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A good way to speed up your internet.

Templarian Arch Sorcerer's picture

Finally being fed up with pages that contain 5 banner ads which always load first completely before the page even starts, some even containing large video clips embedded, I searched for a solution and found one. It appears to work for me.

I came upon a website which details a large list of the most common banner ad and popup ad sites, such as ad.doubleclick.
By adding this large list to your windows host file (also works for most other OS's), and telling it to use 127.0.0.1 for these, they quickly fail if attempting a connection to these sites. Laughing out loud

Then all you need to do is go into your browser's settings and under a window that should say something like "Do not use proxies for", paste the same list in the window.

Voila! I went to a website that I know to have a lot of banners, and they only came up as white rectangles, the website loaded much faster then. Laughing out loud

Here is that website that details on it more.

http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~atman/spam/adblock.shtml

volkan's picture

Looks like a good thing for people on slower machines TAS. Should be helpful to a lot of people.

Templarian Arch Sorcerer's picture

Hehe, speaking of slower machines, I just opened up my machine to clean the fans, and everything was covered in a cm of dust. Shock

Finding dead insects, squirrels, hibernating bears etc. is more worrying. Dust is probably a good insulator.

Abstraction site
Dungeon Raider

Good info, thanks TAS.

-------------------------
Total absence of humor renders life impossible.
Colette

Templarian Arch Sorcerer's picture

UPDATE: A better host file, updated only 9 days ago. Its packed with almost everything annoying or harmful on the entire internet.

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

-The site that this is from: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Note: Large host files will slow down the lookup process. To fix this, turn off the DNS service under services.msc
DNS isn't really nessisary if you are just a home computer or home network.
If you have a laptop from work for example, then the work domain may need DNS, so make sure to turn it back on then.

firebat's picture

Honestly, I don't think this so good at all. I use the adblock plus plug-in for firefox, with some automatic filters. What this does is lock a lot of ads and updates the list from time to time. Also if I visit a website which I want to support by clicking a ad(such as www.3dtotal.com for their great tutorials) I can disable the plug in with the press of a button, this isn't possible if you clock them in your hosts file.

In opera you can also make a list of blocked website, this list will not update automatically but it is still better than blocking them in your host file. Also in KDE(maybe also in gnome, i don't know) you can block them somewhere in your settings(I never got my Internet in linux working here at uni so I can't look now).

Templarian Arch Sorcerer's picture

I only use the host file because it is automatic, down to the primary base communications functions of the computer, so there is no way around it. Filters have the risk of being breached occationally, because it isn't a communication "base", you might say. :P

Plus, that site regularly updates the host file download.

firebat's picture

Templarian Arch Sorcerer wrote:
Filters have the risk of being breached occationally, because it isn't a communication "base", you might say. :P

On what do you base that the firefox ad block filters are breached occasionally?
Also, because there is no way around it you can't support websites that need it, some good websites need the money from ads to stay on-line and it is important for me to support them.

In opera you can also add a list like tee one you use in your hosts file but is easier to disable if needed and easier to update too.

Sharkull's picture

I'm with firebat on this one. The hosts file is a tcp/ip helper / lookup file and it was never intended for use as an ad blocker. While it may work (screwing with domain name resolution), a tool specifically designed for the purpose would have to be more user friendly and full featured. 99.9% of all computer users should never touch their hosts file.

There's also the security risk involved (if you don't inspect the file yourself before use). If a popular commercial site was spoofed, and your hosts file directed you to the fake address when you went to, say eBay.com (or Amazon.com ...), there'd be no way for you to tell the difference.

If your method works well for you, then great TAS... go for it. I just don't think this method is appropriate for widespread use.

Templarian Arch Sorcerer's picture

Whatever, I was just trying to help people, but I guess its not good enough. Oh well. -_-

I will not reply in this thread anymore.

Sharkull's picture

At least your intentions were "good enough" TAS... and the effort is certainly appreciated. :thumbup:

Besides, other people may find this to be a solution they like, in spite of the negatives. Smile

firebat's picture

We were just having a discussion, a discussion in which all parties have a opinion and bring in arguments. There is no point in stopping the discussion just because the other parties have more people.

And I need a topic to post in while 'm at uni...

I was going to comment on this several days ago when I first saw it, but have waited because I was thinking about what I wanted to say.

First, I am a person who often takes things WAY too much to heart, too seriously and have a wee bit of a tendency to get worked up over something that perhaps isn't worth getting worked up over. I think that could possibly be true of you as well, TAS? It doesn't mean we are bad people but that we are sensitive and maybe it is worthwhile to give other people the benefit of the doubt.

Other people have a right to express their opinions, and no offense should be taken by that expresssion...if people say how they feel in a courteous and respectful manner than even if they disagree with us, there is no reason to be hurt or offended. Your input here is valued and you have just as much right to post your opinion as anybody else....the fact that two people did not agree with something you posted should not constitute you deciding not to keep saying your piece.

Well, it isn't my place to lecture about this, but I wanted to give my two cents on the matter. Smile

-------------------------
Total absence of humor renders life impossible.
Colette

Templarian Arch Sorcerer's picture

Hm, I had a bit too much caffine when I wrote that, I probably overreacted. My apologies. Smile

Mmmm... caffine... ^^

sol77 wrote:
Mmmm... caffine... ^^

Here we are...

-------------------------
Total absence of humor renders life impossible.
Colette

Sharkull's picture

This looks more like the way I feel when I need some coffee...

/me tries to relate this post somehow to this thread...

Speaking of speed, the good stuff (freshly ground) certainly helps to speed me up.
^^