Advertisements have been around the advent of the World Wide Web. We find advertisements in emails, newsletters, on web pages, in music streaming services and even on YouTube videos. Most of these ads have a legitimate reason for being there and it’s how many businesses operate. Unfortunately, there are also ads that can be malicious and some are even designed to track your behavior online. Some of these scripts are also trackers. They can run in the background in a web page and using web browsers helps them track your moves, without your knowledge. Many of them link your behavior online with an identity.
Some of these ads are in the form of videos, and some are just scripts that work in the background. They have effects on your machine’s performance as well. They can slow down web page loading and take up bandwidth. Fortunately, there are ways to bypass these using a few easy steps. We recently wrote a feature on how to use a VPN to better isolate yourself from the exposed Internet. You should check it out too.
One of the simplest ways of blocking ads on your PC or laptop is using a browser extension. One of the most popular ad-blocking extensions for Chrome and Firefox is called uBlock Origin. You can download it for free from the Mozilla Firefox Add-ons section and Google Chrome Web Store. You may notice a number pop up in the uBlock Origin icon in the toolbar every time you access a web page now. It shows the number of scripts and ads blocked. You should also notice an improvement in web page loading times and smoother browser performance. You can also make changes to the ad-blocking settings as per your needs. These can improve the ad-blocking of uBlock Origin further. Right-click on the uBlock Origin icon and then, on Options. You can also add more block lists by clicking the Filter Lists tab.
If you find some web sites not loading as they should, you can also disable ad blocking by clicking on the large uBlock Origin toggle button in the browser toolbar. On the other hand, if you notice some ads still show up with uBlock Origin running, you can add them to the block list. Simply click the uBlock Origin icon in the toolbar, then click the ink picker icon called Enter Element Picker Mode. Click the ad banner that may have bypassed uBlock Origin and it should disappear from the web page now, and in the future.
There are many other ad blocking plugins available, some of which are better geared for blocking trackers while some others are meant for ads. The ones worth trying are Privacy Badger, HTTPS Everywhere and NoScript.
The other way to block ads and trackers is by using a secure DNS server. A DNS server is what translates a domain name like www.google.com to the actual IP address hosting the content. While most public and ISP-powered DNS servers don’t offer the service, there are DNS service providers that can reduce the number of trackers and ads your browser may be exposed to. They may stop you from accessing malicious web sites, some offer parental control features too. You can enable these third-party DNS services using your network adapter settings.
Head over to Windows’ Control Panel. Click on Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings. Look for the internet adapter used to access the web. It could be the wireless network adapter, or a wired one, in case of a PC. Right-click on your internet adapter, click on Properties. Click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) then on Properties. Under the section, Use the following DNS server addresses, enter the DNS server IP addresses you want to use. These are some popular DNS services available online. You can try out some for a while and decide which ones offer the best performance.
| OpenDNS | Quad9 | Cloudflare | NextDNS |
| Yandex | Comodo | AdGuard |
Using a DNS server can also help reduce the time it takes for your web browser to translate a domain name to an IP address. It adds up to a decent amount when the same step is performed on several links, scripts and images present in a page.
A new feature called DNS-over-HTTPS is making its rounds and it’s being introduced to web browsers. It’s also popularly called DoH. In simple words, it encrypts DNS requests that go from your web browser to the Internet thereby preventing any kind of snooping or modifications that any middle-man service could do. This feature coupled with a DNS service that supports it, can offer better protection against ads and trackers. This feature is currently available in the latest versions of Firefox and Chrome. It can be enabled in Firefox by clicking on Tools > Options. Scroll all the way down to the end of the General tab and click on the Settings button for Network Settings. You should see a list of options to change the proxy server but the one we’re interested in, is Enable DNS over HTTPS. You can choose from one of the DNS server presets or choose Custom and type in the IP address of a DNS server that supports it.
Chrome users can access it by typing chrome://flags in the address bar. Search for Secure DNS lookups, click the dropdown and change it from Default to Enabled. You will require to restart Chrome for the settings to be applied.
These are just some other steps that you can use to secure your Internet connection and browse safely. You should also notice other improvements such as the web page loading time and the general improved performance of your web browser. Don’t forget to read our article on setting up a VPN conncetion. If you liked what you read, keep checking out www.reliancedigital.in for the latest tips and technology.
