Block Ads and/or Set Up Parental Control Without Installing Software

by Roger Bergstein, Stuart Computer Service, February 21, 2019

This technique for blocking ads and popups is a form of Domain Name Service (DNS) filtering. Every registered website is assigned a unique numerical Internet Protocol (IP) address. A DNS Server is like a phone book of IP addresses allowing computers to resolve the IP address of a target web site given the website name. When you surf the internet by web site name, multiple DNS Server resolution requests occur in the background to allow your web browser to present the web page.

This ad blocking technique involves telling your computer to use a specific DNS Server which will compare the target website against a list it maintains of ad, tracking and fraud servers, and return a null response instead of the target server's actual IP address. Parents, you can also block adult content by using a DNS Server geared toward Family Protection. These servers are maintained by a company called AdGuard and are absolutely free to use.

To set this up on Windows 10:

• • Settings > Network&Internet > Ethernet > Change Adapter Options
• • Right Click on Properties for your current network adapter
• • Highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and left click on properties
• • Make a note of your current DNS Settings, then change the preferred and alternate DNS Servers
• • For ad blocking:                                    176.103.130.130      176.103.130.131
• • For ad blocking plus family protection: 176.103.130.132      176.103.130.134

This technique works for any device which you can change the DNS Servers (Windows, MAC, Android, IOS, Linux, Etc). Click adguard dns setup guide for complete instructions. On a personal note, I did experience one legitimate web request that returned a null value, so the technique is not foolproof, but it works extremely well.