Hosts file to block ad sites?

scottscott
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Anyone using a hosts file to blackhole banner ad sites? Is it working well or do most sites have a work around?



Pros? Cons?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    Stuff the hosts file. I can't get it working in Panther, and using only the hosts file is not a complete solution.



    Try Privoxy instead. It is a proxy that runs on your local computer, which caches data, has exceptions for some popular sites, blocks ads by origin and size, strips GIFs down to their first frame... lotsa stuff. I can't overemphasize how good it is to a simple home Macintosh.



    Download here.



    Barto
  • Reply 2 of 5
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    Not working with Panther? Hummmm? I just added names to my home VPN IP addresses. I'll have to check it out.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    brbr Posts: 8,395member
    PithHelmet works nicely. Do a search on versiontracker. I think they have an updated version for Panther.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    scavangerscavanger Posts: 286member
    I've used this feature on my windows pc.. only thing I noticed is if you use a premade hosts file from some site, that has like 1000's of ad sites, you should probably go through it, some block useful stuff like zdnet.com, which is a major thing for TechTV online feeds. It works great tho.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    PithHelmet works well for me. It puts a nice little pref pane in the Safari Pref window as well as a check item in the Safari menu.
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