IT Stuff

Yeah I'm sure I'll have time to do a full-out IT dealie eventually, but for now, you can grab my personal Windows "hosts" file to block ads. :-) From my PC to yours. If you already have a hosts file, you may want to download to an alternate location first and merge the two rather than simply overwriting your own work. If you have never messed with the hosts file, there is a good chance you will still have the Windows "default" template in place. If this is the case, it is completely safe to overwrite it. The file does nothing more than define a set of "redirections" for popular domain addresses which serve ads. It redirects requests for their pages and images to your internal computer address, making it impossible to download the ad. Thus, you may see some broken images as a result where ads would have been (but isn't that better than the annoying flashy things?) ... enjoy!

Instructions

1. Download the file and save it as "hosts" (no file extension) ... [Click me]
2. If your PC is set not to display file extensions, you will have to turn that option off by going to a Windows Explorer window and clicking on "Tools/Folder Options..." and then in the "View" tab, uncheck the option that says "Hide file extensions for known file types".
3. Find the file you saved and make sure it has no file extension. If it does, rename it to just "hosts".
4. If you are on a Windows 9x/Me system, move the file to c:\windows\ or your particular windows folder if you have it installed in a different place.
5. If you are on Windows NT/2000/XP, move the file to c:\i386\.
6. That's it! As your computer forgets the hosts cache it builds up and has to get an IP address for the servers listed in the hosts file, it will map them to 127.0.0.1 (your computer) and simply not display the page requested.