Need recommendations for Internet ad blockers

[ygr7]

Onr of the undesirable things about surfing the web isn't just the
annoying pop-up ads but the possibility that "spyware" could be
installed on your computer without your knowledge, monitoring which
websites you visit, and "mining" information from your hard-drive.

There are numerous shareware/freeware programs available such as
Ad-Aware that supposedly alert you to (or even remove) things that are
suspect.

Which ones have you used and found effective?

Can you use more than one at the same time? would they conflict with
each other?

Which do you recommend?

 

[Melissa]

I use AdAware once a week or so, and never browse without using PopUp
Stopper, found at www.panicware.com

Keep your AdAware up to date, just like your anti-virus scanner.


Melissa

 

[bat]

y> Which do you recommend?

ad-aware and adshield.

 

[Just Plain Insane]

On 10 Aug 2003 19:45:29 -0700 I replied to (e-mail address removed) on a
piece of toilet paper while scribbling their name and phone number
on the bathroom wall in alt.consumers.experiences

Onr of the undesirable things about surfing the web isn't just the
annoying pop-up ads but the possibility that "spyware" could be
installed on your computer without your knowledge, monitoring which
websites you visit, and "mining" information from your hard-drive.

There are numerous shareware/freeware programs available such as
Ad-Aware that supposedly alert you to (or even remove) things that are
suspect.

Which ones have you used and found effective?

Can you use more than one at the same time? would they conflict with
each other?

Which do you recommend?

adaware at www.lavasoft.nu

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you think you know me, you don't.
.........Satirically yours
**
Worst feeling in the world? Sliding down
a 51 foot razorblade into a pool of Gin.

Best feeling in the world? Watching your nemesis Sliding
down a 51 foot razorblade into a pool of Gin.--GroveGnome
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Harper]

There are numerous shareware/freeware programs available such as
Ad-Aware that supposedly alert you to (or even remove) things that are
suspect.

Ad-aware and Spybot search-and-destroy are both good - the two don't look
for exactly the same things, so one will sometimes catch something that the
other misses. Spybot's "immunize" function will prevent most spyware from
being installed, but self-discipline also helps. Don't allow web sites to
install just any old thing, especially stuff like Bonzi Buddy, Gator,
Xupiter, Hotbar, download accelerators and so-called memory enhancers.

Which ones have you used and found effective?

I run both Ad-aware and Spybot periodically, but all they ever find on my
machine are tracking cookies, which aren't really a threat in my opinion.
The main reason they don't find anything else is that I follow my own advice
concerning the things in my last sentence above.

For ad-blocking and pop-up blocking I use Zone Alarm Pro (the paid version).
It has these two features in addition to being an excellent (some say the
best-of-the-breed) software firewall.

Also, an up-to-date antivirus program is essential. AVG is good and free,
Norton Anti-virus is good but not free, McAfee is OK, but a recent update of
theirs was defective and blocked ALL internet access for many users, so I'd
be a little less inclined to recommend it.

Can you use more than one at the same time? would they conflict with
each other?

Ad-blockers and pop-up blockers can conflict if more than one is running at
the same time. Pick one of each and use it exclusively to be on the safe
side. My preference is obviously Zone Alarm Pro. Ad-aware and Spybot can and
should both be used, just not at the same time (and keep them up-to-date).

 

[Maureen Goldman]

Onr of the undesirable things about surfing the web isn't just the
annoying pop-up ads but the possibility that "spyware" could be
installed on your computer without your knowledge, monitoring which
websites you visit, and "mining" information from your hard-drive.

There are numerous shareware/freeware programs available such as
Ad-Aware that supposedly alert you to (or even remove) things that are
suspect.

Which ones have you used and found effective?

XP Home on this computer. Have a downloaded Hosts file to block ads
with spyware (has the side effect of adding areas that say "action
cancelled" where this occurs on pages). Use AVG, Ad-Aware, Spybot.
Have Popup Manager to stop popups, and I like it very much - if I
don't okay a child window at a site by initiating it or clicking a
little bar at the left of the screen, it doesn't happen.

Only Popup Manager is set to work automatically and, I guess, the
Hosts file since it's simply there..

 

[Oksana]

Onr of the undesirable things about surfing the web isn't just the
annoying pop-up ads but the possibility that "spyware" could be
installed on your computer without your knowledge, monitoring which
websites you visit, and "mining" information from your hard-drive.

There are numerous shareware/freeware programs available such as
Ad-Aware that supposedly alert you to (or even remove) things that are
suspect.

Which ones have you used and found effective?

Can you use more than one at the same time? would they conflict with
each other?

Which do you recommend?

Norton Internet Security is an unbeatable package that includes
in-page and pop-up ad blocking, intrusion detection and firewall and
it can be purchased for close to zero dollars.

 

[Rusty]

Onr of the undesirable things about surfing the web isn't just the
annoying pop-up ads but the possibility that "spyware" could be
installed on your computer without your knowledge, monitoring which
websites you visit, and "mining" information from your hard-drive.

There are numerous shareware/freeware programs available such as
Ad-Aware that supposedly alert you to (or even remove) things that are
suspect.

Which ones have you used and found effective?

Can you use more than one at the same time? would they conflict with
each other?

Which do you recommend?

I have adaware, spybot and Sygate Personal Firewall on my PC and they
coexist peacefully. But I think when I rebuild the machine I'll just
load the Sygate. It seems to do an excellent job of stopping just
about everything in it's tracks. With adaware and the like you are
kind of at the mercy of the vendor to keep it updated. With the
firewall software it will flag any attempt to use your network
connection and you can permit or deny either one time only or
permanently for each program.

The Sygate version I've been using is freeware, though the company
offers a more full featured package for sale.

Rusty

 

[jitney]

I bought the Cosmi Popup Blocker and can't recommend it to anyone. It
seems to stop about 1/3 to 1/2 of the popups. E-mailed customer
support, and all I got was the same installation instructions that
came with the package and a patch that seemed to do nothing.-Jitney

 

[Guest]

I use both SpyBot features, and have the Google Toolbar, but still get
popups. Maybe not as many as I used to -- though I'm not sure of that
-- but I still get them.

How do you know if you have the *beta* version of the Google toolbar?

Click the Google logo on the toolbar, scroll down to Help, select
"About Google Toolbar". If it shows a 2.0xx version number, you have
the beta.

To find and download the latest beta:
http://toolbar.google.com/


SB

 

[Towelie]

Onr of the undesirable things about surfing the web isn't just the
annoying pop-up ads but the possibility that "spyware" could be
installed on your computer without your knowledge, monitoring which
websites you visit, and "mining" information from your hard-drive.

The best web browser out there right now: www.mozilla.org. Open sourced
and standards based. Haven't had an unwanted (I have set for it to allow
popups for my bank's website) since I started using it. Another great
feature? If you don't like a banner ad, like those scaring you about your
PC "broadcasting an IP address", just right-click and Block Images from
this server. You do this enough, and you've blocked pretty much all the ad
servers out there. (I don't mind most banner ads. After all, that's how
some site support themselves. I just don't like those that try to play
into people's fears.) The advantage of using mozilla is you don't have to
run a separate program to block popups.

For spyware: Ad-aware. I run it every couple of months just to be sure. I
really mostly on my firewall to detect if something is trying to connect
to the net that I want. Check out www.kerio.com. Their Personal Firewall
is free for personal use.

 

[Banjo]

I agree that using a more capable browser like Mozilla is a much
better solution for blocking pop-ups than running a pop up stopper
utility. There have been some cases where the pop-up utility is
actually a spyware ad server itself. Running extra utilities to do the
job your browser should have done in the first place is inefficient at
best.

The only thing I use IE for anymore is to get windows updates and to
download Mozilla

 

[The Real Bev]

I agree that using a more capable browser like Mozilla is a much
better solution for blocking pop-ups than running a pop up stopper
utility.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times I tell Moz1.4/linux to block
popups it allows them through and unchecks the block-popups box.

There have been some cases where the pop-up utility is
actually a spyware ad server itself. Running extra utilities to do the
job your browser should have done in the first place is inefficient at
best.

It would be pretty to think so, wouldn't it?

 

[Roly Poly Man]

I don't really worry about banner ads, but as far as those
damn popup ads (even on corporate sites for crying out loud)
it pretty much boils down to Popup Stopper at
<www.panicware.com> and for our iMac we use No Popups
<www.amalthys.com/nopopups/> (both OS X and OS 9).

I have two different W2K machines with IE6 and I notice
more popups slip by with Popup Stopper 3.1 than 2.8.
I wonder if the engine is not as good or if I just
have something configured wrong. Maybe it's time
to retrograde instead of upgrade.

RP

 

[Roly Poly Man]

Some sites include a small "close" box, but most force you to wait for
it to go away.

AHA -- there you are, Clark Griswold... this time you managed to
knock out power to a tri-state area with your Christmas lights!

 

[Clark W. Griswold, Jr.]

AHA -- there you are, Clark Griswold... this time you managed to
knock out power to a tri-state area with your Christmas lights!

Thought I'd get an early start on Christmas this year...

 

[javacatREMOVETHIS]

Use the Mozilla or Firebird browsers, both have good popup blocking and
cookie management. And they're fast. Plus no active-X security concerns.
Mozilla is a browser/email/news-reader, Firebird is just the browser
portion.

An oldie but goodie that no one has mentioned is the Junkbuster proxy -
it'll block all kinds of stuff, and is very configurable [tho not for
non-techies, you need to edit ini files and such to get it to work real
well]. It stops banners and other crap too, which speeds up browsing. If
you think you can handle the setup then Junkbuster is still a great tool.
It's free too.

And, as everyone else has said, Ad-Aware and SpyBot are good scanners that
you should run weekely. Zone Alarm is a good, free, firewall.

 

[Banjo]

I guess that answers my question of whether to get the Moz 1.4 update

 

[jean and bill]

Popup Stopper doesn't seem to stop the "new" animated popups - the ones that
aren't in a separate frame, but show up covering part of the page for a period
of time.

Some sites include a small "close" box, but most force you to wait for it to go
away.

Half.com is doing this, and it drives me mad.

Jeannie

 

[Albert Wagner]

On 17 Aug 2003 12:02:19 -0700

Most popups run through javascript. if you turn off the Java function
on your browser, they won't show up. Of course, this limits your
access to many sites, but for HTML surfing, like here on Googlegroups,
it works fine.-Jitney

Java and Javascript are not the same thing.