Has anyone gotten no-ads working with IE7?

I've been using it successfully for years with previous versions of internet explorer, but since upgrading to IE7 I can't seem to get it to work.

I am also having trouble with IE ignoring the PAC file. I have tried linking it to a local file as well as off a webpage. I am running WinXP home edition and using IE 7 (and IE6.29 on another WinXP Home edition computer). I also tried the Proxomitron program and they ignored that as well. At work I use IE7 with WinXP Pro and it works just fine. I also had it working on Win2K before I upgraded to WinXP home. The reading I have done on the internet suggests that there is an issue with the Home version of XP. I have found several places say that there is no solution for a XP Home OS. But I am not entirely convinced because I installed FireFox and it works beautifully. But I am a IE fan and wish to return to it. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

Steve

I should have posted earlier. I found a solution almost right after posting.
If you uncheck "automatically detect settings" under the lan settings and set your configuration script to "file://c:/proxy" then everything is fine. The key seems to be the autodetect. I'm not sure why, but if it is checked then it completely ignores the no-ads file. I have tested with both the IE6.29 and IE7 computers (both using XP home edition).
Hope this saves someone a few hours.

Steve

PS, you also need to close and restart IE if you make changes to the pac file.

1. IE7 beta did ignore pac files, the full version doesn't.
2. IE7 is fussy about the filename - the instructions on the website say to enter the following "file:///c:/temp/no-ads.pac" which is incorrectly formed. Even if you type this into the browser URL IE7 will still display the file BUT it will ignore it when defined as the configuration script. The correct string to enter is "file://c:/temp/no-ads.pac" - i.e. only two / before the drive designator.
3. You need to change all explorer windows for the script to take effect.
4. If it's still not working then create a simple file such as this;

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{
// block any reference to google
if(RegExp("(google)").test(url))
return "PROXY 127.0.0.1:8080";
// Or else connect directly:
return "DIRECT";
}

Save it as c:\blkgoogle.pac and enter "file://c:/blkgoogle.pac" as the configuration file. If you can still access any google site then the problem is not with configuration files but something else.

1. IE7 beta did ignore pac files, the full version doesn't.
2. IE7 is fussy about the filename - the instructions on the website say to enter the following "file:///c:/temp/no-ads.pac" which is incorrectly formed. Even if you type this into the browser URL IE7 will still display the file BUT it will ignore it when defined as the configuration script. The correct string to enter is "file://c:/temp/no-ads.pac" - i.e. only two / before the drive designator.
3. You need to change all explorer windows for the script to take effect.
4. If it's still not working then create a simple file such as this;

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{
// block any reference to google
if(RegExp("(google)").test(url))
return "PROXY 127.0.0.1:8080";
// Or else connect directly:
return "DIRECT";
}

Save it as c:\blkgoogle.pac and enter "file://c:/blkgoogle.pac" as the configuration file. If you can still access any google site then the problem is not with configuration files but something else.

Same problems here. I tried to change it to a blkgoogle.pac file and I can still access Google sites, so the problem is somewhere else. The file is loading, though, I think... I un-commented the "alert(checking:)" debug and I DO get the alert textbox. So the no-ads file is loading and running, but the sites are going through.

Any suggestions as to what could be causing the problem?

I should correct the above, the alert debug works only when first starting IE, surfing past that page and I don't get any alerts.

The weird thing is that my startup homepage is google.com, so when I had the blkgoogle.pac selected I should have hit the wall right there. Weird.

You have to check "Use Automatic Configuration Script" and put the file://C:/.... line in TWO places, not just one.

Under Internet Options>Connections, under BOTH places where there are settings... in your default connection AND under LAN Settings.

To make things work you must do the following:

DO NOT use long file/path names when you´re typing the .PAC file name on (#!$@%*$) IE7, use good old plain 8.3 file names ! ( Many thanks to Billy Gates of Hell for all the time I´ve lost figuring this out - the boy doesn´t have a clue on how many bad karma he´s generating for himself )

If you´re not an old command-line dinossaur like me you may have trouble figuring the pretty little things out. Don´t worry !

Just enter a command prompt ( execute cmd.exe ), go to the root of the driver where your .PAC thing is ( type C:[ENTER] and CD\[ENTER] ) and use DIR /O to see the short names.

You´ll see something like PROGRA~1 for the "Program Files" folder, for example. Enter the folder you need ( CD <short-name-of-the-folder>[ENTER] ) and repeat that for every folder level ( don´t forget to annotate the whole stuff ).

For the last folder level DIR may fail to show the short name( way to go again Billy ). Do not curse Micro**** more than absolutely necessary, the rule Paindows use for making this names is "Take the first six characters - ignoring spaces - and put the tilda and a number ( depending on how many folder long-names begins with the same six characters ). Some exceptions may occur: the tilda may not be present ( the default is to be there, but this is a registry configured thing - some registry tweaking programs can let you change that, althought I´ve never seem to be able to figure out why somebody would wanna waste a single milisecond messing with this stupid setting ) and if you have diacriticals on your folders names ( like me, because I speak Portuguese ) things can get a little fuzzy: sometimes they´re just ignored, sometimes they got replaced for ASC II characters you don´t have on your keyboard ( go figure ).

Then again Who would guess this ???

Alrighty folks.

I read through a bunch of responses and to be honest none of them were fairly conistent. I've seen scripts registry hacks, etc. So I experimented on three different systems with a specific set of tactics...

Tactic #1. I saved the no-ads.pac file into a folder off the root drive that follows the 8.3 old Microsoft naming convention.

Tactic #2. I followed the setup using some of the advise I read from the message boards, including the file:/// versus file:// UNC naming conventions.

Work Product >>> As a result of some testing and tinkering, I realized that I got this to work without the registry hack. So to prove it, I tried it again and again and again. The following test systems were:

(A) Windows XP Professional running IE7
(B) Windows XP Home running IE6
(C) Windows Vista running IE7

In every case, I found the pattern that was required to make this work without the requirement for the registry hack. Follow these post-download steps to the letter for installing this on Windows XP or Windows Vista with IE7...

IE7.1: Create a folder of the root system drive called C:\NOBANNER
IE7.2: Open IE7 and select TOOLS > INTERNET OPTIONS > CONNECTIONS Tab > LAN SETTINGS Button.
IE7.2.1: Check USE AUTOMATIC CONFIGURATION SCRIPT
IE7.2.2: Type in (WITHOUT QUOTES) "file://c:/nobanner/no-ads.pac"
IE7.2.2: Click the OK Button
IE7.3: Without closing the Dialog box, select the following: SECURITY Tab > LOCAL INTERNET Icon > SITES Button
IE7.3.1: Make sure the local intranet zone is setup as follows...
IE7.3.1.1: UNCHECKED - AUTOMATICALLY DETECT INTRANET NETWORK
IE7.3.1.2: CHECKED - INCLUDE ALL LOCAL (INTRANET) SITES NOT LISTED IN OTHER ZONES
IE7.3.1.3: UNCHECKED - INCLUDE ALL SITES THAT BYPASS THE PROXY SERVER
IE7.3.1.4: CHECKED - INCLUDE ALL NETWORK PATHS (UNCs)
IE7.3.2: Click the OK Button
IE7.4: Without closing the dialog box and select the following: GENERAL Tab > DELETE Button under the "Browsing History" subsection
IE7.4.1: Click the DELETE FILES Button under the "Temproary Internet Files" subsection (and make sure you delete all offline content)
IE7.4.2: Click the YES Button
IE7.4.3: Click the CLOSE Button
IE7.4.4: Click the OK Button to finally close the INTERNET OPTIONS Dialog box
IE7.5: Close all IE7 windows and applications currently running
IE7.6: Open a website that already had a banner ad that you know of to inspect the changes in the IE7 display behavior.

** FOR IE6, some of the exact clicks are different when you get into the lowest levels of the other dialog boxes, but the flow is identical. If anybody follows these steps in the exact sequence that has a problem, please post a reply or send em a message with your expereince. I want to ensure that the registry hack is really not required. Inexpereinced people get scared of what they consider deep system changes like these registry alterations.

Cheers folks... MikeA a.k.a. wickedplot@yahoo.com