|
If you're reading this and you don't know
what popups are, you've lived a very sheltered
life. They're easily the most irritating
development on the WWW. These ads work or
they would not be so prevalent though. Everyone
I know wants to get rid of them. There's
some solutions below:
Some popups are vicious. Just clicking them
to close them can trigger malicious action.
If you do get a popup, close it with the
"Ctrl-W" trick. (As soon as it
pops up, hold down the Ctrl key and press
the W key). That way you won't trigger the
download.
The best way to block popup ads is to switch
from Internet Explorer to Mozilla {free} IMHO*. It's easy to set it up to do block virtually
all of them. Mozilla doesn't block legitimate
popups -- the ones that some sites open when
you click a link. Mozilla allows those popup
windows to open, but not the annoying kind,
which is what you want, eh? And Mozilla is
a great browser -- in fact it's been my favorite for some
time. Here's how to set up Mozilla
to block
popups:
- Click "Edit" > "Preferences"
> in the Menu.
- Expand the "Privacy and Security"
category (click the "+").
- Select "Popup Windows" > select
"Suppress popups"
There, wasn't that easy?
While you're at it, you can stop
those "in-page"
flashing ads in their tracks.
Some of them
are so distracting, it's almost
impossible
to read the page. Here's how:
- Click "Edit" > "Preferences"
> in the Menu (or just leave them open
if you're continuing from above.
- Expand the "Images" category (click
the "+").
- Select "Once or Never in the "Animated
images should loop" part.
If you want to gain direct control over ads,
including the Macromedia Flash variety, try
Adblock in conjunction with Mozilla.
Opera
Another excellent alternative
browser. Opera
blocks popups using a very simple
setting:
"Open [user] requested pop-up
windows
only".
Popup stoppers
There is Adshield if all you want to do is
to block popups and other ads in Internet
Explorer. If you want a professional, easy-to-use
popup blocker that works with all browsers,
check out Panicware's Pop-up Stopper Pro.
(There is a free version too -- look for
the "Pop-Up Stopper free version"
link)
http://www.panicware.com/popupstopper.html
http://www.adshield.org
http://www.spywareinfo.com/rd/panicware/
Google toolbar (now in beta):
http://toolbar.google.com/index-beta.php
My recommendation is to switch to the Mozilla browser to stop popups, but there's a *ton* of popup stopper programs out there: http://www.kolumbus.fi/eero.muhonen/FS/fs.htm -- Surfer mk II (works with Internet Explorer)
{free}.
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-05-23.htm#11 -- two popup stoppers recommended by Fred
Langa's readers.
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-04-22.htm#2 -- more information from Langa on popup
stoppers
http://www.cnet.com/software/0-21104746-1204-21063659.html -- iHatePopups
http://www.cnet.com/software/0-352109-1204-20195740.html -- PopUpCop
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,55795,00.html -- A new breed of pop-up ads is appearing
mysteriously on Microsoft Windows users'
computers. The so-called "Messenger
spams" have security experts and system
administrators scratching their heads --
and recipients fuming.
http://www.directadvertiser.com/optout.html -- the manual solution -- "How to set
up your system not to receive netbios messages".
http://www.stopmessengerspam.com/ -- this program stops "Messenger"
popups. It does what you can do manually {free}.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;330904 -- Microsoft's article on the topic.
Ad blockers, proxies, cookie blockers and
popup window stoppers can also prevent your
programs from reaching some sites on the
Internet. For example, at one time LiveUpdate
for Norton Antivirus downloaded new virus
definitions from Akamai.com, which is also
a mail source for many of the advertisements
on Web pages. An ad blocker is likely to
block the virus definitions too. So... if
something no longer works... think about
the shields you have up, and temporarily
turn them off to see which one is blocking
access to the Internet.
_______________________________________________________
* IMHO -- In my humble opinion.
|