
What is the best solution to get rid of banners, pop ups, tracking, malware etc? - ClarenceBoyd
What is the best solution to get rid of banners, pop ups, tracking, malware and more?
======
JamRob
If you are like me, while browsing the net, you've come across thousands of
banner ads. Generally, I am the type of person, that if I want to buy
something, I'll google it, find it, and purchase it. I rarely if ever actually
pay attention to those annoying bandwidth wasting banners that appear on
almost every site.

Come on, there has got to be an easy way to prevent this garbage from hitting
my computer. [https://theporndude.com/useful-
software](https://theporndude.com/useful-software)

This is accomplished by using the HOSTS file. The HOSTS file contains the
mappings of IP Addresses to host names. The file is loaded with Windows
Startup, and Windows checks the HOSTS file BEFORE it looks to your ISP to find
the site. Editing the HOSTS file prevents access to the outside sites by
redirecting traffic back to your own computer.

* It can block applications (viruses, trojans, downloaders) from accessing specific sites, by redirecting any (would be) outgoing communication back to your own computer, preventing it from accessing whatever material it was trying to get.

* It also blocks the ad servers from tracking your movements - in many cases the banner ad would open a separate connection to your computer, which is active even after you leave the banner's page. This connection reports all the cookies you send, even to other unrelated sites. Yikes!

* It can speed the loading of pages, by skipping the animated GIF files, hit counters, annoying ads, and can block data miners from ever seeing your IP address, and tracking you on the net.

------
zeristor
Have you tried uBlock origin?

