Get rid of annoying pop-up ads

If you're getting annoyed with ads for X10 spycams that pop up on site after site, there is something you can do. X10 has blitzed the market with its backdoor ads which pop up under your browser window. X10 claims the "pop-under" ads are less intrusive than traditional pop-up ads because they don't obscure the page you're reading and only appear when you close or minimize your browser window.

Whether you swallow this line or not, we find it interesting that the company has deemed it necessary to create a page on its site justifying its ads as "100% legal and 100% safe." The company has claimed a high success rate with the pop-unders, but one wonders how many of those click-throughs came from enraged surfers looking for a place to vent.

How to get rid of X10 ads

The good news is, X10's Web site contains a link which lets you banish the ads from your screen for 30 days. Unfortunately, the ban is not permanent. If you examine the URL of the link used to banish the ads, it looks like this:

www.x10.com/home/optout.cgi?DAY=30&PAGE=http://www.x10.com/x10ads1.htm

You should be able to increase the period of banishment by upping that DAY=30 count to maximize its exile from your screen.

Fight software with software

Trying to stop ads from taking over your screen? On TV, the only choice is to switch channels. On the Web, you can fight software with software. Take a look at these free software programs that'll cover those pesky pop-up and pop-under ads:

Pop-up Stopper

If you're interested in a more widespread solution to the spread of pop-ups, pop-unders and other so-called interstitials, try Panicware's free Pop-up Stopper. This will stop ads like the X10 pop-unders as well as many other ads. Its solution, however, is a little draconian: It prevents more than one instance of a browser window from opening, so it will even prevent legitimate windows, such as e-mail links and site links which appear in a separate window, from opening.

You can get around this limitation by holding Shift or Ctrl while clicking links. You can also quickly disable Pop-up Stopper by double-clicking its system tray icon.

WebWasher
An alternative to Pop-up Stopper is WebWasher. This program is free for personal and home use, and around $30 for businesses. WebWasher not only lets you stop the pop-ups, it also provides cookie filters, script suppression, URL filters, site blocking, and a variety of other privacy, content and access tools.