SergioFromRio
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For those of you who dont already know sites such as DoubleClick.net, and many others display advertisements for hundreds of thousands of websites. This seems reasonable at first, but what many people dont realize is these sites record information about you (specifically every site that you've ever been to that has an image (advertisement or other) that they host. They sell/share this info with there thousands of clients. For example MSN.com may know that you also visit Playboy.com, or About.com may know you visit IHateAbout.com ... you get the idea.
If this doesn't bother you then read no further. If on the other hand youd prefer to protect your privacy heres a quick and simple way to do so without downloading/installing any software.
These instructions are for Windows, however similar things can be done on Mac and Linux ... if anyone wants to know how let me know and I'll look up the details for those OSs.
Quick Note of Warning: following these instructions will cause ocasional frames of webpages to show "Page not available" or similar. This will in most cases not affect the data on the pages you want, it will only block advertisements such as banner adds from showing up on your pages. All changes can be reverted easily and painlessly.
Step by step instructions:
1) Search your system for a file called hosts (in Windows XP Pro it is located at c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc) You may need to go into advanced options on your search screen and select search system folders and Search hidden files and folders to find this file.
2) Once you have located this file make a backup copy of it incase you want to revert your changes!!
3) Open the hosts file (choose select program from list, then choose notepad).
4) At the bottom of this file add the following lines exactly as you see below:
You can find out what each of the sites above are at the following URL:
http://accs-net.com/smallfish/advc.htm.
What are we doing here?
we are telling your computer that the websites listed above are actually on your computer rather than on the internet. To be more specific 127.0.0.1 always refers to your own computer, then there is a tab and the name of the site you want to block/redirect
So whenever you try to go to a blocked site your computer thinks it should check yourself and finds nothing.
Give it a try, like say as long as you back up the file (copy it to a file called hosts.bak or somthing similar) you have nothing to loose (except some adds).
If this doesn't bother you then read no further. If on the other hand youd prefer to protect your privacy heres a quick and simple way to do so without downloading/installing any software.
These instructions are for Windows, however similar things can be done on Mac and Linux ... if anyone wants to know how let me know and I'll look up the details for those OSs.
Quick Note of Warning: following these instructions will cause ocasional frames of webpages to show "Page not available" or similar. This will in most cases not affect the data on the pages you want, it will only block advertisements such as banner adds from showing up on your pages. All changes can be reverted easily and painlessly.
Step by step instructions:
1) Search your system for a file called hosts (in Windows XP Pro it is located at c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc) You may need to go into advanced options on your search screen and select search system folders and Search hidden files and folders to find this file.
2) Once you have located this file make a backup copy of it incase you want to revert your changes!!
3) Open the hosts file (choose select program from list, then choose notepad).
4) At the bottom of this file add the following lines exactly as you see below:
Code:
127.0.0.1 www.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 adds.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 www.doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 adds.doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 123banners.com
127.0.0.1 www.123banners.com
127.0.0.1 adforce.com
127.0.0.1 www.adforce.com
127.0.0.1 imgis.com
127.0.0.1 www.imgis.com
127.0.0.1 advertising.com
127.0.0.1 www.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 teknosurf.com
127.0.0.1 www.teknosurf.com
127.0.0.1 appnet.com
127.0.0.1 www.appnet.com
127.0.0.1 www.i33.com
127.0.0.1 avenuea.com
127.0.0.1 www.avenuea.com
127.0.0.1 iballs.com
127.0.0.1 www.iballs.com
127.0.0.1 befree.com
127.0.0.1 www.befree.com
127.0.0.1 bluestreak.com
127.0.0.1 www.bluestreak.com
127.0.0.1 burstmedia.com
127.0.0.1 www.burstmedia.com
127.0.0.1 burstnet.com
127.0.0.1 www.burstnet.com
127.0.0.1 cj.com
127.0.0.1 www.cj.com
127.0.0.1 www.track4.com
127.0.0.1 www.cyberreps.com
127.0.0.1 www.engage.com
127.0.0.1 engage.com
127.0.0.1 extreme-dm.com
127.0.0.1 www.extreme-dm.com
127.0.0.1 l90.com
127.0.0.1 www.l90.com
127.0.0.1 stats.net
127.0.0.1 www.stats.net
127.0.0.1 www.counted.com
127.0.0.1 www.counted.de
127.0.0.1 valueclick.com
127.0.0.1 www.valueclick.com
127.0.0.1 websidestory.com
127.0.0.1 www.websidestory.com
127.0.0.1 fastclick.netYou can find out what each of the sites above are at the following URL:
http://accs-net.com/smallfish/advc.htm.
What are we doing here?
we are telling your computer that the websites listed above are actually on your computer rather than on the internet. To be more specific 127.0.0.1 always refers to your own computer, then there is a tab and the name of the site you want to block/redirect
So whenever you try to go to a blocked site your computer thinks it should check yourself and finds nothing.
Give it a try, like say as long as you back up the file (copy it to a file called hosts.bak or somthing similar) you have nothing to loose (except some adds).
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