while i usually use a mac for websufing, and avoid exploiter like the
plague it is, i'd like to mention that i've found a good firewall very
useful for blocking ad pages.  i go through the log with the site names
resolved, and do a whois on any that are clearly advertising etc. and
then block that whole range of ip numbers.  of course new ip numbers do
pop up from time to time, but this does make it easy to block the bulk
of them, including most of the tracking companies.  it does cause
problems sometimes if javascript is on since some pages loop trying
desperately to load those damn adds, but few sites need javascript other
than online sales pages.  as a side note, this winter i hope to write a
better bsd firewall, and add a feature to block such ip#'s and pass a
faked response back to the browser to satisfy such silly loops, along
with some other features aimed at popups, advertising, and trackers/web beacons.

Dave Dilatush wrote:
>
> Late Friday afternoon I noticed a sudden, dramatic increase in
> the number of pop-up ads when browsing with IE6, along with a
> parasitic "search bar" gadget that attached itself to my WinXP
> taskbar like a remora and wouldn't let go.
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