Resource block window

This window can be shown each time you block a banner (resource). Here you may setup which similar banners you want to block altogether with it. Blocking a banner in a bunch rather than single banner blocking is very effective as banners usually come from certain advertisers and each advertiser has a certain web address. By recognition of this address and blocking all resources from it you may block all ads from an advertiser in several clicks, not only for the current page but for future browsing as well! See Ads on the web for more information on ads on the web. See How to block banners? to learn more how to block banners and the ways to get to Resource block window.

There are two modes of this window: simple and advanced (do not confuse them with Ad Annihilator modes) .

Simple mode

In simple mode you have minimal control over which banners will be blocked altogether with the banner you are blocking. Here is the sample Resource block window in simple mode:

The window in this mode is used primarily as a confirmation of banner blocking. You may:

• Click "Block" button to block this and similar banners using default blocking mask supplied by Ad Annihilator. To see that mask switch this window to advanced mode;

• Cancel banner blocking by clicking Cancel button;

• Switch the window to advanced mode by clicking Advanced button.

If you need more precise control over which banners will be blocked, use this window in advanced mode.

Advanced mode

Your primary task when you see this window in advanced mode is to select a banner address pattern from which, by your opinion, ads are served. This is not an unambiguous and automated task, otherwise Ad Annihilator would have done it for you. However, it is not too hard as, happily, advertisers put in their addresses commonly used words such as "ads", "banner" and so on. Fortunately, Ad Annihilator guesses the best address and offers it to you by default.

As an example, let us consider the following window:

At the top we see the address of the banner being blocked in bold. It can be split in several parts explained in Understanding internet addresses. Below is the list of suggested filter masks for banner blocking with a default selection offered by Ad Annihilator. We should check this selection and make sure if it reflects the most appropriate banner mask. If it does, all it is left to do is to click "Block!" button. If, to your opinion, it doesn't, you should select another one. In our case Ad Annihilator made a good choice as it selected a conspicuous advertiser site address as it contains word "ad" in it. See below for the specific description of Resource block window elements and examples of banner blocking. See Understanding banner filters to learn about banner filters.

Resource block window elements

There are following elements in Resource block window:

• Address of the banner (resource) being blocked shown in bold at the top of the window. This is the address of the resource you are about to block. All filter mask suggestions in the table below are based on this address;

• Banner filter mask suggestion table -  lists the banner filer mask suggestions made by Ad Annihilator. Initially, this table contains only Name column. If you want to see other columns, click "Show more" button located at the top of the table. To hide these additional columns click "Show less" button. There are following columns in the list:

  • "Name" - understandable name of the filter mask;

  • "Mask" - masks that will be added to banner filters if you choose this suggestion. This field corresponds to "Address" and "Apply to subdomains as well" options of a filter in Banner filter item properties window;

  • "Type" - type of the filter mask that will be used for the banner filter to be added if you choose this suggestion. This field corresponds to "Apply mask to" option of a filter in Banner filter item properties window;

  • "Blocked resources examples" - examples of resources that will be blocked if you choose this suggestion. The bold part corresponds to an address part from blocked banner address; other parts reflects additional parts added by Ad Annihilator to demonstrate which banners will be blocked altogether with the primary banner you are blocking.
    The following suggestions are listed in this table:

    • For main host and all its subdomains (somedomain.com, *.somedomain.com);

    • For main host's subdomains (*.somedomain.com);

    • For only this resource (somedomain.com/banner1.gif);

    • For all similar resources with various parameters (somedomain.com/banner.dll?*);

    • For each subdomain (ads.somedomain.com, img.ads.somedomain.com);

    • For each subdomain and all its subdomains (*.ads.somedomain.com, ads.somedomain.com);

    • For  each folder (somedomain.com/images/*, somedomain.com/images/ads/*);

    • For  each folder in all subdomains of main host (*.somedomain.com/banner/*, *.somedomain.com/banner/ads/*).

    See Banner filter mask selection guidelines to learn how to select the right mask;

• "Open extended properties for this filter after I close this dialog" - if checked, Banner filter item properties window will be opened after you click "Block!" button. In that window you can further edit a newly added banner filter in case Ad Annihilator suggestions do not satisfy you. Note that if you change the filter improperly, the original banner you are blocking may be not blocked! So use this only when you clearly understand how banner filters work;

• "Show this dialog only when Shift key is pressed" - if checked, this dialog will be opened at banner blocking only if you press Shift key when issuing blocking command. When this option checked and you do not press Shift when blocking, this window is not shown and Ad Annihilator makes the choices and adds filters automatically based on its best guess. This mode is recommended if you do not want to be bothered by this window each time you block a banner and trust Ad Annihilator to make the choice for you. This option can be changed in Banner stopper tab of Ad Annihilator Options window as well;

• "Simple" - this button switches this window back to simple mode.

Banner filter mask selection guidelines

Resource block window offers you to select a mask from the list that Ad Annihilator generated based on the address of the banner being blocked. Your task is to detect which address parts correspond to common patterns from which advertisements come and which - to specific banner names. Advertisers often use in their addresses words such as "ad", "banner", "click", "counter", "log" so these words are a good indicator of common part of banner addresses. The following table details which banner filter mask suggestions Ad Annihilator can offer and recommendations for their selection. In the Name and Mask columns of the table it is implied that a banner with address http://ads.somedomain.com/folder1/banner.gif?param1=value1 is being blocked.

The following table lists some banner address examples, suggests reasonable selections and explains them.

Note that the process of banner blocking is not strictly definite. A lot depends on your banner blocking experience which, however, is quite easy to acquire by browsing the web with Ad Annihilator and blocking banners. The exciting feature of Ad Annihilator is it memorizes the choice you made in this window for future browsing and you won't have to deal with the same advertiser twice. Since the range of sites you usually browse is restricted, you will quickly establish banner filters suited for you and have to deal with banners more rarely and rarely with time. Once you teach Ad Annihilator how to detect banners, it will work for you since then saving you time, online traffic and money.

Note that Ad Annihilator comes with predefined set of filters that blocks a lot of advertiser sites right away so you won't even have to know about the most of them and never have to use banner blocking and this window for blocking their ads. Banner blocking is used only for specific advertisers and their banners that do not fit the common banner naming scheme. In any way, your efforts for blocking of banners from a certain advertiser are considerably lower than advertiser's efforts for setting up a banner system! Also, the predefined banner filters are a good example of banner address pattern so it is useful to explore them to find out commonly used banner naming patterns. To explore them create a project with default settings (if you have not done this already) and open Banner filters tab.

At last, Ad Annihilator is able to choose the right banner filter mask itself. See below for details.

Default filter mask selection offered by Ad Annihilator

To save you efforts Ad Annihilator is capable of detection of suitable filter mask itself. When you open Resource block window, this selection is offered by default. If this window is not shown when blocking banners due to "Show this dialog only when Shift key is pressed" option, it is this selection that is made automatically.

The algorithm for banner filter selection is simple:

1. If a banner comes from other host than the host of the document where this banner resides, than it is assumed that it comes from an advertiser site and all resources from that site are blocked (selection #1)
2. If a banner comes from the host of the document where this banner resides or its subdomain, than it is assumed that this banner is unique on this site and only this banner is blocked (selection #3)

This algorithm does not cover all cases so using of Resource block window is recommended though.