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Introduction Go to a:\ use with pac-files\ Block web ads.htm Web page construction. html for any item from an ad server Tables Ad servers Web page assembly Automatically with html [source] code "hosts file" caeug disk of the month January 2005\hosts [and other months] The Hosts file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. This file is loaded into memory at startup, then Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS. This prevents access to the listed sites by redirecting any connection attempts back to the local machine. Spyware versus Adware What is spyware? In easy terms, spyware is software that transmits personally identifiable information from your computer to some place in the internet without your special knowledge. A less threatening sort is adware. Adware is similar to spyware, but does not transmit personally identifiable information, or at least the collector promises not to sell it. Instead, aggregated usage information is collected Ad-AwareSE Ad-Aware pulls the plug on adware and spyware. The utility scans your system-including removable drives--for the most common types of advertising spyware and safely removes offending software. The utility detects small ad programs from Adware, Aureate/Radiate, OnFlow, Comet-Cursor, Cydoor, Doubleclick, EverAd, Flyswat, OnFlow, TimeSink 5.0, and others. September 2004 CD of the Month Spybot-Search&Destroy Red entries indicate spyware problems that should be fixed to avoid security and/or privacy problems. This is the only kind of problem that is pre selected to be fixed. Black entries are system internals. If you do not know what they mean, I would suggest to either keep your fingers off of it or visit the support forum. Green entries indicate usage tracks. It can do no harm to remove these. SpyBot - Search & Destroy Freeware, ©'2000 A BHO, Browser Helper Object is a small program that extends Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Spybot -S& D can add a prepared list of websites known for bad behavior (installing spyware or tracking users, for example) to your hosts file. BHOs often use ActiveX installation programs. Ad- and spyware as well as browser hijackers often use BHOs to display ads or follow your moves across the internet, because a BHO has access to each URL you visit and can redirect you or display other pages than you requested (ads, for example). tracking cookies Another spyware category is tracking cookies. Cookies are used all over the internet in useful and less useful places. Advertisement companies often set cookies whenever your browser loads a banner from them. In that case and if that cookie contains a GUID, the company gets notice about every site you visit that contains their ads. Usage tracks Usage tracks tracks are your fingerprints in your system. Whenever you visit a page with your browser, or just open any file, that information is stored deep inside Windows. In most cases that is very useful – if you want to open that file again, you can select it from a list instead of typing the whole filename or browsing the whole directory structure again. But in some cases you may want to hide your activity, because spyware and internet attackers may use that information. hosts or .pac files Proxy Automatic Configuration One method of stopping stop ad s is by using hosts files A Less known way is [pac] Proxy Automatic Configuration hosts redirects whole sites. Hosts files can get so long that they slow the machine. + Pac can also block url s within a site. How do hosts files work A hosts file (example) tells your computer what numerical address (209.61.186.253) is associated with what URL (www.everythingisnt.com.) . This method is a very simple hack which takes ad server URLs and redirects them to non-existent numerical addresses. In other words we're fooling the internet. Its pretty simple and it works. Tens of thousands of people use it everyday with no problems. WHY USE HOSTS? If you associate an advertiser's domain name with 127.0.0.1 in the Hosts file, any requests for a URL in that domain will quickly return an error message. Because the URL is completely blocked, the advertiser has no contact with your computer. That advertiser doesn't get to see your IP address and can't access cookies on your system, and its Web bugs fail. Pop-up and pop-under windows may still appear, but without their advertising content. [Solved by SP 2] To understand this solution, you need to know a bit about names and addresses on the Internet. Every Web site has a unique IP address; for example, 63.111.13.100. Such a numeric ID is fine for computers, but people need a more memorable domain name, like www.pcmag.com. The job of translating domain names to IP addresses is handled by a Domain Name System (DNS) server. ubiquitous online ads are plain annoying. Whether banners, pop-ups, or pop-unders, they all take up bandwidth and get in your way. You can download dozens of shareware and freeware programs to block them, but there's another way to stop many ads, which requires nothing more complicated than a text editor. Hosts This is a # # # # # # # # # # # Hosts file from a computer This Hosts file has been altered to block ad servers. To restore the file just delete everything below the first entry or rename hosts.nbk to hosts and move it to the proper directory. Updated: 5-16-05 This is an ad blocking hosts file compiled by Mike Skallas(user245(at)hotmail.com) Available at http://everythingisnt.com/hosts.html Copyright 2005. Please do not redistribute, use above link. Free only for Residential/Non-Profit use. Just add '127.0.0.1 ADSERVER' to the bottom to continue the list. 127.0.0.1 localhost #this is not an ad server this is your PC 127.0.0.1 www.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 ADSERVER The task of compiling a Hosts file to block all known advertiser domains would be daunting. Fortunately, you don't have to do it yourself. Just do a Web search on the words ad blocking hosts file windows and choose from the many sites that offer their own collections. Be sure to back up your original Hosts file before overwriting it with a downloaded one, and copy any non comment lines from the original file to the new one. Clear your browser's cache, to keep it from serving up previously cached ads. As soon as you restart the browser, it will begin blocking ads. Don’t want to do it yourself? use this web site for a completed host file already updated. http://everythingisnt.com/hosts.com this site has a page filled with hosts entries install this list to your own computer hosts file. Ads that the Hosts file blocks are replaced either with a Hosts error message that reads This page cannot be displayed or with a red X, indicating a missing image. This can make the page look rather peculiar. Also, the blocked URLs may turn up in your browser's Back list, preventing the Back button from working. In that case, try selecting the earlier page you wanted from the drop-down list. Naturally, the Hosts technique can't block ads that come from the site you're viewing; if you see the site, you'll see its ads. And if the advertiser uses a URL starting with the numeric IP address, the Hosts file has no effect. When you block a domain using the Hosts file, that domain is completely blocked, including all protocols and applications. You can't choose, for example, to allow images but block cookies. If you need finer control for just a few domains, use the Hosts file in conjunction with a utility such as PC Magazine's free CookieCop 2 (www.pcmag.com/utilities). Just remove any domain names from the Hosts file that you want CookieCop 2 to handle Hosts summary You can use a HOSTS file to block ads, banners, cookies, web bugs, and even most hijackers. This is accomplished by blocking the Server that supplies these little gems. for Example - the following entry [127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net] blocks all files supplied by the DoubleClick Server to the web page you are viewing. This also prevents the server from tracking your movements. You can edit the hosts folder by opening it in notepad I created a desktop short cut to allow for easier editing. C:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\etc\HOSTS [Now that you have all memorized this] I have floppies for any one interested. To edit hosts file Create a “shortcut to” To edit your HOSTS file you can create a custom Desktop\Quick Launch shortcut. Windows XP “shortcut to” PROPERTIES are as follows. Target: C:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\etc\HOSTS [one space and all On one line] Start In: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC These instructions were included in the url with caeug disk of month. [If you do not use xp- see the disk of the month -January 2005] Use my floppy disk. 1. copy short cut to desktop. 2.run NoAdHOSTS.exe 3. Surf without ad’s. 4.to reverse everything -edit out all url s you want to return to normal ad’s viewing. 5.delete shortcut to hosts 127.0.0.1 local host ------------------. [is required do not delete it]--------------- How to block ad s not being blocked by your hosts file How do you get the url of an ad, on any site while you are surfing, and being Force Fed advertisements? A new addition to hosts. right click on an ad page while browsing Copy AND paste into the hosts file Only the base url ---not all the stuff after it. http://www.caeug.net/index.htm/ [Create a shortcut on the desktop and copy the url to hosts file] do not include www. or the back slash after the url. if the ad comes from the url,[ the same as the web site you are watching,] that would block the whole site. Remove a url from hosts to restore that ad server and begin seeing their ad s. HOSTS solve most of the clutter Use sp2 for xp or google to stop pop up ads Clean out the browser cache The cache in Internet Explorer is under Tools>Internet Options>Delete Files. Click the "delete all offline content" button. Files [web pages] in the cache will be normally displayed. Missing ad space may show error message. Ignore it! Lets see how the computer really looks.---- almost done! Floppy Normal stuff demo [Pac] files A file saved with .pac extension Java script for- Find proxy for URL () Open in word pad as notepad will not show the line breaks. Pcmag p70fall 2004 Free ad blocking pac files --can be downloaded www.sherylcanter.com/articles/pac-file.zip Learn how ad blocking pac file is constructed. [Open with notepad] Blocked sites are redirected to Port 3421 of localhost so as not to conflict with port 80 normally used by web servers To appease opera [complains there is no proxy at that address.] Run a small single purpose web server that responds with a transparent bitmap. Blackhole Proxy http://s9136763.onlinehome.us/BlackHolePro xy Bitmap @ www.sherylcanter.com/articles/pac-file.zip Once you have Blackhole loaded ,configure your browser. for Internet explorer---Tools-internet options connections settings Check Use automatic configuration script File://c:/PacFiles/ad-block.pac Fill in address 127.0.0.1 and port 3421 Under security select local internet Uncheck box “include all sites that bypass the proxy” Turn off auto cachingwww.schooner.com/~loverso/no-ads/E-auto-proxycache.reg Thank you for your interest [email protected] Most of this text comes from web pages on the reference web sites And is modified for this presentation. Many of the pages use identical wording. Fix SP2 Upgrade Woes Can’t use Microsoft automatic update site The ms fire wall won’t let some applications run Your anti virus don’t appear to work after you install SP2. Microsoft http error 500 http error 500 -internal server error, error 0x8ddd0010 As always with the web, the page does not offer help ,or how to fix it. “Windows xp hacks page 491” Ie pop up blocker \SP2 You need to tell ie to allow a particular site. Ie-tools\popup blocker\pop up blocker settings Type in [to fix microsoft problem] http://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.com Click add.