[ale] blocking adds at the Firewall?

[Greg]

Perhaps I don't understand the question, so please bear with me.  Are you
looking to block emails or the pop-ups/ad pics that are links in websites ??
You cannot "deny http packets" and expect to use a browser with any type of
convenience.  Ads are basically code that is inserted in a web page that
gets a picture from another server and displays it as a link or it tells the
browser to request a web page from another (ad company's) server and open it
as a pop up or web page.

So it has to be done at the browser level unless you are using something on
the firewall that looks at the content of a web page and modifies it.  Or
you must use a proxy or some filter for http.

I use a proxy on my MS machine that all my browsers connect to and the proxy
(AdSubtract) removes all of the offending code/nullifies ad crapola.  It
also updates itself with a list of new ad servers whenever I start up my
machine.  I also have my browsers set to think that a list of servers that
are used by ad companies all have the IP of 127.0.0.1 - which effectively
nullifies them.  My browsers are also set to not use JavaScript, Java
applets, pop-ups, cookies, or any scripting or any MS bs.  All of this can
be done in your browser preferences on any platform.  I only see white
spaces on my web pages these days in the places of ads.

Of course, you could deny all requests to these evil ad servers at a
firewall or in your DNS. That would work too.  Denying them anywhere in the
process - web page that is returned,browser,router,firewall,proxy server,
whatever would do it.

Greg Canter

for what it is worth:
My AdSubtract adds this to all pages at the start:

<script language="JavaScript">
<!-- // Start of AdSubtract JavaScript block; you can ignore this.
     // It is used when AdSubtract blocks cookies or pop-up windows.
document.iMokie = "cookie blocked by AdSubtract";
document.iMferrer = "referrer blocked by AdSubtract";
function iMwin() {
	this.location = "";
	this.frames = new Array(9);
	this.frames[0] = this;
	this.frames[1] = this;
	this.frames[2] = this;
	this.frames[3] = this;
	this.frames[4] = this;
	this.frames[5] = this;
	this.frames[6] = this;
	this.frames[7] = this;
	this.frames[8] = this;
	this.length = 0;
}
// End of AdSubtract JavaScript block. -->


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-admin at ale.org [mailto:ale-admin at ale.org]On Behalf Of Michael
> D. Hirsch
> Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 12:00 PM
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] blocking adds at the Firewall?
>
>
> On Wednesday 08 January 2003 10:30 am, Christopher Bergeron wrote:
> > Hey guys, I think this is an easy question, but for some reason I'm
> > drawing a blank on the best way to go about it.  I basically want to
> > block advertisements from doubleclick.net, atwola, et tal... What's the
> > best way i should do this?  Should I deny the packets at the firewall,
> > or should I put an entry into my internal DNS for these servers?
>
> May I recommend junkbuster (www.junkbuster.org, I think).  I've
> used it for
> years and it works well.
>
> > Also, does anyone have a quick list of the biggest/baddest ad servers to
> > block... ?
>
> Junkbuster comes with a block list, and there are many on the web
> that you
> can find with google.
>
> --Michael
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
>

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