, works great at home and at school where my students tend to click on ads all the times. I also use the HOST files to stop students from going to AOL.com, it redirects to Google :)

I use the file created by Hostess 2.10

Posted by: Lynne at February 22, 2003 06:55 PM

Yep, I've done it in the past. Basically, you are redirecting a bunch of URL's to 127.0.0.1 - which is your computer. So when the browser tries to load doubleclick,net or whatever, the address it goes to is 127.0.0.1 - which is nowhere. I had a problem with the browser locking up on some sites because of it - but that may have just been a Win 98 issue. Pick a hosts file that looks good and cut and paste it into yours. If you are an IE person you can also do the same thing by dropping the list into the restricted zone in your browser security settings.

Posted by: Chris at February 25, 2003 04:54 PM

I got the my hostfile from kazaalite.com (back when it was still around) It has about 700 lines of 'redirected' sites.

Every now and then I add a new ad site to the list. VERY HANDY!!!

Posted by: Don at February 27, 2003 09:20 AM