USS Clueless -- Steve's ad-block firewall list

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Steve's ad-block firewall list

[Note: 20011015 I recently gave up on Norton Internet Security and switched to using ZoneAlarm Pro and AdSubtract Pro. I will soon rewrite this. I am extremely pleased with them and I no longer recommend using NIS.]

[Note: 20030318 ZoneAlarm Pro ended up being responsible for all the annoying blue screens I was getting in WinXP. Once I got rid of it, my system became a lot more reliable. I have changed tools again, and now I recommend using The Proxomitron.]

This will get updated periodically. I've constructed this list by occasionally looking at the logs from my firewall as I browse, and noticing spurious (from my point of view) requests to irrelevant (from my point of view) sites during the loading of pages from sites I visit.

site comment IP or IP range
a.r.tv.com 192.215.32.130
adcreatives.imaginemedia.com 209.246.21.197
AdForce 207.211.106.201
AdFlow 216.151.100.246
ad.linksynergy.com 64.209.192.109
ad.adtraq.com 209.85.239.227
ads01.focalink.com 216.35.153.170
ads02.focalink.com 64.41.202.90
ads05.focalink.com 64.41.202.71
adserver.ugo.com 205.229.74.190
associmg.com 208.192.209.17
au1.doubleclick.net 203.147.254.136
Avenue A 216.34.88.104
view.avenuea.com 216.34.88.200
Burstnet 128.11.42.61
classic.adlink.de 192.85.241.135
some CNet ads 216.200.247.135
home.cnet.com 216.200.247.133
www.dailydirt.com 207.236.112.109
images.cybereps.com 209.249.170.102
Doubleclick 1 204.253.104.0-204.253.105.255
Doubleclick 2 205.138.3.0-205.138.3.255
Doubleclick 3 208.10.202.0-208.10.202.255
Doubleclick 4 63.160.54.0-63.160.54.255
Doubleclick 5 63.166.98.0-63.166.98.255
Doubleclick 6 208.228.86.0-208.228.86.255
Doubleclick 7 208.32.211.0-208.32.211.255
Doubleclick 8 63.251.188.0-63.251.191.255
Doubleclick 9 63.168.198.0-63.168.198.127
Doubleclick UK 213.86.246.0-213.86.246.255
efront.com 64.156.174.50
www2.efront.com 64.209.141.234
zdads.e-media.com 208.184.238.161
euniverse.com 216.240.130.0-216.240.130.255
www.findcommerce.com 209.190.244.232
Flycast 216.52.4.0-216.52.7.255
gameadexchange.com 205.232.65.72
HomeEmployed 64.77.82.113
Link Exchange 204.71.191.0-204.71.191.255
link4ads.com 209.225.32.5-209.225.32.6
van.ads.link4ads.com 209.225.2.218
linksynergy.com 64.209.192.96-64.209.192.127
maximumpc.usads.futurenet.com 209.246.21.66
nav.efront.com 64.209.141.236
netadsrv.iworld.com 63.236.73.30
ngadclient.hearme.com 216.35.30.176
safe-audit 209.190.244.237
www.referback.com 64.39.74.152
spylog.com 194.67.35.205
stats.superstats.com 206.132.75.112
svr2.iadnet.com 207.189.82.138
ads.tucows.com 216.40.32.140
webconnect.net 63.77.84.8
secure.webconnect.net 63.77.84.10
www.whispa.com 209.190.244.233
us.a1.yimg.com 192.215.32.133
ads3.zdnet.com 205.181.112.81
gserv-cnet.zdnet.com 205.181.112.76
NEW 20010402  
InternetFuel.com 209.132.218.64-209.132.218.127
NetTaxi 209.132.226.21
FastClick.com 205.180.85.6
AdMonitor.net 216.35.185.251
L90 216.35.185.251
something, I'm not sure what 63.236.54.27
comtrad.com 199.170.229.254
ads.nytimes.com 208.48.26.229
adtegrity.spinbox.net 204.176.36.72
us.geo1.yimg.com 216.148.237.147
Excite's ad server 199.172.144.25
NEW 20010404  
doubleclick 10 208.184.29.0-208.184.29.255
doubleclick 11 209.68.38.104
doubleclick 12 209.67.38.106

adcreatives.imaginemedia.com 209.246.21.197
Adforce 207.211.106.201
Ad-Flow 216.151.100.246
ad.linksynergy.com 64.209.192.109
ad.adtraq.com 209.85.239.227
ads01.focalink.com 216.35.153.170
ads02.focalink.com 64.41.202.90
ads05.focalink.com 64.41.202.71
adserver.ugo.com 205.229.74.190
associmg.com 208.192.209.17
au1.doubleclick.net 203.147.254.136
Avenue A 216.34.88.104
view.avenuea.com 216.34.88.200
burstnet 128.11.42.61
classic.adlink.de 192.85.241.135
www.dailydirt.com 207.236.112.109
images.cypereps.com 209.249.170.102
yoda.cypereps.com 209.249.170.96
doubleclick 1 204-253.104.*
doubleclick 2 205.138.3.*
doubleclick 3 208.10.202.*
doubleclick 4 63.160.54.*
doubleclick 5 63.166.98.*
doubleclick 6 208.228.86.*
doubleclick 7 208.32.211.*
doubleclick 8 63.251.188.*
doubleclick 9 63.168.198.*
doubleclick UK 213.86.246.*
efront.com 64.156.174.50
www2.efront.com 64.209.141.234
zdads.e-media.com 208.184.238.161
euinverse.com 216.240.130.*
www.findcommerce.com 209.190.244.232
flycast 216.52.4.*
gameadexchange.com 205.232.65.72
HomeEmployed 64.77.82.113
Link Exchange 204.71.191.*
link4ads.com 209.225.32.5-6
van.ads.link4ads.com 209.225.2.218
linksynergy.com 64.209.192.96-127
maximumpc.usads.futurenet.com 209.246.21.66
nav.efront.com 64.209.141.236
netadsrv.iworld.com 63.236.73.30
ngadclient.hearme.com 216.35.30.176
safe-audit 209.190.244.237
www.referback.com 64.39.74.152
spylog.com 194.67.35.205
stats.superstats.com 206.132.75.112
svr2.iadnet.com 207.189.82.138
ads.tucows.com 216.40.32.140
webconnect.net 63.77.84.8
secure.webconnect.net 63.77.84.10
whispa.com 209.190.244.233
us.a1.yimg.com 192.215.32.133
ads3.zdnet.com 205.181.112.81
gserv-cnet.zdnet.com 205.181.112.76
InternetFuel.com 209.132.218.64-127
NetTaxi 209.132.226.21
FastClick.com 205.180.85.6
AdMonitor.net 216.35.185.251
L90 216.35.185.251
something or othe 63.236.54.27
comtrad.com 199.170.229.254
ads.nytimes.com 208.48.26.229
adtegrity.spinbox.net 204.176.36.72
us.geo1.yimg.com 216.148.237.147
Excite's ad server 199.172.144.25
doubleclick 10 208.184.29.*
doubleclick 11 209.68.37.104
doubleclick 12 209.68.37.106
   

This doesn't by any means stop everything, but this does stop a lot, including some of the most obnoxious advertising. More important, it stops requests from going to some of the most egregious companies involved in tracking your web browsing. If they get no request from you (because it is blocked in your firewall) then they can't see where you've been.

If your firewall uses a hierarchical rule system, where the order in which rules appears indicates precedence (which is the case for Norton Internet Security, for instance) then if you have specific rules enabling your web browser (which is the case in NIS) then these rules must be placed above that. Otherwise, the firewall will encounter the rule permitting your browser to use HTML before it encounters one of these block-rules and the block rule won't have any effect.

 

In addition, Norton Internet Security (the package I use) permits creation of direct ad-blocking rules, on a per-site basis. Below are a few of the ones I've set up:

site block strings
elsa.com .swf
excite.com .swf
fortunecity.co.uk bg.gif
bg.jpg
bgside.gif
bgside.jpg
newtopgif2.gif
newtopgif2.jpg
geocities.com ygielib
yahoo.com webvan
yahoo_domain
yimg.com yahoo_domain
zdnet.com generator.zdnet.com
techweb.com .swf
nasdaq.com popupads

Blocking ".swf" for a site prevents that site from displaying Flash files, which these sites are using for particularly obtrusive and obnoxious advertising. The file has to end in the string ".swf" because that's how the browser recognizes that it needs to invoke the Flash plug-in to run it. So if you block ".swf" then it means that site can't ever play a Flash file. Since the block is site-specific this has no effect on the ability of any other site, who are not abusing it, to use Flash.

The weird text I'm blocking for Geocities prevents that strange little pull-down window from appearing in the upper right corner of Geocities-hosted web sites. (The string may be different for Navigator, which I don't use. I think that the "ie" in the middle means Internet Explorer.)

This page has been viewed 3723 times since 20010726.

Captured by MemoWeb from http://denbeste.nu/essays/adblock.shtml on 9/16/2004