How to: Block FECC Pop-ups

Here is how you can forever block the pop-ups that appear on FECC from displaying on your PC.

Instructions will be given for Windows XP/Vista/7 - Mac OS X and Linux.

Special thanks to "Frank R.", and "Francesc" for reminding me of this.

Updated 10/19/09 w/ Ad Block Plus Instructions at the bottom of this post.


In Windows XP:

1.) Open Notepad

2.) In notepad select File --> Open

3.) Browse To c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc

4.) Change the file filter drop down box from "Text Documents (*.txt)" to "All Files (*.*)"

5.) You will now see the "hosts" file. Select that and click open.

6.) You will see an entry in your hosts file: 127.0.0.1 localhost.

Under that entry paste the following:

Code:

127.0.0.1     m1.nedstatbasic.net
127.0.0.1     m1.webstats4u.com
127.0.0.1     m1.webstats.motigo.com

7.) Save the "hosts" file, restart your browser. You should be all set!



In Windows Vista/Windows 7:

Windows Vista is a little more tricky, as Vista has added protection against editing the host file.


1.) Browse to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories

2.) Right click "Notepad" and select "Run as administrator"

3.) Click "Continue" on the UAC prompt

4.) In Notepad click File -> Open

5.) Browse to "C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc"

6.) Change the file filter drop down box from "Text Documents (*.txt)" to "All Files (*.*)"

7.) Select "hosts" and click "Open"

8.) You will see the following entries in your hosts file:
127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost (#note from fecc-mechanic you may not have this second line, depending on your setup)

9.) Under the above entries, paste:

Code:

127.0.0.1     m1.nedstatbasic.net
127.0.0.1     m1.webstats4u.com
127.0.0.1     m1.webstats.motigo.com

10.) Save the hosts file, restart your browser. You are now all set!


In Mac OS X:

To find the hosts file in OS X's graphical interface:

1.) Open Finder.

2.) In the Go menu, select "Go to Folder"

3.) Type /etc for the folder name.

4.) In the list of files that appear, you should find the hosts file. Double click it to open it in a text editor.

5.) Under the other entries, paste:

Code:

m1.nedstatbasic.net     127.0.0.1
m1.webstats4u.com     127.0.0.1
m1.webstats.motigo.com     127.0.0.1

6.) Save the hosts file, restart your browser - you should be all set!


In Linux:
(Ubuntu, RedHat, CentOS, and pretty much every distro of Linux)


1.) Browse to /etc /hosts

2.) Open the hosts file with a text editor

3.) Under the other entries, paste:

Code:

127.0.0.1     m1.nedstatbasic.net
127.0.0.1     m1.webstats4u.com
127.0.0.1     m1.webstats.motigo.com

4.) Save the hosts file, restart your browser - you should be all set!

NOTES:

Depending on your system, your changes might not take effect right away. (Though most of the time, a restart of your web browser is all you need to "push" the changes).

If restarting the browser doesn't do it, you can immediately push the changes by doing the following:
In Windows XP/Vista - open a command prompt/terminal and enter: ipconfig /flushdns
In MacOSX - The command is: lookupd -flushcache

If the above doesn't work - ALSO:
Try using the TAB key instead of plain spaces between the 127.0.0.1 and the m1 entries.

Ad Block Plus Plug-in (Firefox Only) Setup:

If all else fails, I recommend the Ad Block Plus plug-in for Firefox.

If you don't already have Firefox (it's much more secure than IE) you can download it here:
http://www.mozilla.org

The Ad Block Plus plug-in is located here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

Once installed and you have restarted your browser:

1.Right click the "ABP" logo in the upper right hand portion of your browser screen.
2.Select preferences
3.Click Add Filter
4.Insert the following three URL's (one per filter):
http://m1.webstats.motigo.com/*
m1.nedstatbasic.net*
m1.webstats4u.com*
5.Click "Apply" and "Ok"

Voila! No more popups!

Thanks for putting this up!

No problem

Please can you tell me where to find this windows\system32\drivers\etc on windows xp?
I cannot find it.

Just type in the location bar:
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc

Thanks Jordan!

Rich

No popups on first visit to FECC this morning.

Thanks Jordan.

I am sorry but I think I have deleted Francesc post by mistake I thought it was my post I deleted.
Can anyone get it back. Sorry.

I am sorry but I think I have deleted Francesc post by mistake I thought it was my post I deleted.
Can anyone get it back. Sorry.

You cannot find the hosts file and you think you can delete other people posts, sureeeee

At least I told you I made a mistake. Your not grateful for that.

Dude, trust me you haven't deleted anything! There this post and there is the one at the Off topic section.

This fix has worked a treat on my desk top PC (running XP).

Cheers to all who contributed - I am glad to be free of the highly annoying, pop up blocker busting, pop-ups!!!!

It's so great to not have the pop ups anymore!!

At last, no more pop ups, works great.

SUPERB ADVICE!

Trev

Why should we do all this? Just get rid of this ridiculous counter, wake up, it's not for visitors of a website to adapt, it's the webmaster who has to know his trade - Try google analytics, it's totally free, no squirrels or wooley-boogers and it gives you much more information than any other counter.

Last edited by Marc Haegeman on Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Marc - Point taken.
This was discussed with the administrators, but they do not want to lose all the stats going back to the start of the 00's.
So this is the best that can be done. Sorry

Marc - Point taken.
This was discussed with the administrators, but they do not want to lose all the stats going back to the start of the 00's.
So this is the best that can be done. Sorry

fecc-mechanic, tell them to print the stats for their archives and start anew. I faced the same problem with some of my websites. It's 2 days of grieving and then everything is forgotten. But please get rid of this awful ads - trust me, it pulls the whole site down.

Marc,
I appreciate your input.
But the administration is quite immovable in their stance on this.
The best that can be done, for the time being, are the blocking methods in the first post on this thread.

Marc,
I appreciate your input.
But the administration is quite immovable in their stance on this.
The best that can be done, for the time being, are the blocking methods in the first post on this thread.

I understand... your hands are tied. Another solution is avoiding the site, of course

Another solution is avoiding the site, of course

True.. But I doubt it would come to that since there are easy to use/follow instructions for a quick fix...

It doesn't work for me. Instead of the line 127.0.0.1 localhost I get the line ::1 localhost.
When I copy and paste the given entries under that, it doesn't solve the problem.
What should I do, I'm getting sick of these pop-ups!
Below what I see on my screen before I paste the nedstatbasics/webstats entries.

# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host


::1 localhost

Hi James.
Underneath that first entry, try:

Code:

::1 localhost     m1.nedstatbasic.net
::1 localhost     m1.webstats4u.com
::1 localhost     m1.webstats.motigo.com

I tried it, but now I get a message I am not permitted to save the host file, and also, renaming it, couldn't save it to that location so I had to save it (including the new entries) under 'my documents' as 'host1'.

I'll see how this works out first, before I comment.

(btw I have the 'quiet mode' of UAC turned on, to avoid elevation prompts for administrators. program I use for this is called 'TweakUAC').

I just have that horrible UAC thing disabled on my PC.. It's a pain in the....

You have to edit/save the hosts file using administrative privileges. Would have said so earlier, but I wasn't sure which flavor of windows you were using. It has to be saved in the same directory as the original hosts file to work as well.

Let me know how it goes, and we'll go from there