dennis.ca

Is there anything more annoying than trying to evaluate a piece of software while being blasted with ads?

With all of the hype surrounding the release of Opera v8.0, I decided to take a peek to see what the fuss was about. A 'free' version is offered in exchange for being force-fed a dizzying collection of perpetually rotating ads. As you may know, I hate ads. This is one of the main reasons I haven't bothered much with Opera in the past.

I wanted to evaluate Opera as compared to Firefox without seeing advertisements. If it turns out that the software suits my fancy, I'll buy it. I won't -- and you certainly shouldn't -- use the following procedure to bypass advertising in the free version for any longer than is necessary for an evaluation. Opera needs to make money like any other company. Having choices in the browser market benefits everyone for obvious reasons.

This procedure assumes the following (adjust accordingly for your configuration):

1. Opera v8.0 for Windows is installed in the default installation directory of C:\Program Files\Opera; and
2. Windows itself is installed in C:\Windows.

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• Load Opera, then select Tools | Preferences from the menu. Select the Advanced tab, select the Advertising menu bar item, and select the Show generic selection of graphical ads radio button. Minimize (but do not close) the main Opera window.

• Add the following lines to your C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file (background information on modifying the hosts file):

127.0.0.1 opera1-servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 opera2-servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 opera3-servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 opera4-servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 opera5-servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 opera6-servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 opera7-servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 opera8-servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 opera9-servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 portal.opera.com
127.0.0.1 textads.opera.com

• Rename C:\Program Files\Opera\images\banner.gif to something else (such as C:\Program Files\Opera\images\old_banner.gif.

• Return to the Opera window, then select Tools | Preferences from the menu. Select the Advanced tab, select the History menu bar item, and press the Empty Now button to delete the disk cache (where cached ads are stored).

• Close and restart Opera -- the ads should be gone.

Again, if you use the software please buy it. This solution offers a temporary method of blocking domain names used for advertising.