Can anyone give me a rundown of how to block ads in AIM? (details below)?

Question

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM#Ad_blocking gives a way to do it, I dont understand it though. Can anyone either explain it or provide an alternative tat does not require downloading or installing, bu rather something you can personally edit. Thanks!

Answer 1

I assume you know very little about either the web or PCs (since you are using AOL) so I will try to keep this simple.

I assume you read the explanation at wikipedia and followed the 'link' to the explanation about the 'hosts' file but you can't find the hosts file on your PC ?

The hosts file should be in :-

C:\ Windows \ syetem32 \ drivers \ etc \


Either 'browse' or 'search' for the file. When you find the file, double click on it and, in 'Open with', choose Notepad.

You should see something like this :-

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
............
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost


Now add in an extra line containing 0.0.0.0 ar.atwola.com (so the end of the file will now look like :-

# For example:
#
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost
0.0.0.0 ar.atwola.com

In Notepad, click on thge 'File' menu and choose 'Save As'.

In the 'Save as Type' box, choose 'All files'.

WARNING - if you leave this set to the default 'Text documents (.txt)' then Notepad will add a '.txt' exttension to the name and the 'ad blocking' will not work.

If you have correctly selected 'All files' you should now see the contents of the etc\ folder (including the hosts file).

Click 'Save' (if you are asked 'are you sure ?' click yes). You can now exit Nopepad.

You will need to re-boot your PC for this to take effect.

Good luck !