Ad Blocking

Prevention is the best cure to most problems. By taking a few steps to ensure your computer is protected from online threats will go a long way in protecting your privacy, avoiding Malware and reducing the chance of having to call in No Geeks PC for repairs and service.

Don't get me wrong, we appreciate your business and always look forward to seeing again and talking with you, but we want you to be safe online.. and you want to save money and not have to call us for service, right?

There is a simple task that you can follow on your Windows XP, Vista and 7 based computer to effectively block out most advertising, malicious websites, and pop-ups from ever being displayed on your computer as you browse the Internet. It takes only a few minutes to do yourself, and the benefits are amazing. Almost no advertising, and your computer rejects redirects and connections from thousands of known ad servers and malicious websites.

I will soon make this a video tutorial, but in the meantime this article should be through enough to get the job done.

Your computers uses what's called a HOSTS file to map IP Addresses to host names (domain names). This file on your computer can be modified easily, and a list of known ad servers and questionable websites can be added. What happens is anytime one of these "Bad" addresses (IP Addresses or domain names) is requested by an application on your computer, that IP address or domain name is re-directed to your own local adapter (127.0.0.1), effectively blocking the connection to the actual "bad" address.

By modifying this HOSTS file your web browsing will be faster, since web pages you are viewing will not have to wait for a connection from those addresses. Better performance and more security.

I will give you a link below to a website that will fully explain how to do this on your version of Windows. Bookmark this website and make it a point to re-visit the website every 1-2 months to download a fresh HOSTS file. Updating your HOSTS file is important, since every month hundreds of new malicious websites and ad servers are added. I know, "another step" you must take to keep your computer secure, but it's an important one, and one that should be completed on a regular basis, just like visiting Windows Update regularly and checking for updates.

There is allot that goes into keeping your computer secure, if you want to learn to do it yourself. If you need assistance, or you would like to take advantage of our services, this task and many others is something we do on every customers computers. Want to learn more? Click here.

Remember to bookmark this website and re-visit each month to update your HOSTS file!  The Internets #1 HOSTS file ( www.mvps.org )