Blocking images from certain sites in Netscape?

March 29, 2004 9:57 AM

Is there a way to block images from certain sites in Netscape? I've had enough tubgirl for a lifetime, thanks...
posted by JoanArkham to computers & internet (12 comments total)

Does right-clicking the image and selecting "Block Image from this Server" (or something like that) not work? Of course, you'd have to see the image, and there's probably an even better way, but it works for me.
posted by gyc at 10:07 AM on March 29, 2004

If you're using Windows, you could just redirect any requests to access the server to 127.0.0.1, aka host. It'll end up a broken image or a "cannot be found" image.

This is also a good way to block ads, if you are still not using pop-up/banner ad blockers.

The file, in Win2K, XP, etc. is in C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. It can be edited in notepad. For any site you want to block, just type, for example,

127.0.0.1 tubgirl.com

A good long list of ad blocks can be found here. They're very easy to add as you find more.
posted by whatzit at 10:11 AM on March 29, 2004

I'm not sure if you are using a PC or a Mac, but on PC and linux machines there is a file called a hosts file.

On a PC it's in:
C:/windows/system32/drivers/etc/

Open the file with a text editor like notepad or wordpad. You'll see the last line is something like:
127.0.0.1 localhost

Copy this and paste it in on a new line, replace localhost with the url you want to block:
127.0.0.1 www.WHATEVERSHOCKSITE.com

Save the file. All done, now any requests there will not work at all.

(NOTE: DNS results might be cached, so you might want to reboot before testing).

Come to think of it, I'm willing to bet OS X has a hosts file somewhere, maybe a mac user can say where.
posted by malphigian at 10:14 AM on March 29, 2004

Doh, whatzit's post wasn't there a second ago, apologies for the double.
posted by malphigian at 10:15 AM on March 29, 2004

It'd be cool to have a smart algorithm that could recognize porn or pictures of the president and auto-block them.
posted by mecran01 at 10:26 AM on March 29, 2004

I'm on XP. Thanks for the suggestions!

(I'm really not a prude, I swear...just tired of gross images in unexpected places.)
posted by JoanArkham at 10:30 AM on March 29, 2004

OSX keeps its hostfile in the same place linux does: /etc/hosts.
The /etc directory is hidden in the finder, but you can get to it by:
1) open a finder window
2) hit apple-shift-G
3) type /etc/, hit return

...or by just using the terminal.

(You might need to have the developer tools installed as well, as many of the unix-y parts of OSX are missing without them. I've never not had them installed, so don't know about this item specifically. I also seem to remember that early versions of OSX required some complicated maneuvering in NetInfo Manager to use the hosts file; 10.3 seems to use it by default, though.)
posted by ook at 10:31 AM on March 29, 2004

(Or you could just keep using XP. :)
posted by ook at 10:31 AM on March 29, 2004

Be sure not to save the "hosts" file as "hosts.txt." Use quotation marks when saving it to make sure there are no file extentions.
posted by arco at 11:11 AM on March 29, 2004

arco's got that right - if you do "open with" it'll want to save it as hosts.txt. if you do "send to notepad" it will not fight you over the extension.
posted by whatzit at 11:45 AM on March 29, 2004

For what it's worth, Omniweb 5 for Mac OS X has a per-site preference option, so you can say "On this site only, don't load any images that are of this size" or whatever. It's a great little feature.
posted by jragon at 1:17 PM on March 29, 2004

i had never seen tubgirl until i read this thread. i saw goatse a few years ago, but up until today, my life has been happy.

now all that is over.
posted by Jonasio at 6:06 PM on March 29, 2004