Blocking Adds on MSN

I found a few tutorials on the internet about this but for some reason didn't seem to work with the version available Sep 2009 (I cant find the about button to get the version!!). The other tutorials tell you what to add, but this should help you figure it out yourself so you can try it on future versions or for other clients.

The other tutorials all mention using the host file which I did, and here's what it looked like:

#
## block msn adds
#
127.0.0.1 rad.msn.com
127.0.0.1 global.msads.com
127.0.0.1 rss.video.msn.com
127.0.0.1 ads1.msn.com
127.0.0.1 rad.live.com
127.0.0.1 specials.uk.msn.com
127.0.0.1 config.messenger.msn.com
127.0.0.1 view.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1 edge1.catalog.video.msn.com
127.0.0.1 img4.catalog.video.msn.com
127.0.0.1 rad.msn.com.nsatc.net

But for some reason the adds were still getting through, so for the next step I downloaded a Trial of DNS server and installed the appliaction

http://www.jhsoft.com/

and configured my PC to use it's own IP as a DNS server in:

Ctrl Panel -> Network Connections -> WAN -> TCP options -> DNS server

Next quit all internet apps like gmail, firefox , skype, torrents, network apps etc to reduce the amount of DNS traffic eminating from the PC

Start a Command Prompt:

Start -> Run -> cmd

and issue the command:

ipconfig /flushdns

to clear the current DNS cache.

Start MSN Client and after you see the adds pop up look at the DNS cache snapshot in Simple DNS Plus and block, either in your host file:

c:/Windows/system322/drivers/etc/hosts

or by adding to the restricted Sites on your router (In my case a basic Netgear has a site filter capability).

127.0.0.1 ads2.msn.com.c.footprint.net
127.0.0.1 rad.msn.com.nsatc.net
127.0.0.1 .doubleclick.net

Clear the DNS cache on Simple DNS Plus, clear the windows cache as before and relaunch MSN client and you'll notice the advertising pane replaced with the image at the top of this post!