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Special Report: Think Twice - Results May Not Be Nice





Last month, WhitePages.com wisely stopped ad networks from delivering ads to its site after they were found to contain fake antivirus malware. Other respected sites such as the Drudge Report, The New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle have also reportedly been carrying ads containing malware but as of this writing, I haven't seen any reports that they are taking corrective action. Perhaps their revenue streams are dictating that they look the other way?

You know the familiar routine: you go to a Web site you believe to be reputable and are greeted with a popup or other intrusive ad that announces your computer has been infected with malware, and you can rid your computer of the nasties with just a bit of plastic in the form of a credit card. Or, even more innocently, you are offered a scan of your system. The scan is free and of course it will detect all manners of malware in your system that will be removed but only if you purchase XYZ software. Sometimes these devious ads will even place malware in your computer, so there will be something to remove and thereby demonstrate the application's "effectiveness."

It's important to realize that anything clickable on a popup could trigger whatever payload that popup carries. The payload could be any form of malware to include a virus or Trojan. Note that the operative word here is "could". Certainly, not all ads and popups contain these. Many are simply mechanisms by which the owner of that Web site hopes to attain some modicum of revenue. The real problem is, how do you separate the good from the evil? Those ads and popups with the hidden payload are certainly not going to identify themselves as such, so the safest route is likely to avoid them altogether.

Avoidance can be accomplished by not visiting any site that carries ads or that you don't have 100% trust in. Now, that's really oversimplification and to practice that would mean you are avoiding the value and richness of the Internet as an entertainment and research tool. Far better, it seems, is to simply block ads and popups in some manner. Most browsers allow you to do this to some extent, but are not 100% successful.

You could block ad servers and malicious Web sites by editing the Windows HOSTS file. That's the file that contains the address network nodes on a computer network; or, in short, it can be considered as the computer's address book. Edited correctly, you can use this method to block Web sites by entering your own computer's Internet Protocol (IP) address so that it will be calling itself unsuccessfully and never reach the offending ad server.If you choose to tackle the challenge from this angle, read the procedures at http://allthingsmarked.com/2006/08/28/howto-block-websites- using-the-hosts-file/ . If your browser of choice is Internet Explorer 7, you can block Web sites with the procedure described at http://www.wikihow.com/Block-a-Website-in-Internet-Explorer-7 . To do this with Firefox and browsers other than IE, see http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Hosts-File-in-Windows . Some of this stuff is pretty deep and not for the faint of heart.

I think a lot of us would just like to leave all this to the experts. There are a number of ways to block undesirable Web content and filter out ads and popups. And there's the simple way, and that's letting a piece of software do it all for you. One such application is Ad Muncher. It's been around now about 10 years, so you can expect a fairly well-polished program. The Ad Muncher folks claim it is in use "by millions" and it's a quick download, just 491KB, and compatible with just about any operating system you may be running: Windows 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/2003/XP/Vista/7. Once in place, it removes annoying popups, embedded advertisements, and other nuisances. It's configurable to run the way you want it, and it has a fast filtering engine. Ad banners are replaced with a "munched" text so that means Web sites are most assuredly going to load faster. Ad Muncher is guaranteed to contain no spyware or adware, so you're not replacing one evil with another evil.

For the skeptic, it's comforting to know that Ad Muncher carries a 30-day guarantee with a full refund for any reason you're not satisfied.


Ad Muncher

You can read more about Ad Muncher at http://neatnettricks.admuncher.com , but those are the nuts and bolts of it.

There are two "flavors" of Ad Muncher:

  • The Premium version offers a one-year subscription to block ads and popups, updates itself daily (sometimes even more often) with access to a premium files list, and provides priority technical support (you go to the head of the line in the unlikely chance that you have a problem). It's priced at $29.95 Australian Dollars, but the conversion rate means you'll pay about $27 USD for this version.

  • The Basic version offers a one-year subscription to block ads and popups, updates itself weekly, and provides routine technical support. It's bargain priced at $19.95 Australian Dollars, but the conversion rate means paying about $18 USD for this version. You can try all features of this version free for up to 30 days. Download this free full-featured trial version at http://neatnettricks.admuncher.com/cgi-bin/download.pl/AM-Install.exe .

  • In addition, you're given the option of extending your subscription during the checkout process.

    But wait! (You KNEW there was more to this because you're a Neat Net Tricks reader, right?) If you do the following, you'll get 20% off everything you order from Ad Muncher, but only until May 10 if you:

  • Go to http://neatnettricks.admuncher.com/ to place your order.

  • Enter the Promotion Code: NeatNetTricks10 for the discount.

  • Or, even easier, just go to http://www.admuncher.com/register.shtml?Coupon=NeatNetTricks10 and the code will already be entered for your discount.

  • And say goodbye to yet another nuisance on the Web!


    DISCLOSURE: I have tried the product featured in this mailing and my comments are accurate and truthful to the best of my knowledge. Sales at the discounted price in this mailing are through an affiliate arrangement, meaning that a portion of the proceeds are paid to Neat Net Tricks in the form of commissions. This revenue offsets server and other expenses incurred in providing various benefits to our readers. Neat Net Tricks thanks you for your support in purchasing discount offers that appear from time to time in these special reports.

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  • Jack Teems
    Neat Net Tricks

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