Recently on another board, somebody mentioned the google text ads that are showing up on various web sites. Never really paid attention to them, but thought gee, should be able to use hosts file to ditch them. Well found hosts file at /boot/beos/etc/hosts. Or actually it was hosts-sample and I changed name to hosts. then added 0.0.0.0 name of google ads server. Nothing. Tried 127.0.0.1 and nothing. Cleaned out cache, played with it all sorts of ways and nothing, the ads still appear. I am using Firebird if that makes any difference. thanks.

There is an app on bebits like proxvie or something that will block such ads. There used to be a lot of ways to use hosts files in linux to block ads. Yes, I think the thing was something like 127.0.0.0 or .1 and a whole long list if bad peoples IP addresses. I think you also have to move that file up one directory??? dunno. See the bebits app or look for the linux ways, they will be exact. I really never get too much on beos. Isn't there some ad blocking on the firebird prefs too?

NetPositive and Opera dont show the google ads whether hosts file is active or not. But they are both ancient browsers so maybe they just ignore the extra ad server stuff.

I looked at few unix host file sites and I seem to have established hosts file correctly and in correct place. I've done this successfully under linux before. Very simular under windows, linux, and beos. I would imagine also solaris, qnx, and others. Possibly Firebird doesnt recognise or use Beos hosts file.

Firebird is ok and fastest beos browser (on my computer anyways), but I do hope for improved version. It tends to scramble about third of all websites if you try and scroll that particular page. If you then click edit and select all, it will unscramble until you try to scroll again. Firebird does have ability to block images not originating from website being viewed so this strips most image ads.

As I said no big deal, text ads I can ignore easily. I was more curious about BeOS hosts file. I'll say I have been using BeOS as main internet/email operating system for over 2 months now. Despite some irritating gremlins, I do like it and will continue using it for forseeable future. Wish I was knowlegable enough to help fix some of the bugs instead of just complain about them.

Those whacky coders are forever putting out new ports. See the latest for improvements.
The hosts file will also help you. If you have it setup correctly from the text in the sample file it will also speed up your browsing. Put the good guys IP address in there too. Just put the correct IP in for each of the 50 or so that you visit most often. It should remove that slack time between the resolving name. Not much but something.

See the proxvie program at bebits too. It cheats the system into putting all the names to a blank page and only what you select will be forwarded to your browser.

Another way would be to use any other machine and use the proxie on it to forward but it will work like the app above.

There are other apps on bebits to kill ads too. Search for prox