Use a good HOSTS file. The HOSTS file tells your web browser where to look first for anything referenced by a URL on a page - an image, an ad, a pop-up telling you to click on something bad.
In Windows XP the HOSTS file hangs out in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\ - yeah, I thought that was odd too. In 9X it's in Windows, Win2000 I dunno... It is a plain text file with no extension (three or more letters or numbers after a dot, like Readme.txt)
It can save you a lot of trouble, even keep your browser from being hijacked (changing your home page) and protect your kiddies from porn pop-ups. If you see anything in red at the top of this section of the page, you need it.
You can get a variety of ready-made HOSTS files here and there on the Web. A very good one is available from MVPS. I am currently using a hybrid of that and a list of bad sites that I found here. HOSTS goes in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\. You will need to have administrator rights for this. This method is not guaranteed to stop everything, but it will do a lot to clean up your surfing experience. If you have any problems with it, crave Google ads, or want to visit porn and/or cracking sites, you will have to edit it. Funkytoad's Hoster is excellent for that, handier than browsing around to use a text editor. It's great for those odd moments when you can't access a site. Search for the domain in the HOSTS file, and take it out quickly--or add one if you just encountered a horrible ad.
NOTE that a large HOSTS file can cause an extreme slowdown in WindowsXP/2000! This may be remedied by shutting down the DNS client service. That may not be an option--see further notes below. Also see instructions at MVPS. If you need the DNS service on all the time for any reason, you will have to do without the big one.Ack!
From: www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
Editors Note: in most cases a large HOSTS file (over 135 kb) tends to slow down the machine. This only occurs in W2000 and XP. Windows 98 and ME are not affected.
To resolve this issue (manually) open the "Services Editor"
You can see that the above "Service" is not needed (after a little browsing) by opening the Services Editor again, scroll down to DNS Client and check the "Status" column. It should be blank, if it was needed it would show "Started" in that column. [more info]
Editors Note: The above instructions are intended for a single (home-user) PC. If your machine is part of a "Domain", check with your IT Dept. before applying this work-around. This especially applies to Laptop users who travel or bring their machines home. Make sure to reset the Service (if needed) prior to connecting (reboot required) to your work Domain ...
JBF sends along this Tip: IPCOP running a DHCP server needs the local PC DNS Client enabled to function.
Apparently some DSL connections need it too... I still have dial-up, but when I tried to use my super-HOSTS in another machine it messed things up totally. Anyhowl, here are some useful links:
"not found" errors:There are, of course, other ways to block ads. Some firewalls can be configured fairly easily to block certain domains and/or even images by size (chancy, there are certain common banner sizes--but not all are used for yucky ads).
Firefox has good ad-blocking add-ons. There are various things that work with IE, I suppose. Whatever. I use K-Meleon for my everyday travels on the Web.