Other articles on this web site discuss methods for blocking advertisments and hindering the attempts that ill-mannered companies make to track your web browsing activity.However some of these blocking methods work best if you have a web server that you can redirect the advert requests to.This article explains how you might be able to use your ethernet ADSL modem as a dummy web server.
If you are using the nameserver of hosts file methods of blocking web advertisments and hindering tracking of your browsing habits then you will need a web server to which the intercepted advertisment requests can be referred.Without such a web server the interception of the advertisment will cause a delay while your web browser tries to contact a computer that doesn't exist.
Some people will have a web server already running on their computer, or will be able to install one.Others will be able to refer to a web sever within their organization.If neither of these options is available but you have an ethernet modem or router then it is possible that this equipment will be able to provide the web server that you need.
In the context of blocking advertisments the web server simply needs to receive the intercepted advertisment request and respond immediately with some sort of error page.The immediate response is what is important because otherwise your web browser will loiter while it waits for a response from the advertisng server — a response that is never going to arrive because the original request to the sever has been intercepted.
The reason that some routers and ethernet ADSL modems have web servers is because these web servers allow the owner of the modem or router to configure it using only their ordinary and favourite web browser.
First, try reading manual or instructions that came with your modem. Of course, you didn't need to be told that did you?If you haven't got the manual consider checking the manufacturer's web site.
Second, take a wild guess of 192.168.0.1 and try typing that number into your browser in the place where you would normally type the web page address. Don't precede it with any other characters; just type the digits and the dots.If your browser responds by showing you a page that looks like it comes from your modem then it was probably the right guess.
Third, if neither of the above yielded the correct answer then we are going to have to get technical.If you are using Windows and are comfortable using the regedit program then you can search the registry for the name “gateway”.Since the gateway is likely to be your modem then the IP address of the gateway is also likely to be the IP address of your modem.Type the IP address of the gateway into your browser and see what sort of web page that leads to.Note, it doesn't matter if the resulting web page is an error page — all that is important is that there should be a page and not just a pop‑up window from your browser telling you that nothing responded.If you are using some version of GNU/Linux then, again, you need to find out the IP address of the gateway that your computer is referring to.If you have SuSE Linux you can find this information in the networking section of the YaST configuration program.
Life is never as easy as you would like it to be and this means of obtainin a dummy web server is not without its drawbacks.One likely problem is that the modem will require a authentication before it will respond and when it receives one of the intercepted requests a window will pop‑up asking for the username and password.If only trusted persons are using the connection then it might be acceptable for everybbody to know those details and they can enter them whenever the modem asks for them.Some modems will have a timeout period after which they will ask for authentication again.If the timeout period is very short then this means of obtaining a dummy web server probably isn't going to be acceptable for you.
Some web browsers, such as Opera, will allow you to store passwords and usernames and will provide the information semi-automatically every time it is needed.This alleviates some of the tedium of being asked for the information every ten or fifteen minutes.
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