I was wondering if anybody knows why all the banners on the web pages I view now have an X where the picture is suppose to be. I already checked Control panel> Advanced>Show pictures. So thats not the problem. Please reply thank you.

PEEZY, sounds like something is blocking your ads and acting like a firewall. (Perhaps a good thing!). What setting have you altered recently? D/l's, etc.? Ed in Texas.

Open Explorer > Tools > Options > Advanced and see if the show placeholders box is ticked. Hope this helps.

Thnks for the replys. I tried what dog said and it didn't fix it. I guess it can be a good thing not seeing banners but some web pages dont even show up. I got tired of having my index dat file building up and taking space on my comp. So I tried the steps below to erase my index dat at startup and shuting done. It works. I'm not really sure if this caused the problem. I also installed spider and ad aware recently. Any other suggestions? STEP 1. Cut and paste these 7 lines into a text editor, and save them as DELTA.BAT on c:\ (root, i.e, not in a folder). Just in case the lines wrap in this post, to make things clear, each line of the batch file is separated with :: on an otherwise a blank line. It does no harm to leave them there. @echo off :: deltree /y c:\windows\cookies\index.dat>nul :: deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1\content.ie5\index.dat>nul :: deltree /y c:\windows\history\history.ie5\index.dat>nul :: deltree /y c:\windows\history\history.ie5\mshist~1\index.dat>nul :: cls :: exit NOTES: The cls is just to make sure the DOS window doesn’t stay open just because there’s something on the screen. It may not be needed, but it sure doesn’t hurt. Exit closes the DOS window; otherwise you’d wind up with an open DOS window on your desktop. STEP 2. In Control Panel (or Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools): * Click on Scheduled tasks. * Double click on Add Scheduled Task. * In Scheduled Task Wizard, click next. * Click on Browse. * Go to Delta.bat and double click on it. * In the Name box, enter: Delete Index.dat files * Click on “When My Computer Starts” * Check “Open Advanced Properties...” * Click Finish * Click settings tab; uncheck all boxes. * Click apply, then OK. The next time you start or reboot your computer, all index.dat files will de deleted. (The ones in Cookies and Temporary Internet Files will be recreated at 32 KB; the two in History will be recreated at 16KB.) OPTION. After you complete Steps 1 and 2, reboot your computer. If you don’t like the DOS window that flashes on the screen: * Go to My Computer, C:\ drive * Find DELTA.BAT and right click. * Click on properties. * Click the program tab. * In the run box, select “Run Minimized” from the drop down menu. * Check “Close on Exit” * Click Apply, then OK.

Check the C:\WINDOWS folder for a files named HOSTS.SAM and HOSTS. If the file HOSTS exists (no extension) then it is being used by IE to block access to all the web pages/sites listed in the file. It is part of package(s) used to block access to AD sites. By renaming to something else and booting system, you should then see the AD banners.

do you have zone alarm pro. There is a setting there that if set too low it will not show banners, I have mine set at twenty seconds (if they can show up in 20 sec's fine, if not I get the x). It's in the Privacy section, click on custom and set your ad-blocker to 20 sec's and see. Erin

I have a HOST file, hosts, LMHOST and A DLLHOST which one should I rename?