The Pennswoods.net Internet Accelerator can prevent pop-up windows and floating flash advertisements from appearing while you browse the Internet.
A limited number of web sites require pop-ups to function correctly. The Pennswoods.net Internet Accelerator allows you to specify a "White List" of sites where pop-ups will not be blocked.
For more information on the pop-up blocking functionality of the Pennswoods.net Internet Accelerator, click here!
(If you're a Pennswoods.net customer, and aren't using the accelerator, what are you waiting for? Click here for more information!)
There are other methods for blocking pop-up advertisements, which can range from an add-on component for Internet Explorer, or even a whole different web browser.
- Internet Explorer Add-ons
If you're quite comfortable with Internet Explorer, and don't want to switch which browser you use to surf the internet, there are now several free options for you, in the form of add-on toolbars. These toolbars have various other useful functions built-in to them in addition to the pop-up blocking, such as enhanced search features, form managers, and useful links. The only downside to the toolbars is, of course, that they use up screen space on your browser window.
While there are several different toolbars for IE available, we're going to provide links to the ones that we here at Pennswoods.net found to be the best, the Google Toolbar, and the Yahoo Companion.
Click here for information and to download the Google Toolbar
Click here for information and to download the Yahoo Companion toolbar
If you're on a Macintosh computer, however, these toolbars will not work for you. Thus, to totally eliminate pop-ups, you will need to use an alternative browser. Or, perhaps you're on a PC, and want to try something new? This brings us to our next section:
- Alternative Web Browsers
Most people use Microsoft's Internet Explorer, since it's the browser that comes stock on both Windows and Macintosh computers. Internet Explorer gets the job done when it comes to viewing websites, but unfortunately, it does nothing for stopping pop-up advertising on it's own.
There are, however, alternatives to Internet Explorer, that not only allow you to view web sites just as well as IE, but they also include extra features. And among these features, is the ability to block pop-up advertising.
While there are several alternative web browsers out there, we're only going to focus on the two most popular ones, Firefox, and Opera.
Firefox
Firefox is an open source browser with a strong following. It offers fast secure web browsing including many features that are often missing from Internet Explorer. Along with these features is a large library of plugins, used to add new features or change the behaviour of your personal web experience, which can be easily installed through the Firefox plugin manager.
You can download Firefox for free, by visiting its official page at:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox
Opera
While Firefox is nice, it requires some beefy hardware to run smoothly, and thus it may run a little slow on older computers.
For older computers, Opera may be the better choice.
Opera has been around quite a while, but has only recently become a major contender in the browser arena. It's billed as "The fastest browser on earth", and definitely lives up to it's name. Not only does it render web pages a little faster than the others, it also runs fast and smoothly even on older systems. Opera also includes a built-in e-mail client.
Opera is now fully free software as well, with no banner ads like previous free versions. Opera remains a closed source project, but it is still an excelent choice that meets new browser standards as well or better than Firefox. Opera also includes plugin support in the form of widgets.
You can download Opera by visiting their site at:
http://www.opera.com
Since you came here, annoyed by pop-up ads, we should mention that both Firefox and Opera automatically block these advertising devices automatically. Once the browser is installed there is no further configuration required. Opera will also additionally, by right-clicking and selecting "block content", allow you to block in page ads. Just click on the ad once you've entered the block content dialog, and click on done when you're finished.
Both of these browsers mentioned are available for computers running Windows or Linux, and even Macintosh computers. Keep in mind that a web browser can be a rather large download, and thus, you may want to set aside about a half hour or more of your online time for the download to completely transfer.
If you don't have the time to download, or if you have trouble downloading, you can also call us at 1-877-716-2002, and we will be glad to send you a CD with the software, ready to install. We will also be more than happy to assist you in installing and setting up the browsers.
