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Q: What's a simple way to block banner & pop up ads?

A:  Add the offending site to your hosts file.  This quick and dirty technique can prevent quite a few banner and pop up ads from every displaying.

Copy the above line.  Press Windows-R for your run prompt, and then paste, and hit enter.

Your file should look like:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp. # # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows. # # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name. # The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one # space. # # Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual # lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol. # # For example: # # 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server # 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host 127.0.0.1 localhost

Now, just go to the end of the file and append 

10.0.0.0 ads.x10.com 10.0.0.0 images.technoscout.com 10.0.0.0 doubleclick.net 10.0.0.0 m.doubleclick.net 10.0.0.0 ad.doubleclick.net 10.0.0.0 ads.doubleclick.net 10.0.0.0 cserver.mii.instacontent.net 10.0.0.0 fastclick.net 10.0.0.0 media.fastclick.net 10.0.0.0 media17.fastclick.net 10.0.0.0 ns1.fastclick.net 10.0.0.0 ns2.fastclick.net 10.0.0.0 us.toto.geo.yahoo.com 10.0.0.0 banners.valuead.com 10.0.0.0 www.burstnet.com

This will work with any browser, and you can do the same thing on other OS's.  This is just my list of sites that have really bothersome ads.  You can add to it, and email me a list of your own if you like. My email: brian@Lithiumdata.com

It's not high tech like a pop-up smasher, but you don't have to install any software, and you can choose the sites you want to block.

I tend to use quite a few computers, so of them are mine, and some of them are other peoples.  In a few seconds I can edit this file and get rid of X-10 ads on the PC.

You will have to restart your DNS service, or reboot the computer before the new settings will take effect.