Re: [PCWorks] A tip for stopping annoying harassing "slide-ups" (a kind of pop-up) immune to pop-up blockers
- From: Hugh Vandervoort <hughv2@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pcworks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:12:45 -0500
Clint is offering some very good advice here. I've been using a Hosts
file for a long time, and I'm frequently surprised when I use other's
computers and see the ads and pop-ups they tolerate.
I use the file from here, which is updated frequently:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
There is a complete explanation and a batch file which makes
installation very easy.
Try it. You'll like it.
Clint Hamilton-PCWorks Admin wrote:
> Most of the pop-up blockers we use won't stop many kinds of
> them. If you've gotten as fed up as I have with them, there's
> a couple of things you can do to wipe them out, site-by-site.
> I was getting infuriated with a particular "slide-ups" at some
> sites I frequent. As the name implies, they slide up in some
> sort of a slower animated form onto the webpage rather than a
> pop-up in a separate window, (this is why the pop-up blockers
> won't work on them), and always, as all of them, with some
> totally useless BS on them like "Hi, my name is [....] and I'm
> looking for a friend", from all those kinds of "cyber-terrorism"
> dating sites for example. (I fail to see why anyone with an
> otherwise legit website would want to contaminate their site
> with this kind of garbage).
>
> This is on IE, I'm not sure how to do this in FireFox. The
> first thing you can do is put the domain of the offending
> pop-up/slide-up in the Restricted Sites Zone. For those of you
> that don't know, as the name also implies with this it's a more
> restrictive zone than the default "Internet Zone" where many
> things are not allowed like various downloads, Cookies,
> redirects, scripts, etc. You should use these types of formats:
>
> BadDomain.com
> www.BadDomain.com
> *.BadDomain.com
>
> The *. should be inclusive of the www version since that's a
> wildcard, so it may tell you it's already listed in the zone, so
> add the www version before the wildcard version. The reason
> for the wildcard is that protects against ads.BadDomain.com,
> ad.BadDomain.com, banners.BadDomain.com, etc. If you
> make an error, it will tell you the correct formats it accepts.
>
> The other thing that works even better is to put the domain
> in your "hosts" file. (I don't know if FireFox uses the same
> file or not). You can search your HD for it, or it should be
> at the path "C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc". This is
> a read-only file, so you have to right click it, Properties,
> then uncheck "Read Only" > Apply > Ok. Then open it in
> Notepad. The domains listed in the file are in alphabetical
> order, so you have to search through it for the right spot.
> Note the locations of the www versions of the domains in
> the file, then do the same in the right spot with your
> offending domain. Then close out of the file saving it,
> and BE SURE to set it back to read-only!
>
> For those that don't know, the "hosts" file controls the
> websites visited on the host PC by not allowing access to
> them. By doing this, it also totally blocks anything that could
> come from the website, including bogus IM's and these
> kinds of annoying pop-ups & slide-ups.
>
> If anyone is not using a hosts file, or it's blank (and if so it
> means you're not using SpyBot which is bad), the format is
> like this:
>
> 127.0.0.1 www.BadDomain.com
> 127.0.0.1 BadDomain.com
>
> After adding numerous domains to my hosts file, I'm no
> longer bothered by these nuisances.
>
> To find the offending domain, if the whole thing is clickable
> just right click the slide-up/pop-up and "Copy shortcut"
> then paste it somewhere and you can see the domain.
> If the whole thing is not clickable, then just do this with
> a link in it. If you still can't find the domain, if "Copy
> shortcut" is grayed out or not there, then you'll have to
> click it. Just be sure to immediately click "Stop" to
> stop the page from loading, and you can get the domain
> URL from the address bar. (You don't want to give them
> any traffic or risk getting malware from their site on your
> PC).
>
> Like I mentioned above, SpyBot does a great job of
> modifying your hosts file. It adds many thousands of
> nefarious domains (about 4500+ so far) that protects
> your PC from anything from these domains. But it does
> indeed leave many out that should be added. If anyone
> wants to use mine, or see it to be sure your syntax or
> format is correct for anything you want to add, I've
> uploaded it and I'll leave it there for a few days.
> There's almost 10,000 lines in mine.
> http://www.orpheuscomputing.com/computers/hosts.zip
> -Clint
>
> God Bless
> Clint Hamilton, Owner
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