Overview of AdsOff!

This FAQ should give you an overview of AdsOff! and the technology it uses.  Please see the AdsOff! User's Guide for help using AdsOff! or the online Troubleshooting FAQ if you are having problems.
 

Questions

An Overview of AdsOff!
 
 
 
 

Answers

An Overview of AdsOff!

What is AdsOff!?

AdsOff! is a small program that filters out parts of the Internet that are undesirable.  AdsOff! can optionally filter for any of the following things:
  • Advertisements:  Advertisements are pervasive and annoying, but more than that, they can also be a threat to your privacy.  They can also greatly slow down your browsing and increase the amount of bandwidth you use.  AdsOff! can filter out all interactions with known ad servers,  and can filter out most other advertisements with its advanced logic filter.  By preventing all interactions with these ad servers, AdsOff! prevents cookie and IP tracking that are normally collected and can be used to monitor your browsing habits.  AdsOff!'s new filtering technology prevents advertisements without causing display problems.  Pages will look like they should look... but without the ads.
  • Popup Windows:  Popup windows can be extremely annoying.  They can appear without warning, even after you have exited from a site.  AdsOff! uses an advanced javascript parser to prevent these windows from occurring.  Unlike other window crushers, AdsOff! filters windows automatically and doesn't require that you add each popup window to a list as they occur.
  • Cookies:  Cookies can be used to send information about you to servers that can collect and analyze this information to determine your browsing habits.  There is now even evidence that  information from ad server cookies are being correlated to your personal information, threatening your ability to browse anonymously.  AdsOff! can selectively prevent cookies from ad servers or other sites that you choose to filter.
  • Animations:  Many animations go through a continuous loop. AdsOff! can turn off these animations after one loop so that they don't continuously annoy you.
AdsOff! runs automatically in the background.  It is activated automatically when you start your web browser or make a connection to the Internet.  Because such a large proportion of images that your browser downloads are advertisements, most users notice a sizable acceleration of page loading when AdsOff! is turned on.
 
Registering AdsOff! also entitles you to one year of free updates of the AdsOff! filter component (updates will be available at our web site www.intercantech.com every  month).

 

What do you need to use AdsOff!?
To use AdsOff! you need to be using Microsoft Windows 95, 98, NT 4, or 2000.  Any browser should work with AdsOff!, as should other Internet programs. Any Internet connection should work:  network connections, and dial-up connections (Internet Service Providers) including AOL should all work normally.
 
Windows 95 users:  The Winsock2 upgrade is required for AdsOff! to function properly on Windows 95.   This small, free upgrade is available from Microsoft on their update website.  
 
NT 4 users:  Your system must use Service Pack 4 for AdsOff! to function properly.  Please upgrade to Service Pack 4 or higher before installing AdsOff!  
 
AdsOff! is compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 3+, Opera, and Netscape Navigator browsers, versions 3+.   

 

Does AdsOff! make mistakes?
AdsOff! is certainly not perfect. There are a few types of mistakes AdsOff! can make—all happen rarely, but if they do, they can be minimized by adjusting the filter strength that AdsOff! uses or by customizing AdsOff! for the page where the mistake is made.  
 
More information about various mistakes AdsOff! can make and the customizations you can make to prevent the mistakes are available in the Troubleshooting FAQ.

 

How much faster can AdsOff! make my browser?
The increase you see in page loading times depends very much on the speed of your connection to the Internet and what pages you are viewing.  Slower connections (such as 28.8 and 56K modems) will see the greatest improvements on a regular basis, but even with fast network connections there will be an overall improvement, especially when there is lag introduced somewhere along the connection.  Lag can occur no matter how fast your connection is, and by using AdsOff! and reducing the number of requests your browser makes, there is a much greater chance that you can avoid this lag.  You will also be taking up a much smaller bandwidth on your network, reducing local traffic.

Obviously, sites with more ads show correspondingly faster download times when AdsOff! is used.  Also, traveling within sites or returning to sites that are already cached in your browser’s files can show very large increases in viewing times, since often it is only the ad images that need to be re-downloaded each time you view these pages.  In these cases, page viewing times can be increased by a large factor greater than any conventional accelerating program.  Sites like search sites, which have common images except for their ads (which rotate) can usually be viewed much faster with AdsOff! active. 

AdsOff! v.1.5 and later include FemtoFast! technology, further accelerating browsing by intelligent HTML and JavaScript processing techniques.   Not only does AdsOff! prevent the downloading of images, it also can prevent the interaction of your browser with the ad server, including the exchange of any JavaScript documents.  By entirely preventing this interaction, the browser is no longer forced to pause for server responses.

We don't like to make inflated claims by using skewed representations and presenting misleading performance data. Instead, we can only recommend that you try AdsOff! and come to your own conclusions. AdsOff! is among the fastest accelerators out there.
 
 

Is AdsOff! a security product?

AdsOff! does help to protect your privacy by preventing both cookie and IP tracking that ad agencies are using to monitor your online browsing habits.  Because this data can be easily correlated to your personal information, most privacy advocates worry about this type of profiling.

While AdsOff! protects against these types of profiling, it does not protect your computer against hackers who want to gain access to your computer.  Some good security programs are listed below that have been tested to be fully compatible with AdsOff!

BlackIce - Provides protection against hackers by monitoring traffic entering and exiting your computer.

SafeWrite - Allows you to send secure email to anyone easily, even if the recipient doesn't use SafeWrite. 

 

For webmasters:  how do I make sure my pages will load properly for someone using AdsOff!?

AdsOff! works with most JavaScripts, but may have a problem with some 'open' commands, which AdsOff! may mistake for window opening commands that occur automatically (for popup windows).  If AdsOff! is having a problem with your JavaScripts, please let us know by email:  feedback@intercantech.com.