Re: [PCWorks] A tip for stopping annoying harassing "slide-ups" (a kind of pop-up) immune to pop-up blockers
- From: Peter Kaulback <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pcworks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:18:36 -0500
In addition to all this great advice I would like to add that if one
uses these large HOSTS files and you experience a slowdown in your
computers performance then you should make another change to your computer.
The Mvps.org site has this:
<!snip>
Editors Note: in most cases a large HOSTS file (over 135 kb) tends
to slow down the machine. This only occurs in W2000/XP/Vista. Windows 98
and ME are not affected.
To resolve this issue (manually) open the "Services Editor"
* Start | Run (type) "services.msc" (no quotes)
* Scroll down to "DNS Client", Right-click and select: Properties
* Click the drop-down arrow for "Startup type"
* Select: Manual, or Disabled (recommended) click Apply/Ok and
restart. [more info]
When set to Manual (or Disabled) you can see that the above
"Service" is not needed (after a little browsing) by opening the
Services Editor again, scroll down to DNS Client and check the "Status"
column. It should be blank, if it was needed it would show "Started" in
that column. There are several Utilities that can reset the DNS Client
for you ... http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm#Related
Editors Note: The above instructions are intended for a single
(home-user) PC. If your machine is part of a "Domain", check with your
IT Dept. before applying this work-around. This especially applies to
Laptop users who travel or bring their machines home. Make sure to reset
the Service (if needed) prior to connecting (reboot required) to your
work Domain ...
JBF sends along this Tip: IPCOP running a DHCP server needs the
local PC DNS Client enabled to function.
Reset the DNS Client with a simple batch file (submitted by: Ronny
Ong - 2K/XP only)
DnsManual.bat<http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/DnsManual.bat>
(resets the DNS Client to Manual) [right-click and select: Save Target As]
DnsDisabled.bat<http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/DnsDisabled.bat>
(resets the DNS Client to Disabled) [right-click and select: Save Target As]
To use: double-click on the downloaded file and reboot that's it ...
<!endsnip>
HTH
Peter Kaulback
Hugh Vandervoort wrote:
> 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
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