1. How to ban Web sites from access to your computer.
   
• This is a useful way to ban advertising Web sites from even accessing your computer. Add their domain names to your HOSTS file. Helpdeskgeek shows how to do it. This is even more effective than ad-blocking software because the entire advertising domain or subdomain is banned from your computer.
• To block YouTube pre-roll ads. We know that YouTube needs advertising revenue to operate, but it also needs to recognize that access to people's computers is a privilege and not a right. Advertisers need to meanwhile recognize that an unskippable ad that evokes hostility in the viewer is not a good way to market a product. Think about it; if you shove a brochure for your product on top of a book or newspaper that somebody is reading, do you think he is likely to buy from you? Static and noninvasive ads will rarely be resented, will rarely if ever be blocked (except by people who don't like any advertising at all), and will evoke no worse than a neutral reaction from the viewer.
2. How to block advertising (clutter)
   
• Adblock Plus will block a lot, if not most, unwanted content. The default setting, which we use, does not block non-invasive advertising such as banner ads that appear off to the side. We recognize that many Web sites rely on legitimate advertising income to provide free content, so we do not block non-invasive ads. Adblock Plus can also be configured to exempt sites you like and want to support even though the advertising does not match Adblock's criteria; we have safe-listed many such sites. On the other hand, pop-up ads that intrude over the desired content, or uninvited video or audio that play without us clicking on it--one strike and they're out (unless they are hosted by sites we really want to support.)
• UBlock Origin also is useful, and works on Chrome, Firefox, and possibly other browsers.
  
3. How to block (or remove) tracking cookies
• Levinson Productivity Systems PC respects visitors' privacy and does not use tracking cookies (except on our blog; if we can figure out how to disable cookies for Wordpress, we will). We use Cookie AutoDelete by Kenny Do to ensure that the sites we visit respect ours. This add-on is available for Firefox, Chrome, and Edge and can also safe-list sites you visit frequently and for which cookies save you time. Please greylist (not whitelist) our blog if it requires cookies to work; this means the cookies are deleted when you leave the page as we understand.
  

• AdBlock Plus allows (default setting, our recommendation) non-invasive advertising to support Web sites and blocks invasive advertising. It can also be turned off for hobbyist-run and other Web sites whose owners don't have the knowledge or resources necessary to display only ads that meet AdBlock's criteria, and enabled for larger publishers that know, or should know, the difference between invasive and non-invasive ads. Well worth the recommended contribution.
  
• AdFender ($19.95, we have not tried it) claims to eliminate all advertising including YouTube pre-roll ads. We prefer, however, to allow non-invasive ads to support Web sites and Web content.
• Buster: Captcha Solver for Humans for those of us who do not want to play picture games, or perform unpaid work to help these utilities with their machine learning, to access a web site or make a transaction.
  
• Cookie AutoDelete by Kenny Do, can be set to safe-list sites from which you want to allow cookies
  
• FB Purity removes clutter from Facebook. Well worth the recommended contribution.
• HostsMan (Hosts Manager, we have not tried it) is an easy way to edit your Hosts file, although this also can be done with Notepad. It is freeware, with no requested donation.
  
• Malwarebytes anti-malware security software. The paid (professional) version is well worth the money in our opinion.
  
• NoScript for Firefox disables unauthorized JavaScript links, but desirable JavaScript sources can be temporarily or permanently whitelisted. This disables not only JavaScript-dependent pop-up ads but also (potentiallly) sources of malware as well. This security is well worth a contribution to the developer.
• PopUpOFF - Popup and overlay blocker removes overlay clutter that intrudes into the middle of web pages. Also available in Firefox.
  
• Screencastify for Google Chrome (we have not tried it) can record videos with unskippable ads in the background. The videos can then be treated much like those recorded from a television broadcast, with the ability to fast-forward or skip through the clutter entirely.
  
• uBlock Origin blocks clutter and other undesirable/extraneous material

Contact Us

Levinson Productivity Systems P.C.
6 Lexington Court
Wilkes-Barre PA 18702
570-824-1986
TheBoss "at" ct-yankee.com