Browsing the internet without adblocking: don't do it.

[Bikerdude]

Had to use IE for the last 2 days and the question that came to mind was "how do people browse/use the net without adblocking & flashblocking, its insane the amount of ads/malware out there"

 

Some sites which I thought were 'safe enough' are infested with spyware and malware. Just tried to download a file someone had linked me and even though I clicked on the "correct" download button I still got redirected to a malware page that tried to "fake scan" my pc.

 

Normally I have Firefox with Adblock, flashblock and ghostery. I have dabbled with noscript, but I haven't yet found a happy balance with that app that dosent break my browsing experience.

[MoroseTroll]

I'm using almost the same combination (Firefox + Adblock) since 2006, maybe even earlier.

As for the people who don't know how to block all these nasty ads: it seem that they are too lazy, because everyone, who would like to get rid of ads, can easily ask Google about this and get a lot of answers.

[Diego]

I never used adblocks, and kind of pride myself on being able to navigate through torrent and download sites without clicking on any ad! I feel like those master burglars from heist movies, deviating from the moving lasers lol

 

I have anti virus and other security things in place to make sure though. But you convinced me to install adblocks now

[ungoliant]

Yea, I'm using FF + adblock + noscript.

 

Noscript is one of those things that you get settled into after a tedious induction period of adjusting all your regular browsing routes. After a while, it gets to the point where you can pick out which server is hosting the flash video you want to unblock on the first try from a list of 15 without batting an eyelash, and all your regular visited sites run very smoothly.

 

I typically let adblock do its own thing, but I also use its "blockable items" to manually pick out embedded video and other streaming or hard-to-save content for downloading to my PC

 

*edit: actually, I think I have biker to thank for introducing me to both of those plugins

Edited August 25, 2012 by ungoliant

[Bikerdude]

[quote name='ungoliant' timestamp='1345919712' post='293296']*edit: actually, I think I have biker to thank for introducing me to both of those plugins [/quote]
Your welcome :-)

[stumpy]

i've got a malware blocker, plus I delete all cookie's except the one used to login here at the end of a session, the worst sites seem to be gaming sites, I picked up 56 malware items from just one gamespot page, and pages that you would expect to be bad eg google search page 3 malware items. a lot of sites seem to be trying to run a hidden script from tags.crwdcntrl.com it basically auto adds bookmarks to your bookmark page without your permission. it mainly adds links for ladygaga and justin beiber music pages if it cant find them in your bookmarks, had it blocked from running on a gamespot site so its not restricted to music site's..

[AluminumHaste]

Adblockplus is a no brainer but I've introduced NoScript to several people who hated it at first, then dropped it.

But after a few weeks they will watch me browse on the internet with my laptop which has no script, and will exclaim why my sites look different then there's. I show them NoScript, they reluctantly turn it back on on their machines and have gotten used to it. It really is amazing how different the internet looks with noscript and adblockplus.

[GameDevGoro]

Then there's the bullshit excuse people throw around: "Uuuh, but if you block all the ads teh internet will one day STOP because noone would make monies off it!!11" (spelling/grammar/factual errors intended.)

 

For me personally, I've never let advertisement directly(subliminally? Then I don't know.) affect my decisions and that's a good reason to block the damn intrusive crap. I'm not going to buy your shitty orange juice made for pregnant women, I'm not going to buy your rip-off insurance and so on...

 

If this is new to you, you will hear it some day when you mention you block content like this.

 

I don't go anywhere near a browser that doesn't have at least noscript (AdBlock and Ghostery are nice and I have them on my own machine) running, to avoid having any third party try to yank me by the arm and throw me into a scam or something.

Unless... It's a public computer or the computer of someone I don't hold very dear.

Edited August 28, 2012 by GameDevGoro

[AluminumHaste]

Then there's the bullshit excuse people throw around: "Uuuh, but if you block all the ads teh internet will one day STOP because noone would make monies off it!!11" (spelling/grammar/factual errors intended.)

 

Uh, that's not entirely inaccurate though. Some smaller sites like Rage3d.com rely on ad revenue to partially help run the site. If everyone blocks the ads, the site will eventually go down unless they find some other revenue stream (subscriptions, donations etc.). Look at wikipedia, they don't have ads, but rely instead on donations, to the tune of 2 million dollars (every year, 2 years?). If they stopped doing fund raisers and instead put ads up on the site, and everyone blocked them, click through for ads on wikipedia would be 0, and wikipedia would make 0$ for those ads.

Click through percentages are pathetically low, like single digit percentages of ad views, but that's enough for those companies to make money and give you a percentage of revenue.

Obviously self funded sites are not affected, government sites, rich people owned sites etc.

[ungoliant]

Some ads are fine. If i'm specifically looking at a product review/specs/discussion, I don't really mind if something pops up on the side of the screen with prices for THAT product i am looking at from like 4 different vendors. If your content is not worthy of decent advertisements for correct products, then either the content should be valuable enough for its own subscription, or it can gtfo my interwebs.

[i30817]

I use adblock + noscript + element hider (some sites have started to embeed ads as text 'element' added by the server themselves, not coming from a ads server.

 

I can only weep for the innocent

[Bikerdude]

Ah but on the subject of Wakipedia, yes it can be usefull but more often than not the facts are inaccurate and when you try to edit the details you get threaton with a Ip ban from thier self imposed nazi editors.

[rich_is_bored]

Stop trying to edit articles about Pokemon or Star Trek.

[ungoliant]

awwww snap!!! no you DIT-INT!!

[GameDevGoro]

Uh, that's not entirely inaccurate though. Some smaller sites like Rage3d.com rely on ad revenue to partially help run the site. If everyone blocks the ads, the site will eventually go down unless they find some other revenue stream (subscriptions, donations etc.).

 

Well yeah, true... But I was really only talking about me and no doubt other people like me who have never intentionally clicked on an Ad in their life. So if I'm super sure (which I am) that I won't even look at Ads, much less click on them- then I'm going to go ahead and block them, they weren't going to get my business anyway.

[Bikerdude]

Stop trying to edit articles about Pokemon or Star Trek.

LOL, as if. It was about motorcycles. I had verifiable facts about certain yamaha motorcycle models, but cnuts kept removing my edits.

[ungoliant]

Installed ghostery. wow. seamless, extremely easy to use (install and forget, really), and scary as hell visiting even my most trusted sites, and looking at the tracking that goes on.

subsequently, i've become even more crazy-paranoid, and started disabling all cookies except the domains that I decide to whitelist. It's even more tedious than noscript, but if i have to unblock for a little while to get something working, I still have the bonus option set to flush out all cookies (except the whitelist cookies) after I close the browser.

 

For reals, schools need to start teaching how to use protected internet surfing in the same format as sex ed classes teach protected sex. who knows what ITD's you might contract?

[elwing]

FF + noscript...

[Psychomorph]

I always scanned my system with two antivirus programs regulary, and only on very few occasions had an infestation (I'm rather careful surfer, also not surfing alot), but I'm aware that there are many things you can not control, but never used the tools suggested here. So I went and installed NotScript, OperaAdBlock and Ghostery now, for my Opera browser. Let's see how it works. Thanks for this thread and reminder OP.

[elwing]

FF + noscript...

 

ho, this, and I forgot the most important, but most annoying part of my protection...

so that is FF + noscript, running inside a sandbox using sandboxie... no need to fear, and more important to me, no need to clean your browser regularly of all the legitimate ad junk that take up space slow down everything and tracks you...