Battleangel

I dunked in ZoneAlarm Pro today and got rid of Proximitron (at least for the moment). I never realized that ZAP had the ability to filter out ads and pop-ups until now. Dang.
It’s not that Proximitron didn’t work, no, on the contrary it excelled. But I never really got the hang of all the settings and I felt that it always did its job a little too well. There were times when pages didn’t load correctly with scripts for example. Or the buttons at the bottom of this page that refused to load for example.

With ZAP it’s just a push of a button and there is no denying that the program is a bit more versatile also. I admit that it doesn’t filter out ALL unwanted content but it gets damn close for being such a simple setup.
I have actually run ZA/ZAP in the past but I never saw the need for it .. then .. but times change. Even if I love the internet, I’m not blind to the fact that it has become a much grimmer place over the last couple of year. And I’m not talking about so-called “hackers”. What I’m referring to is punk kids who see the net as their own private sandbox. And the fact is that you don’t have to be very tech-savvy in order to wreck havoc. Another growing problem is the increased effort by the record and movie industry to go after perpetrators of so-called intellectual theft .. or piracy if you will. Argh, shiver me timbers! (more pirate jargon ..)

For anyone who is interested in keeping their computer “safe” (I mean, you can NEVER be 100% safe) I would recommend a visit to the Gibson Research Corporation and run the ShieldsUP! test.
As the test points out, one of the benefits of a firewall is that your computer will be virtually invisible to the outside world. Even if your ports are closed, scanning your IP could still reveal the services you run and that it in fact exists a computer behind the IP. A good firewall lets you go stealth and prowl the internet on your terms.

There is really no reason to accept banner ads nor to provide insight into your private systems. It’s time to once and for all reclaim your privacy! If you’re just looking for something to blast ads and pop-ups then this list of ad-blockers is a good place to begin. My old favorite Naviscope seems to be gone though :(. I was really looking forward to see an updated version as well as the long awaited linux port but it seems unlikely now. As for a future replacement for Proximitron (that in turn replaced Naviscope) I do not know. I will have to do some more digging in this area. Suffice to say, there is a war going on here and both sides are constantly stepping up their efforts.