Transcript Slide 1

Introduction
Go to a:\ use with pac-files\
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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Proxy Automatic Configuration
One method of stopping stop ad s is by
using hosts files
A Less known way is [pac] Proxy Automatic
Configuration
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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?
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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]
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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http://everythingisnt.com/hosts.com
this site has a page filled with hosts entries
install this list to your own computer hosts
file.
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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.
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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.
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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
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You can use a HOSTS file to block ads, banners, cookies, web
bugs, and even most hijackers.
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This is accomplished by blocking the Server that supplies these
little gems.
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for Example - the following entry [127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net]
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blocks all files supplied by the DoubleClick Server to the web
page you are viewing.
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This also prevents the server from tracking
your movements.
You can edit the hosts folder by
opening it in notepad
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I created a desktop short cut to allow
for easier editing.
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C:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\etc\HOSTS
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[Now that you have all memorized this]
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I have floppies for any one interested.
To edit hosts file Create a
“shortcut to”
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To edit your HOSTS file you can create a custom Desktop\Quick
Launch shortcut.
Windows XP “shortcut to” PROPERTIES are as follows.
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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.
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1. copy short cut to desktop.
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2.run NoAdHOSTS.exe
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3. Surf without ad’s.
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4.to reverse everything -edit out all url s you want to return to
normal ad’s viewing.
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5.delete shortcut to hosts
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127.0.0.1 local host
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[is required do not delete it]---------------
How to block ad s not being
blocked by your hosts file
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How do you get the url of an ad, on any site while you are surfing, and being Force
Fed advertisements?
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A new addition to hosts.
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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.
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if the ad comes from the url,[ the same as the web site you are watching,] that
would block the whole site.
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Remove a url from hosts to restore that ad server and begin seeing their ad s.
HOSTS solve most of the clutter
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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.
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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!
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Floppy
Normal stuff
demo
[Pac] files
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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
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--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.]
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.