Forum: hoop
Page 8937
Subject: OT: AdSubtract Pro Software


  Posted by: PGunn - [251028715] Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 11:50

Has anybody ever downloaded this? I downloaded it and it completely messed up my system. Any of you computer science guys know what it does and how to fix it? I can't believe that somebody at PC World recommended this and that it was on CNET's download site.
 
1Perm Dude
      Leader
      ID: 3406922
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 12:00
How did it mess up your system?

Sometimes software (particularly freeware or shareware) for which you have not paid a fee requires the ads to come up in order to run. For example, I use Download Accelerator with the ads, and have to keep them to keep DA running. Same for my Eudora.

There is a slowdown in your connection with AdSubtract as well in a broadband connection (which might only be with IE broadband use).

pd
 
2Great One
      Donor
      ID: 41136511
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 12:03
i have been looking for an Ad killer myself... i had pop-killer on my old computer and I think it messed it up too... anyone got a link to a good one?
 
3Perm Dude
      Leader
      ID: 3406922
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 12:05
I used to use popup killer, but ran into troubles when the settings were too high. Sometimes when I would open another browser window it thought it was a popup and killed it! Took me about 15 very frustrating minutes to figure out that problem.

pd
 
4PGunn
      ID: 251028715
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 12:06
Perm Dude, I have a cable internet connection and it slowed it down to a crawl. Many pages wouldn't even load including this one (message forum). I have been searching the web for some info on this and it looks like it messes with your browser and proxy settings, which I know nothing about.
 
5Perm Dude
      Leader
      ID: 3406922
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 12:19
Yeah, a proxy-based ad remover is going to slow down page views because the time to remove the ad is so much longer than the time is normally takes to display them (a dial-up connection probably would not notice much of a difference, or see a speedup because the time to display the ads is taken out of the time to display the whole page).

So you're probably viewing pages at a dialup speed, which seems to be really slow if you're used to a faster page download.

I don't know if a cable hookup has a way for the ISP to proxy out the ads. Maybe you should look at some kind of Popup killer. Unfortunately, it won't do anything for ads, just popups.

pd
 
6PGunn
      ID: 251028715
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 12:29
I'm really not that worried about the ads anymore. I just want to get the settings on my computer back to normal and get my internet speed back. I removed the ad subtract program but some user comments on CNET suggest that it may still be on my computer even though I removed it. They mentioned a patch that I have downloaded and I seem to have gotten some speed back. Some guys had to reinstall windows, reformat their harddrive, reinstall Internet Explorer etc. One guy said that it deleted everything on his hard drive. UN FRICKIN BELIEVABLE. Be careful what you download fellas. Go to CNET downloads and search for AdSubtract and read some of the comments from people. Yet CNET leaves this piece of crap program available for download.
 
7KYCAT
      Donor
      ID: 320211910
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 12:39
crazybrowser
 
8Perm Dude
      Leader
      ID: 3406922
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 12:41
Are you using IE or Netscape? Check your browser settings on whichever one you are using and see if it is still trying to get your pages through the proxy (in Netscape, it's Preferences, then Advanced, then Proxies). Even if the software isn't there, your browser might be slowing down trying to get the pages through the deleted proxy. Make sure the browser is set to No Proxies.

pd
 
9PGunn
      ID: 251028715
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 12:55
Perm Dude I use both. I checked both and they are both set to direct internet connection (no proxy). Maybe that patch I downloaded and ran restored my settings. My speed seems to be close to normal now. I also setup Internet Explorer to automatically detect the appropriate settings for LAN and Dial Up. Don't know if that helped any or not. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS PROGRAM.
 
10Perm Dude
      Leader
      ID: 3406922
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 12:58
Sounds like you probably fixed it, then.

I don't know why they don't point out that these ad-busting programs only speed things up for dial-up users.

pd
 
11DissFunkShun
      Donor
      ID: 2511492714
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 17:28
Great One PGunn , I've been using pop-up stopper for the last year and it works great with 56k & DSL. It's free to download and when you enable aggressive pop-up control in the preferences section, absolutely no ads get through. I have used it with Windows ME & XP with no conflicts so far.
 
12PGunn
      ID: 251028715
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 18:32
DissFunkShun, I am kinda scared to try another program considering what happened to me with this AdSubtract garbage. But I might give it a try.
 
13APerfect10
      Leader
      ID: 4921123
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 22:49
I use Pop-Up Stopper Pro and it works like a charm!
 
14PGunn
      ID: 251028715
      Sun, Jan 19, 2003, 23:31
I downloaded POP UP STOPPER. No complaints so far. Just have to use the control key when you want to open another browser which is no big deal.
 
15xpdurmind
      Donor
      ID: 180201221
      Mon, Jan 20, 2003, 00:23
One way to stop all the pop up windows is to avoid navigating the porn sites :)
Seriously though, I just aquired Norton internet security 2003 (antivirus included) and it has an ad blocker...It has been working I guess..Usually I get popups from ESPN and Yahoo. I haven't seen a single ad yet in 3 weeks.My cable connection has been the same consistent 700 Kbps.
After a rebate it might end up costing ~ $25.
 
16APerfect10
      Leader
      ID: 4921123
      Mon, Jan 20, 2003, 00:34
PGunn, Pop-Up Stopper has a 'safe list'. Sites that you know have good pop-ups or use pop-ups as part of their site, you can add to the 'safe list' and it always allows their pop-ups.

After awhile, you get used to using the CTRL key if you know you arent getting a pop-up that you need.
 
17PGunn
      ID: 520561922
      Mon, Jan 20, 2003, 00:44
Xpurdmind, I have a cable connection and I don't think I am surfing at 700 KBPS. I might be going 300 KBPS max. What kind of cable hookup do you have and from what company?
 
18KnicksFan
      Donor
      ID: 3974252
      Mon, Jan 20, 2003, 00:48
I tried using Ad-Aware and it screwed up my Kazaa because it deleted certain files that were needed for Kazaa to run. Would any of these not affect Kazaa?
 
19xpdurmind
      Donor
      ID: 180201221
      Mon, Jan 20, 2003, 01:04
PGunn,It's a local cable company : Charter Communications(owned by Paul Allen)..It all depends on the package you buy though.You can easily check your connection speed : Try the bandwidth meter at 2wire.com link
 
20APerfect10
      Leader
      ID: 4921123
      Mon, Jan 20, 2003, 01:56
KnicksFan, pop-up stopper has nothing to do with adware/spyware. It just doesnt allow pop-ups to open up.

I would suggest removing Kazaa and downloading Kazaa lite (no spyware). You would then be able to run Ad-aware with no problem.
 
21xpdurmind
      Donor
      ID: 180201221
      Mon, Jan 20, 2003, 03:10
#7~~~&&&&KYCAT: WHAT'S UP WITH YOUR LINK ?
 
22PGunn
      ID: 520561922
      Mon, Jan 20, 2003, 09:20
Xpurdmind, I tried that bandwith meter and I was averaging about 700 KBPS if that thing is accurate. I doubt if it is. Web pages usually take about 2 or 3 seconds to load for me.
 
23smartone
      Donor
      ID: 191119269
      Mon, Jan 20, 2003, 09:58
PGunn, you get the high-speeds when you download large files, however, if you are trying to download a web page with many frames (a newspaper, for instance), the actual download time depends on the resources of your computer (the main factor is the RAM). I consider to add memory to my system to speed-up the download of such pages.