This article is my response to an email sent from Mark, a regular newsletter reader-
Hello Dave,
I am really enjoying your newsletter since it was recommended in the Ask-Leo newsletter. I have two questions about “how to block.”
Explorer 7: Can I block specific websites only? For example: www.doubleclick.net. This and certain other websites are just advertising. Some days when the computer is running slow, I can see on the bar at the bottom of the screen as the website moves through a bunch of websites I did not request while the ads are coming up. Eventually the website I requested comes up. I know that many of these advertising websites also put cookies on my computer. So it would seem that blocking selected advertising websites might speed up the loading of some websites, and keep some cookies off my machine.
Mark, I covered cookies in the September 1st, 2007 issue. I assure you cookies aren't anything to worry about.
I will say that blocking advertising, while marginally speeding up browsing for dial-up users, is counter productive. While most of the internet is free to you, there really is no free lunch. Someone has to pay, and it is usually the site owner. Often times the owner will try to offset their costs, as I do, by including advertising. Whether to browse with or without advertising is a hot moral issue right now. It is also an issue that I don't want to take sides on. If you truly wish to block specific sites that is entirely up to you. But how do we accomplish this?
There are add-ins for both Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox that block ads. The add-in for IE7 is named IE7Pro and the add-in for Firefox is called Adblock. Both of these add-ins block advertisements from webpages. Both also have the ability to block specific websites. Let's see how we do that!
Using IE7Pro to block a specific website in Internet Explorer 7
Download IE7Pro and install the program. Once installed IE7Pro adds an icon to the status bar of IE7 as seen below.
Right clicking on the icon opens the IE7Pro menu. Click on Preferences to open the options window.
You can see that IE7Pro has many options and adds added functionality to Internet Explorer 7. Feel free to look around, but we are talking about blocking specific websites in this article. Click on the Ad Block entry in the left hand column, which will open a new window.
As an example let's create a filter that blocks cnn.com.
- Type "*www.cnn.com*" in the Rule: location.
- Change the Filter Type to URL Block Filter.
- Click the Add button, which creates the rule..
- Click OK.
If you try to visit cnn.com only a blank screen will be displayed. Obviously this was only an example, so Right Click in the blank area (where cnn.com should be) and choose "Don't Filter This Site".
Using Adblock to block a specific website in FireFox
Visit the download page for Adblock. Half way down the page click the green button labeled Install, which will open the Firefox extension window. Click Install. After the installation is complete click the Restart Firefox button in the lower right corner.
When Firefox restarts Adblock will have added an icon in the status bar.
Clicking "Adblock" in the status bar opens the filter window, which allows you to block any of the elements on the currently displayed page. We are going to use our previous example, cnn.com. Type "cnn.com" in the New Filter area and click OK.
Now, if you you try to visit www.cnn.com you will see the following.
To remove the block click Tools>Add-ons, which will open Add-ons window. Click Extensions in the Add-on window and scroll to Adblock. Highlight the Adblock entry and click Options, which will open the Adblock Preferences window showing which filters you have in affect. Since we have only added cnn.com it will be the only entry. Right click on cnn.com line and select Delete. Click Done on the Adblock Preferences window, Click the "X" in the upper right corner of the Add-ons window to close it.
These add-ins also have the ability to block specific objects on webpages. If you choose to use one, or both, take a few minutes and read up on what they are capable of.