AdFender

The Internet may offer numerous advantages, but it also comes with some drawbacks. There are many web sites which choke you with all sorts of ads and pop ups. Web browsers may include ad blockers, but most of the time, they are ineffective. If you are tired of so many advertisements, AdFender will block them, regardless of what browser you are using. It can also protect your privacy, erase cookies and browsing history.

The application is free and there are no hidden restrictions or costs. You can use it on Windows XP (SP2 or SP3), Vista and Win 7. There is no risk of doing something wrong during the setup process, because it is straightforward and there are no advanced options to encounter.

To protect yourself from annoying ads, you only need to run AdFender, click a button on the Overview page and you will not encounter any more pesky ads, banners or anything of the sorts. You will find various statistics on the Overview page, including the number of blocked banners or flash ads or the saved bandwidth. If you do not want to block ads on certain websites, you can add their URLs to an exceptions list, on the software's settings panel.

You can access AdFender's general settings and other sections by clicking a series of hyperlinks, located on the left side of the main window. Besides compiling a list of approved web sites, you can also set the application to reroute your connection through a proxy server. The software is capable of blocking ads which may show up on a wide variety of web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Avant, Safari and many more. It also works with instant messengers, like AOL, Yahoo, Windows Live Messenger and others, as well as P2P clients, such as BitComet, iMesh and more. You can enable or disable AdFender's blocking capabilities for individual programs by clicking a series of check boxes, located on the Applications page.

Cookies and history items can be targeted individually or all at once on separate pages. Once selected, you just need to click a button to erase them. You can also find a Log and a Statistics section. The log contains blocked items, which are categorized according to their hosts, while the statistics include the total number of blocked items for each host.