Ad blocking

Not only does blocking ads remove their annoyance and distraction, it also reduces bandwidth usage and decreases CPU load. This can decrease page loading and rendering time, and reduce memory usage, especially on slower connections. There are a number of methods for blocking ads, each with their own set of pros and cons.

Contents

Hosts and CSS

This is the recommended method, as the performance impact of the other methods is non-trivial.

Pros:

  • Lowest performance impact (effectively zero).

Cons:

  • Less thorough and effective than the other methods.
  • Requires having root access and using XTerm to configure.
  • Time consuming to temporarily disable.
  • The 'hosts' file may block network access from some applications as the rules in it are used by all applications accessing the network.

Hosts

The hosts file works by blocking access to a large number of know advertising servers, thus preventing the browser from loading content from those servers. Although the hosts file prevents advertising content from being loaded, it does not remove those elements from the page. Which is why it is used in conjunction with the CSS method.

The rules for these blocks are put into /etc/hosts. Simply append the contents of this hosts file to the end of your hosts file. To edit it you need root access. Be careful to add it to the existing contents instead of overwriting them, as these are necessary for normal operation of the tablet.

CSS

The CSS method uses a custom stylesheet that the browser will apply to all pages. This stylesheet has rules for removing advertising elements from the page. So the hosts file prevents the content from being loaded, and the CSS stylesheet prevents the elements from being rendered.

Simply place this useContent.css file into /home/user/.mozilla/microb/chrome/userContent.css and restart MicroB.

Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus is a plugin for Mozilla based browsers, such as Firefox and the MicroB.

Pros:

  • Easy to install.
  • Has no influence on other applications than the browser.
  • Is more thorough and effective than the hosts/CSS method.

Cons:

  • Significant performance impact that often offsets the benefits of blocking ads.

It is available from the Browser Extras repository.

You can save time building up your block list by copying your existing patterns.ini to your tablet here: /home/user/.mozilla/microb/adblockplus. For example, on Windows XP it can be found in C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxx.default\adblockplus.

Works great in compliment with Flashblock, also available in Browser Extras.

Privoxy

A preliminary Privoxy port is available for the brave. In contrast to the previous N770 port this one is available in repositories for N8x0 & OS2008.