Broadband Tech > Security > Security > Ad/Cookie Blocking App Reviews

reply to Zhen-Xjell

ASP review

said by nmopepisdn:

---

I haven't used Naviscope as I heard it might be tracking your internet usage. I'm not sure how reliable that rumor is but I haven't needed any other program other than ASP.

---

reply to nmop$
Excellent review, nmopepisdn, precisely what I was looking for.

I concur that AS LOOKED superior to others but lacked web bugs filtering. I've written the creators asking them this specific question but to this day no one responded so I assume they do not block it.
--
Folding can save a life!

reply to nmop$
I used Adsoff(Intercantech) for a while and liked that allot. Doesn't work with new version of Zone Alarm Pro 2.6. Went to AddSubtract. Worked great,does block everything. I am not familiar with using Proxy's. I do not know how safe it is. I found @guard's 2.2 version and went to that. It block most of the ads and pop ups, but I noticed one thing. The speed of pages downloading is noticebly faster with @guard and from what I remember, with Adsoff. I think I will sacrifice getting rid of 90% of the ads for speed and comfort of not having to go through a Proxy(unless someone could explain the security of a proxy).

Thanks amark for the information. Now just a quick side note... I received some emails just now from WebWasher support. I posted parts of it here. In addition, the linked post contains a tidbit on how to catch those cookies that slip past WW.
--
»All your Smurf are belong to Smurf!
»Ad/Cookie Blocking App Reviews

Perhaps this is out of place, but could you elaborate slightly on:

said by Z-X:

---

The hosts file... just does not do it for me in the MS OS world.

---

From my perspective, a simple feel of the system I am using. How do my senses (broad definition here... sight, ease of navigation, etc) react to the OS environment?

I love to work in the console whenever I am on a *nix system. To me, it would be horrible not to use the command line. There exists a certain art-form with exhilaration in using the command line in ksh.

MS does not give me the same sensory perception for its command line. To me, MS is at its best with the GUI... that is where my senses get their pleasure.

Hence, I rather stay away from any text editing in a Windows environment, whereas I love text editing in a UNIX environment. Subjective I know, but that is what works for me.
--
»All your Smurf are belong to Smurf!
»Ad/Cookie Blocking App Reviews

reply to amark
amark, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe having a proxy like ASP or Adsoff doesn't increase security one bit. And how does @guard block the ads if not through a proxy? I'm not aware of any other method...
[text was edited by author 2001-05-28 13:28:10]

A proxy can drop connections to certain IP's, but it does it at the app level, and provides security only from known threats, if you include them as filters, by simply blocking access to them. For example, if you know that site x.x.x.x is running hostile java code, you could put a rule to block that IP in the proxy, and it would... hopefully. It can't filter with the effectiveness of a firewall, and is not a substitute for one. With a good firewall, security is one of the last reasons to use a proxy server; in fact, as I noted in a recent question posted here, a proxy can be a natural tunnel through any firewall if it's not configured right, so it can actually be a risk, in some instances. Look at it this way: the app contacts the firewall directly, where it is checked to see if this is an allowed app using an allowed port, then passed or denied based on what can be very specific rules. With a proxy, the app contacts the proxy, which contacts the firewall AS ITSELF, so all the firewall sees accessing it is "proxyserver.exe on port xx"; the rules it applies are the rules for proxyserver.exe, not for the app... the firewall, at this point, neither knows nor cares what app is contacting it, it assumes the request is from the proxy and applies the rules you've set for the proxy, not the underlying app. The only "rules" applied to a proxied connection, once you allow outbound connections from it at the firewall, are the filters in the proxy itself. If the proxy can't filter as well as the firewall (and it can't), then any number of things can "ride through the tunnel" and evade detection on the firewall, unless you perform some ("real") acrobatics to check the localhost traffic to the proxy server (can be done with Tiny, don't know about ZA).

Used as a second layer of filters only for apps that access http connections (for example, only IE ad OE), a good proxy can compliment a good firewall immensely, in terms of ad management, cookie screening, and so forth. Used willy-nilly as a default pass through for every app accessing the internet, though, it has the potential of becomming a "tunnel" instead of a "gate" to let a rogue app or trojan that would otherwise be caught at the firewall undermine its way through the proxy tunnel to the internet.

Proxies can also, sometimes, be accessed offsite (from the internet), where there is no firewall or a big enough hole in the firewall to let a cracker in. In other words, if you have a misconfigured proxy server, I MIGHT be able to connect to it from here, if I were of that devious a mind, and make my connections appear to be coming from your IP, without the muss or fuss of having to spoof anything. This is a bit rare, and somewhat specific to certain servers, especially some caching proxy servers, but a real possibility, nonetheless, and not at all that unusual or a bit difficult for the cracker, once he finds you, really.
--
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most times he will pick himself up and carry on. - Sir Winston Churchill

I wasn't saying a proxy was secure. I was trying to say I do not feel safe using a proxy.I thought proxy's weren't safe. Using a program like atguard or adsoff was safer.

I have not used programs like Checkpoint which are industrial strength applications, but I do know that such high grade quality applications are software proxies.