Sir Phil Reed Presents

Combating Hyper-Aggressive Internet Advertising

(Pop-ups, pop-unders, self-propagating unclosable windows, Flash animations, etc.)

When first faced with pop-ups,

 1.Press Alt-F4 repeatedly. You may need to start with the first pop-up window active. This doesn’t always work.

 2.Restart the computer, especially when faced with a barrage of self-opening windows.

 To avoid hyper-aggressive ads in the future, try the following:

1. Avoid web sites that use hyper-aggressive advertising (e.g., porn sites).

 2.Disable JavaScript in your browser. This may throw the baby out with the bathwater, so some desirable web features are lost.

 3.Adjust your browser settings. In Internet Explorer, set your security level to medium or higher (select Tools- Internet Options- Security) which prevents automatic software installations. Set the browser to prompt you before running programs like ActiveX applets that can start automatically. 

4.Install a pop-up stopper (AdSubtract, PopUp Killer, Pop-Up Stopper 2.6, WebWasher).                       

5.Read licences carefully before downloading new programs. Some programs like Kazaa, and Morpheus contain stealthware and/or spyware like Gator, Bonzi Buddy, New.Net,  AltNet and SaveNow which serve advertisements and track your internet use. Visit Spychecker.com to see an online database of software that bundles advertising components. 

6.Install a stealthware detector (Ad-aware, PestPatrol 3.1, Spyblocker 5, Spybot Search and Destroy). Some free programs may stop working if you remove their hidden components; use your firewall to block unwanted background traffic (PC World)  

7.Use browsers other than Internet Explorer. Opera, Netscape, and Mozilla have preference settings that block some pop-ups.