# Does anyone know the patch to disable blinking ads? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2000, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-the-patch-to-disable-blinking-ads/24358 "2000-07-02T09:05:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Smart\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/db5fbb/32.png) [@Smart\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smart_Bob)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-the-patch-to-disable-blinking-ads/24358/1 "2000-07-02T09:05:38Z")
There’s a patch I got one time, and now can’t find, that makes all “infinite-loop” animated gifs into non-animated. The way it worked was to search for and change the browser’s recognition of the gif’s version number. Blinking gifs are version 2.0, I think, so if you can find the reference in the code and change it to, say, 3.0, none of the gif ads will test as blinkable. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-the-patch-to-disable-blinking-ads/24358/2 "2000-07-02T10:24:35Z")
Personally, I just switch off “Play animations” in IE. There’s nothing animated I particularly want to see on the internet anyway. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-the-patch-to-disable-blinking-ads/24358/3 "2000-07-02T19:25:13Z")
Hey Bob try using Internet Junkbusters. It is a proxy program in which you define what URLs and file types get downloaded and what doesn’t. you can use it to block doubleclick ads. It also rejects cookies except the ones you want. If you configure it right, it can also perform as a filter. It is probably the best program for the internet, other than your favorite browser. ---
**Author:** ![Smart\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/db5fbb/32.png) [@Smart\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smart_Bob)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-the-patch-to-disable-blinking-ads/24358/4 "2000-07-02T19:39:54Z")
Thanks. I’ll give both ideas a try. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-the-patch-to-disable-blinking-ads/24358/5 "2000-07-02T19:48:54Z")
Junkbuster is nice, but by default it doesn’t block any ads, blocks all cookies, and tells web servers that you’re on a Macintosh running Netscape 3. If you know how proxies work and are willing to go through the documentation to change all this then go for it. Or go the easy way and edit your c:\windows\hosts file to block out ad servers. You can download my hosts file here and just put it in your c:\windows directory here: [http://www.21stcentury.com/~flan/HOSTS](http://www.21stcentury.com/~flan/HOSTS) When you save your hosts file, do not save it with any extension like .txt. The file needs to be named ‘hosts’ It blocks out most ads for me but its not as exhaustive as some junkbuster block files, maybe someone will write a little program to that’ll take a junkbuster block file and turn it into a hosts blocking file. If you’re on a dial-up you’ll really enjoy how fast pages load when you’re not waiting for ad graphics and animations to come up. ---
**Author:** ![Smart\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/db5fbb/32.png) [@Smart\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smart_Bob)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-the-patch-to-disable-blinking-ads/24358/6 "2000-07-02T22:12:13Z")
I got your file, and it looks great. Will definately try it, but could you fill me in on what it’s a list of exactly? I guess the names on the list are the major ad sites? And somehow you’re mapping them to … What? A null site of some sort? And where do the site names come from? The “Temporary Internet Files” directory, perhaps? > [@](#): > > # Copyright © 1998 Microsoft Corp. > > # > > # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP stack for Windows98 > > # > > # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each > > # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should > > # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name. > > # The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one > > # space. > > # > > # Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual > > # lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol. > > # > > # For example: > > # > > # 102.54.94.97 [rhino.acme.com](http://rhino.acme.com) # source server > > # 38.25.63.10 [x.acme.com](http://x.acme.com) # x client host > > 127.0.0.1 localhost > 127.0.0.1 [http://www.doubleclick.net](http://www.doubleclick.net) > 127.0.0.1 [ad.preferances.com](http://ad.preferances.com) > 127.0.0.1 [ad.doubleclick.com](http://ad.doubleclick.com) > 127.0.0.1 [ads.web.aol.com](http://ads.web.aol.com) > 127.0.0.1 [ad.doubleclick.net](http://ad.doubleclick.net) > 127.0.0.1 [ad.preferences.com](http://ad.preferences.com) > 127.0.0.1 [ad.washingtonpost.com](http://ad.washingtonpost.com) > . > . > . Sounds like it might be just what I need. I hate to give up all animated graphics just to lose the banners. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2000, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-the-patch-to-disable-blinking-ads/24358/7 "2000-07-03T00:14:32Z")
This is how it works: Windows offers a permanent way to store IP numerical addresses, so if you goto the same site often you can say, “Hey quit doing a DNS search for this.” Each ad server is mapped to 127.0.0.1 (localhost) which always the computer you are on. So when an ad’s http address is presented in the HTML of a website, windows checks the localhost and gives an error because you don’t have that file on your system. The list is a small collection of ad servers I copy and pasted from a couple different sources, you might want to remove [rd.yahoo.com](http://rd.yahoo.com) from there, it blocks some mapping features at [maps.yahoo.com](http://maps.yahoo.com). You can always find an ad’s source by right clicking on it and checking properties, if it looks like some generic ad server like [ads.doubleclick.com](http://ads.doubleclick.com) just add 127.0.0.1 [ads.doubleclick.com](http://ads.doubleclick.com) to the bottom of the list. It works and the localhost trick is really fast, some people say Junkbuster slows down broadband connections not to mention its a snap to install.