Norton Personal Firewall 2003 And Pop Up Ads

[PeteS457]

Hi All:

Just got Norton Personal Firewall 2003, mainly because it seemed a lot of people here liked it and it got good reviews on the web. It is a bit confusing to me to configure, but I think I got it going correctly.

My question for those of you out there who use NPF 2003. I have configured Ad Blocking so that it allows banner ads, but blocks annoying pop up windows. How good has it been for those of you who have tried it? My question stems from wanting to know do I still need to use the Supertrick and edit my HOSTS file everytime I upgrade K-Lite or can I finally stop doing that and still not be interrupted by pop ups.

I noticed that since I started the firewall yesterday, I hadn't received a pop-up ad - UNTIL I came here to www.k-lite.tk. Somehow when I first come here, I ALWAYS get a pop up. However, I did notice I only got one this time instead of my usual 2-3.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Pete

[TRshady]

I use npf 2003 and never get any pop-ups.

[PeteS457]

Amazing TRShady. I just came back to K-Lite Home page and got another pop-up. But this is the only site that has gotten through the firewall with a pop up - so far.

Thanks for the reply. It seems to be a good pop up killer.

So do you use the Supertrick with K-Lite? Have you edited your HOSTS file at all? If you have, I'm not sure we can distingush between NPF 2003 effectiveness or if the HOSTS file is sabotaging the pop-ups.

Thanks.

Pete

[ragzinc]

my advice is to use the norton internet security 2003. it has the firewall and also gives the protection of norton antivirus 2003. no pop up ever. it killed more than 235 web ads and pop ups one time. the only sites u may get pop ups are email sites eg. yahoo mail or hotmail, otherwise there aren't any

[geprobert]

Just to add my 2 cents...

I primarily use AdsGone for stopping popups - it is a really good piece of software. I hardly ever get any popups at all (never even knew there was one at this board&#33 and I have never changed my 'hosts' file at all. If a popup does slip through the net, you can add certain servers or window titles to the blacklist and they will be blocked from then on. Also you can download updated lists of bad servers everyday - I guess it works a bit like the 'hosts' file, but without the fuss. On top of that, you can add servers to the 'whitelist' - to always allow ads / popups.

I also installed NIS 2002 sometime after AdsGone, and it says that it has the abililty to block ads - and it does, but I think AdsGone is more effective. It gives the statistic of having blocked 14k of ads.. not much! By the way, with NIS 2002 you get an Ad Trashcan, where you can drag any ads that don't get blocked - do that add a similar service in 2003 with popups? That way you could stop the specific popup at this site.

I know you were after a way to stop having to use another program other than NIS, but at least with AdsGone you can forget about messing with 'hosts'. I've never wanted to alter that file myself, as I did it once on this PC when it was running WinME and it totally slowed the computer down when using Explorer (both Internet and Windows). I think it was just that, being on a network and using a proxy as well, poor old ME was struggling. Now I have 2000 I'm sure it would be fine, but then AdsGone supasses the need!

Other features include being able to assign 4 hotkeys (to the Fx keys) - turn on/off ad blocking, allow last blocked server, add ad to blacklist by window title & the 'boss' key - which closes all instances of IE and Netscape incase you want to hide what you are surfing for when someone comes in the room (by the way, I've NEVER used that...!&#33

[Icebound]

i second AdsGone, u can't beat it. i've got norton internet security 2003 (w/ norton firewall) and it is very good, i just turn the ad blocking off on it, tho. get AdsGone ver. 4.0 and get a crack - very easily done. d/l it from download.com

[Supernatural]

I use Pop-up Stopper Pro by panicware. It's stops %99.99 of all pop-ups. Is integrated into IE and can be has a bypass button (shift) when you need a pop-up.

[The Great Dude]

Originally posted by PeteS457@19 February 2003 - 09:45
Amazing TRShady. I just came back to K-Lite Home page and got another pop-up. But this is the only site that has gotten through the firewall with a pop up - so far.

Thanks for the reply. It seems to be a good pop up killer.

So do you use the Supertrick with K-Lite? Have you edited your HOSTS file at all? If you have, I'm not sure we can distingush between NPF 2003 effectiveness or if the HOSTS file is sabotaging the pop-ups.

Thanks.

Pete

If Norton doesn't block that popup, drag it to the ad trashcan and any other future ads Norton doesn't get. Then it should never bother you again. You should explore more on what NPF can do.

[Supernatural]

I dont think the Mods will like the idea of a forum on how to block their pop-ups. I'm surprised this thread is still here.