Ad-Blocker Not Required - Hosts File

Note: Keep in mind that if the computer being used is pretty quick not a lot of difference is going to be seen blocking advertising. Also keep in mind that some our favorite sites need support from advertising and that news will come in advertising as well.

Update: Thanks to Ikem for finding the new script download (it is included at the bottom of the page).

One of the most used and handy features about Firefox is it Ad-blocker extension. As people and companies recklessly graffiti our Internet like a NASCAR Ford, it can be a strain on the eye as well as some pretty long download times. Ad-blocker does a good job but one can also use the hosts file.

Linux, Windows and Macs all have support for a hosts file. A hosts file is a list of resolved DNS addresses (IPs). By substituting the local loopback IP (127.0.0.1) to known spammers addresses the hosts file can be used to filter out said domains.

Luckily for us, we don’t have to enter lists of spammers addresses (there are a few) but that a group of users are already involved doing it. The hosts files project have created a list of known spammer and advertising IP’s to enter into the hosts file. For Linux users, the process is very simple to add these IP’s to the hosts file. Look to the end of the page to the blog for the script. Here is a Linux script that can update the hosts file automagically. The dos2unix application will need to be installed to convert the text properly.

Support the project is encouraged. Put new IP of spammers in the hosts file and upload the hosts files to the project.

• Ad-blocker script

Reportedly as I saw on the Ubuntu forums the localhost address should be replace with a null-one as 127.0.0.1 will wait for a timeout. This can be done by doing:

sudo sed -i 's_127.0.0.1_0.0.0.0_g' /etc/hosts

and then edit the file manually to change the line with localhost in it to 127.0.0.1 localhost as this is needed.

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