Blocking Ads in OS X · 27 February 2002
Someone had to figure this out eventually. Many people have written to inquire if I knew of a way to block web advertising using a Hosts file in Macintosh OS X, à la the method that worked so well in OS9. It is possible but not really recommended: as the list of offending ad servers grows ever longer, the size of the Hosts file becomes so large that lookups can take forever, which is a problem when loading a page with multiple ads.
Enter an admirable individual named Damien Gallop, who has written clear and careful tutorials on installing a Hosts file in OS X, and on the far preferable method of using the NetInfo Manager’s database of hosts to redirect requests for advertising.
It takes a good ten minutes to watch the dummy entries for the ad servers be created in the Terminal window, but the time passes pleasurably: I found myself getting all warm and misty as I saw ClickZ and DoubleClick and, yes, X10 zip by, each line meaning multiple blanked ads in the future, and, possibly somewhere, great discomfort to a twerp in a goatee and three-button suit.
* * *