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News and Reviews => Mini-Reviews by Members => Topic started by: brotherS on March 23, 2006, 04:55 AM

Title: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: brotherS on March 23, 2006, 04:55 AM
Here's a program with one of the best ratings over at http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Ad_Muncher/1031644604/1

(http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/3743/dcpostadmuncherreviewfileforum.png)

Publisher's Description:
Ad Muncher removes adverts, popups, and general browsing annoyances from all popular browsers and Web-utilizing programs. It also removes banners displaying and popup generating programs like ICQ, Morpheus, Kazaa, Grokster, iMesh, BearShare, LimeWire, etc.

I used to use Firefox' AdBlock extension, and so I was skeptical at first - but now I'm really happy that I switched: AdBlock really seems to have a memory leak, since I'm now having no more memory issues with Firefox! It's also great that it works for every browser!

Ad Muncher has LOTS of options (great!) which you do not *need* to change to be able to use it (so even people who do not know their PC from the inside out will love it), but *could* change for some fine-tuning. For example you can add pages that you want to support to the "no filtering" category. I'll add here the *good and friendly* pages that I'm visiting, since they deserve to get some money from ads:

(http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/5764/dcpostadmuncherreviewconfig18x.png)



The list of default filters is really impressive, huh?

(http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/1940/dcpostadmuncherreviewconfig24w.png)



Lots of nice options here - I HATE it when sites change the window size... now I LOVE that I will never see that again :)

(http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/1713/dcpostadmuncherreviewconfig34w.png)



Ad Muncher comes with an in-built email-the-devs feature and live chat/tech support (using IRC) - I love programs that include something like that, very helpful for newbies!

(http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/3866/dcpostadmuncherreviewconfig43i.png)



You can also see how much insanity Ad Muncher protected you from:

(http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/7623/dcpostadmuncherreviewconfig5b1.png)



When you download it it has a 30 days trial version - so go ahead and get it NOW at http://www.admuncher.com/ :)

Still not yet convinced? Take a look:

(http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/8351/dcpostadmuncherreviewratings0s.png)
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: kimmchii on March 23, 2006, 05:12 AM
ad muncher is no where close the the proxomitron, and proxo is free.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: brotherS on March 23, 2006, 05:36 AM
Ok, why don't you write a Proxomitron Mini-Review then? :) Is it as easy to set up?
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Carol Haynes on March 23, 2006, 05:55 AM
I anyone is interested it is here: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/proxomitron/

Personally I haven't tried it.

Interesting to note the denial of service attacks the site has been experiencing --- I'd guess that means they may be getting something right!
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: kimmchii on March 23, 2006, 06:34 AM
Ok, why don't you write a Proxomitron Mini-Review then? :) Is it as easy to set up?
-brotherS (March 23, 2006, 05:36 AM)
i am not good at writing review, especially on a program like Proxomitron that capable of rewriting the whole webpage.

it is very easy to set up, no installation needed, just unzip, run it and set up the local proxy.

you can get proxo here: http://www.proxomitron.info/
and the lastest filterset here: http://geocities.com/sidki3003/prox/prox-config-sidki-2006-03-05.zip

{Ed - I corrected the link}
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on March 23, 2006, 07:27 AM
The only thing that proxomitron has that ad muncher does not, currently, is support for regexp filters, which 4.8 or 4.9 will include. 4.8 will include options to make filters PER SITE, PER DOMAIN or PER SUB DOMAIN, meaning you can write a filter and not fear about it breaking something else on another page. 4.8's first beta will include full gzip support. Admuncher also comes with a default list which is updated AUTOMATICALLY or manually via the updates menu. The lists are updated 4 times (at least) per week and are highly scrutinized and screened by Jeff, the list maintainer.

I've seen many programs get glowing reviews simply for being free, but free does not always mean better, as most people seem to assume. Proxomitron is nice, but the gui is ugly, the filters are a pain to write (any novice can write a filter for ad muncher with knowledge of regexp), the filters have to be manually updated and its development has stopped some time ago due to the death of its author (RIP). Dont get me wrong, I am not saying ALL commercial apps are better than their freeware counterparts, but in this case, I honestly believe that ad muncher blows the pants off of proxomitron.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: alexp on March 23, 2006, 02:46 PM
I have to mostly agree with you Josh, as of just now proxomitron is just slightly more powerful than admuncher but a hell of a lot more complicated to set up and maintain properly, admuncher (using the 4.7 beta version) does all I need just now and hopefully if Jeff gets the regexp filters into 4.8/9 and the per site filters while still keeping it just as easy to use then I'm sure glad I bought a copy when I did.

As you said free doesn't always mean better.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: mouser on March 23, 2006, 02:50 PM
it's not just that freer is not always better, but also: more powerful does not mean better.
you have to decide how much time you want to spend customizing and learning, tweaking, etc.  or how much you want something to work out of the box and make it easy to use.  these are not insignificant issues and the best way to decide is to try out the different programs and figure out which one meets your needs best.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: taichimaster on March 24, 2006, 03:38 AM
I am also evaluating ad-muncher currently.  It is working great and has an "IP Scramble" function that acts us a surfing anonymizer.  The author is also very nice and active in #admuncher on IRC.

I don't think I will purchase it after the trial though (unless I see a discount).  There are other free alternatives out there so I don't find it as essential.

The other thing with Admuncher is that it comes with a default list of 20 to 40 processes that it intercepts.  It intercepts their winsock calls and reissues them on their behalf, so your firewall would report admuncher.exe is trying to access the internet instead of the originating process.  If you create a firewall rule to always grant internet access to admuncher.exe, you are essentially granting internet access to all processes that Admuncher intercepts as well without knowing it.

I guess it's not really a big deal, most if not all local proxies work this way so it's more of a heads up.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: wr975 on March 24, 2006, 07:19 AM
The other thing with Admuncher is that it comes with a default list of 20 to 40 processes that it intercepts.  It intercepts their winsock calls and reissues them on their behalf, so your firewall would report admuncher.exe is trying to access the internet instead of the originating process.  If you create a firewall rule to always grant internet access to admuncher.exe, you are essentially granting internet access to all processes that Admuncher intercepts as well without knowing it.

I don't think Admuncher comes with a default list. It just adds any application acessing Internet as "filter target".

About AdMuncher to allow Internet access... Could you test this behavior on your system?

I've Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall and Admuncher installed. AdMuncher is allowed to do "code injection" and Internet access.
Kerio still intercepts any process trying to access Internet (even those who try to get access via IE, like LeakTest or Google Video Player).


all local proxies work this way

AdMuncher is not acting as a proxy, like AdSubtract or Proxomitron.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: brotherS on March 24, 2006, 07:44 AM
[...]
I used to use Firefox' AdBlock extension, and so I was skeptical at first - but now I'm really happy that I switched: AdBlock really seems to have a memory leak, since I'm now having no more memory issues with Firefox! It's also great that it works for every browser!
[...]
-brotherS (March 23, 2006, 04:55 AM)
I felt I need to quote myself, it's so cool that Firefox finally stays below 100 MB RAM usage even when I run it for more than 24 hours!

(Yes, LOTS of tabs are opened all the time here)
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: brotherS on March 24, 2006, 08:08 AM
it's not just that freer is not always better, but also: more powerful does not mean better.
you have to decide how much time you want to spend customizing and learning, tweaking, etc.
-mouser (March 23, 2006, 02:50 PM)
I believe more powerful IS better for just anyone, but ONLY if all those features are added in a user-friendly way. The average user should still be able to use a program, the pro user could then enable more options or head to the advanced settings.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: kimmchii on March 24, 2006, 08:32 AM
brotherS, when you say adblock, do you mean adblock plus?

AdBlock Plus vs. AdBlock Normal? (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14375595)
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: brotherS on March 24, 2006, 09:09 AM
brotherS, when you say adblock, do you mean adblock plus?

AdBlock Plus vs. AdBlock Normal? (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14375595)
-kimmchii (March 24, 2006, 08:32 AM)
When I say AdBlock I mean AdBlock :) --> http://adblock.mozdev.org/

I didn't test that "plus" version.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: nontroppo on March 24, 2006, 11:26 AM
Though I don't use it, AdMuncher is really brilliant software. The developer coded it in assembler for a long time, commited to low resource usage and hugely optimised. It is quality through and through.

Proxomitron is great (I've used it for years), but it is NOT for "it just works" functionality; some filter sets are great but I think AdMuncher is better for newbies. I'd give my dad admuncher while I'd use proxomitron (though I look forward to regex and header mods, i need to check it out again). Sadly the author of proxomitron died and the code is now frozen in time - it still works great but there will be no more development (though see below).

This is a better web site for prox: http://www.proxomitron.info/index.html

Good forums: http://kyeu.info/proxo/forums/index.php

There is also an open-source clone of prox: http://proximodo.sourceforge.net/

And a "smarter" proxomitron type app: http://bfilter.sourceforge.net/
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: taichimaster on March 24, 2006, 12:51 PM

I don't think Admuncher comes with a default list. It just adds any application acessing Internet as "filter target".

-wr975 (March 24, 2006, 07:19 AM)

Yep, the "filter target" was what I was talking about.  It's the default list of "known safe" programs, supplied by AdMuncher and is automatically updated.  Of course, you could choose not to trust that default list and make up your own list etc (Options -> Filter Targets -> My filter targets).


About AdMuncher to allow Internet access... Could you test this behavior on your system?

I've Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall and Admuncher installed. AdMuncher is allowed to do "code injection" and Internet access.
Kerio still intercepts any process trying to access Internet (even those who try to get access via IE, like LeakTest or Google Video Player).


Yes, I have experienced this with Agnitum Outpost.  If Admuncher is ON, it doesn't not notify me on port 80 access from the apps that are in the filter targets.  If you don't believe that admunch.exe is issuing network requests on other processes' behalf, you can do a simple test by blocking port 80 access on "admunch.exe" and see if you could still access google.com through IE or Firefox.  The interceptions that you saw from Kerio PFW, were they port 80 requests or on some other ports like 443, 8080 etc?


AdMuncher is not acting as a proxy, like AdSubtract or Proxomitron.


It's not a proxy in the sense that you don't have to manually edit your browser's proxy settings and pointing it to localhost.  But it's still "acting" as a proxy of some sort since it's issuing network requests on other programs' behalf.  There's a FAQ for it:


Q: Why does my firewall say Ad Muncher is making "server" and outbound connections?
A: This is just how Ad Muncher filters your browser's transfers; when your browser tries to connect to a web server, it is instead connected to the local Ad Muncher program (hence why it is creating a listening ("server") connection).  Ad Muncher then connects out to the original target of the browser, which accounts for the outbound connections.  These connections are perfectly normal and no cause for concern;  the listening sockets are of no use to anyone except the programs on your computer trying to connect out.




Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: wr975 on March 24, 2006, 03:51 PM
Hi,

I've just tried the leak test from http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2847 and it failed to connect. Kerio reported "leaktest" wanted to access the Internet (port 80). AdMucher running, "leaktest" in Filter Targets/Programs that made connections. I've also tried leaktest in stealth mode and renamed it to thunderbird.exe. Same result.

Perhaps you can try the same test on your system. It would be interesting to know if leaktest can connect with/without Admuncher running.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: vegas on March 29, 2006, 03:22 PM
giving this a bump in hopes of an April discount as there are many people in the world that NEED this software  :Thmbsup:
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: mouser on March 29, 2006, 03:29 PM
a discount is coming, but i dont know if it will be in april - probably have to wait until may.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: kimmchii on March 29, 2006, 05:01 PM
i didnt know this forum is affiliated with ad muncher, no wonder the opinions are bias.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: mouser on March 29, 2006, 05:21 PM
donationcoder.com has no affiliations with any software companies.

in fact we have a very strict policy that we accept NO commissions or affiliate payments or any kinds of compensations, unlike many websites.

the only thing we try to do is get dicounts for our members on software that is wanted here.

everyone on this forum has different favorite programs, and we encourage everyone to talk about their favorites.

we also try to be a friendly place where authors can come to chat a little.  not advertise their software but talk about it with people here who like it. and there are quite a few freeware and shareware authors who talk here.  the only thing we do ask is that if you are somehow connected to a company you need to say it clearly when you post.

in short, we have tried to make this forum a welcome place for people to talk about their favorite programs, and a place with authors of good programs can reach their users.  we always try to find freeware alternatives to every program, both in our reviews and in our posts.


i want to repeat - it is our strict and unbending policy that this site shall have no arrangement with any company which would have us benefiting from the sales of their program, or even the appearance of benefits from the sale of their program.  period.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: brotherS on March 30, 2006, 01:15 AM
i didnt know this forum is affiliated with ad muncher, no wonder the opinions are bias.
-kimmchii (March 29, 2006, 05:01 PM)
Huh?  :huh:

Like mouser said, that's wrong - but why did/do you think so?
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: kimmchii on March 30, 2006, 02:11 AM
mouser has explained it, thank you.
just a misunderstanding.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on July 13, 2006, 09:03 PM
Just wanted to give everyone this hint for ad muncher to display some of its capabilities. This little section allows you to add a "Download Video" link to every youtube page so you can save each video you want. Just an example :)

This post has been updated on 14/07/2006 to allow it to work with the new Youtube.


Under My Filters

[Select]
function y(swf_id){var i= swf_id.indexOf('=');var videoID = '';for(var no=1;no<swf_id.length-21;no++){videoID+=swf_id.charAt(i+no);}document.getElementById('yt_download').innerHTML='<a href=http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=' + videoID + '>Download Video</a>';}
- Add javascript to all pages


Under Tools >Replace Text

Match Text
[Select]
<!-- google_ad_section_start -->*<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

Replace Text
[Select]
<div id="yt_download"></div>




Match Text
[Select]
ord=math.random()*10000000000000000 + 3;

Replace Text
[Select]
y(fo.getAttribute('swf'));

Now, when you visit any Youtube video page, a "Download Video" link appears above the video's title. Since Youtube stores all it's files as flash videos (.FLV), simply rename them as filename.flv .


This is only my first attempt at writing a custom filter and it's probably a rather amateur way to implement it, especially the replacement text.


Idea obtained from:
http://www.tian.cc/2006/04/howto-save-videos-from-youtube-updated.html
http://www.tian.cc/2005/11/how-to-save-flash-videos-from-youtube.html
-weeguy

Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: app103 on July 13, 2006, 10:36 PM
Ad Muncher does not block AOL's Rainman based ads. Nothing I have found can block these ads...except TPA Ad Buster (http://www.tpasoft.com/adbuster/index.html).

Now this is only for AOL users that use the normal AOL software. Not for anybody else.

This removes the ads you see in chatrooms, on your mailbox, and on the file transfers window, by default. All the rest you just right click the ad and you'll never see an ad in that spot on that window again.

TPA has removed all links to this from their site, but the page to get it is still there. (they had a dispute with AOL over this)

Best of all...it's free!

You can use this alongside Ad Muncher, and never see another ad again,anywhere, if you are an AOL user.

I am not sure if this works for AOL versions 9.0 or 9.0SE, but an older version from 5.0 seemed to work with my 8.0, so you never know. Give it a try.

This is no longer being developed and who knows how much longer the webpage will be there, so if you want it, get it now...and let your AOL using friends know about it, too.

Before TPA Ad Buster:
(http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/7355/emailad4bw.th.jpg) (http://img103.imageshack.us/my.php?image=emailad4bw.jpg)

After TPA Ad Buster:
(http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/1746/adgone5lv.th.jpg) (http://img103.imageshack.us/my.php?image=adgone5lv.jpg)

The only ad it doesn't seem to be able to get rid of is that stupid extra tab that shows up every once in awhile on the mailbox. But I guess I can live with that.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on July 14, 2006, 02:57 AM
May I ask what version of ad muncher is installed and running? Also, what is the process name of the aol executable? I am sure that this either A. Is blocked in the newer builds of ad muncher, or B. Can easily be blocked by adding the process's name to the filter targets tab under options.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Defenestration on July 14, 2006, 12:58 PM
Unfortunately, AM does not currently work with FF 2.0 :(

Check out the following link for more info

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=438641
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on July 14, 2006, 01:24 PM
Yes, this is a bug on the end of Firefox, although a workaround is being worked on by Murray at admuncher. So, hopefully we will see an updated beta that fixes this issue. This will hopefully solve the issue until firefox decides to fix it.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Defenestration on July 14, 2006, 01:34 PM
Where did you find out that Murray is working on a workaround ?

In all my correspondence with Jeffrey, he said they would not be doing anything to solve this problem.

PS. It's great news if that is indeed the case though! :)
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on July 14, 2006, 01:37 PM
-
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: housetier on July 14, 2006, 08:04 PM
AdBlock beats AdMuncher because AB works on my computer while AM does not. I would have loved to try it though...
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on July 14, 2006, 08:17 PM
What do you mean it doesnt work on your computer? Is it because you run linux? If so, I dont think you can compare the two as this is obviously a windows based utility (for now, a linux port is planned once the major features are finished).
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: app103 on July 14, 2006, 08:26 PM
May I ask what version of ad muncher is installed and running? Also, what is the process name of the aol executable? I am sure that this either A. Is blocked in the newer builds of ad muncher, or B. Can easily be blocked by adding the process's name to the filter targets tab under options.
-Josh (July 14, 2006, 02:57 AM)

These are not normal ad banners...they are some proprietary type of content produced with Rainman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAINMAN). Blocking these ads is very different than blocking a normal ad.

I didn't expect Ad Muncher to block them, as most developers don't know about these ads or what makes them tick.

The reason why TPA Ad Buster works is because the developer is a long time AOL user and creator of some of the best AOL plugins available.

I have sent an email to Jeff explaining the problem in as much detail as possible and offered to help him in any way I can. I would really like to see some other program pick up where TPA left off.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on July 14, 2006, 08:29 PM
I am sure he will get this working. All we need to do is find a copy of aol 8.0 which is nearly impossible to find :-/
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: housetier on July 14, 2006, 08:47 PM
edit:
this post has caused too much discomfort
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: app103 on July 14, 2006, 09:40 PM
I am sure he will get this working. All we need to do is find a copy of aol 8.0 which is nearly impossible to find :-/
-Josh (July 14, 2006, 08:29 PM)

AOL versions 4.0 - 9.0SE will all connect and are all in use by people.

You can get up to 5.0* at oldversion.com (http://oldversion.com/program.php?n=aol).

I don't know if you can access these files outside of aol, but here is the rest of the setup files not listed there:

America Online 6.0* for Win 95/98/ME (http://download.newaol.com/aol6.0/179902/setupaol60b.exe)

America Online 7.0 (http://download.newaol.com/clients/aol70/aolsetup.exe)

America Online 8.0 (http://download.newaol.com/clients/aol80_230/aoldnld_80.exe) (I am not sure if this is the regular 8.0 that I run or the 8.0 'optimized')


America Online 9.0SE downloader (http://download.newaol.com/clients/coffee/aolcombundle2340a/AOLDNLD.EXE) (you have to run this to download the actual setup files)

Installing one of these in vmware and setting up a trial account with AOL will buy you about 45 days to play around with it for free. One account will work for all versions, and you can have multiple versions installed on the same machine. If you need any help setting it up not as a dialup software let me know. It can be set up to connect over tcp/ip too, for use with broadband or another ISP's connection. Provided you are connecting over tcp/ip, you can have up to 7 copies of aol connected at the same time...one for each screen name on the account.

*a note about versions prior to 7.0:
If you are running 2k or xp you can't use a version earlier than 7.0. There was a 6.0 that worked with win2k but it was a beta and was never released to the public. (my dad might have a copy still, as he was a beta tester for AOL back then)

Keep this in mind too: AOL will update their software in an attempt to defeat other people's attempts to mess with their software...older versions are not immune to this updating...they still support 4.0 onward. TPA has been dueling with AOL over fading text in chatrooms for years. They keep fixing it and AOL issues a patch to break it again. So just because you can block AOL ads today doesn't mean they will be blocked tomorrow. It could turn into a vicious cycle.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on July 15, 2006, 03:18 AM
App, thanks for the link! Like I said in the irc channel, I couldnt access that page with the d/l links you posted. This is much appreciated.

As for aol breaking an entry Jeff adds, well, that is why he is around. He is constantly fixing what sites add to get around the programs like admuncher. Heck, he fixed http://environmentalchemistry.com/ which actively scans for ad blockers by running a script he wrote. Jeff also encourages you leave ad muncher set to not filter sites that you use frequently and enjoy to give the developers some sort of revenue back for their hard work.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: app103 on July 15, 2006, 05:02 AM
This won't be a matter of fixing url's...that isn't the way aol likes to break things.

They may make you rewrite code and find new methods of blocking.

This could be an interesting 'fun' game of cat & mouse coding  ;D
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on July 15, 2006, 05:06 AM
trust me, the devs enjoy a challenge. You'd be surprised to know how many "hacks" are in am to make it work with certain apps ;-)
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: urlwolf on August 24, 2006, 06:35 PM
any chances of getting a discount again for admuncher?
Thanks a lot
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on August 24, 2006, 06:49 PM
At the present time, most of the developers time has been spent finishing up 4.7 for a release within the next month. We expect, dont quote me on this thou, 2 more beta releases before we go gold with 4.7. Once 4.7 is out the door, we will see what we can do :)
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: brotherS on January 15, 2007, 05:01 AM
Ad Muncher Usage Statistics for v4.7 Build 27105/1458
Adverts removed by Ad Muncher:  166,049
Approximate bandwidth saved:    1,297 MB
Counter started:              March 21, 2006

:Thmbsup: Really a great tool! :-*
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: urlwolf on January 15, 2007, 07:45 AM
At the present time, most of the developers time has been spent finishing up 4.7 for a release within the next month. We expect, dont quote me on this thou, 2 more beta releases before we go gold with 4.7. Once 4.7 is out the door, we will see what we can do :) Dont worry, I havent forgotten my great friends at DC :)
-Josh (August 24, 2006, 06:49 PM)

Hmm, looks like 4.7 is out :)
Josh, will you get us a discount?

Thanks!
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Dirhael on January 15, 2007, 08:44 AM
I just have to agree with brotherS and the rest of the Ad Muncher users on this forum, it really is a great tool. Over the last few years, I've noticed a tendency with online newspapers and gaming sites getting infested with advertising to the point of being almost unusable. The solution to this for me, before discovering Ad Muncher, was using a ad-blocking hosts file. As many of you know, that method has some serious limitations and in the end I had to give it up. After that, I tried out the Proxomitron and while it packs some serious power, I found that it just wasn't worth the effort to keep the lists up to date & working. I can imagine the pre-made lists you find over at the CastleCops forums are great if you mainly visit English websites, but none of them really took good enough care of many of the Scandinavian websites I visit. In the end, I grew tired of it and moved on. Then came Firefox and adblock/-plus. At this point, I had been using Opera for many years, but the promise of proper, and easily maintainable, ad-blocking made me test the waters with the now famous ferret. While I really liked the adblock extension, I did not really find myself comfortable with the Firefox browser itself. So, I moved back to Opera like I've always done in the past. Now I do love the browser, but it does lack proper ad-blocking (even with the content blocker built into v9 of the browser, it's still nowhere near a complete solution yet), so I went out hunting around the web. By chance, I happened to stumble upon the Ad Muncher entry over at Betanews and thought it looked interesting, so after a very quick (less than 0.5 MB) download I started browsing like my life depended on it. After all, I had no intention of paying for the software if it didn't take care of the websites that are important to me. The same week, I paid for and registered the application. It had everything I'd ever wanted from an ad-blocker. The default lists are very very complete, and has handled just about every single non-English site I've ever visited as well. It also impressed with the speed, and it also allows me to configure anything related to the filtering with a few simple mouse clicks. When you also consider that it works with just about any application connecting to the web, with the same rules applying to all of them without having to setup anything, it's hard not to be impressed.

As for my statistics so far, it has saved me close to .5 GB since my last re-installation of Windows (I forgot to backup my config file, so the old stats were lost). While the program isn't free, I feel that I've received more than what I paid for it after being stuck with a 56k modem during this Christmas. The ads on many websites are a pain with a broadband connection, but those times when you're stuck with dial-up the web is just about unusable without proper content filtering.

[Select]
Ad Muncher Usage Statistics for v4.7 Build 27105/1459
Adverts removed by Ad Muncher:  55,883
Approximate bandwidth saved:    436 MB
Counter started:                november 28, 2006
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: CodeTRUCKER on January 20, 2007, 07:51 AM
I am always somewhat dismayed when a thread becomes a "this" vs "that."  I am not referring to a debate, but more along the "my [fil in the blank] is better than your [fill in the blank]" kind of tone.  I have used both and each has strengths and weaknesses.  The best thing  ( i am parroting others here) to do is to try each.  I also think that it is not necessary for everyone to have the full-blown set-up in every case.  A little may work just peachy for a few or even many.

My experience with AM is it is intuitive and solid; on the other hand, the Proxomitron gives me the power to re-write any part of the Internet (even DC) to my own tastes, but it does take a fair amount of work.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: brotherS on January 20, 2007, 08:21 AM
I understand what you are saying. IMHO, it's really about what you want to do/focus on. A person who needs just one task does not always need the full-blown alternative. Some prefer to pay for software A instead of spending some hours to learn software B (that delivers the same or "enough" results).

So... alternatives are great! :)
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: CodeTRUCKER on January 20, 2007, 08:49 AM
I understand what you are saying. IMHO, it's really about what you want to do/focus on. A person who needs just one task does not always need the full-blown alternative. Some prefer to pay for software A instead of spending some hours to learn software B (that delivers the same or "enough" results).

So... alternatives are great! :)

-brotherS (January 20, 2007, 08:21 AM)

Agreed!  :Thmbsup:
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on June 01, 2009, 11:39 AM
Be advised, if you are not running the latest BETA, you are not receiving updates. 4.72, the latest stable release, has stopped receiving updates and you have to upgrade to the beta from http://www.admuncher.com/beta.pl
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: CodeTRUCKER on June 01, 2009, 03:08 PM
Thanks for the heads-up.  :up:
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on June 01, 2009, 03:09 PM
CodeTRUCKER: Did you intend to post something?

EDIT:

Now I see you are going back and editing all of your posts. Disregard
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: CodeTRUCKER on June 01, 2009, 03:12 PM
CodeTRUCKER: Did you intend to post something?
-Josh (June 01, 2009, 03:09 PM)

Yes Sir!  Just a simple Thank you!  

I fat-fingered my spell-checker as I was posting.  It is fixed now.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: superboyac on June 01, 2009, 03:54 PM
Ad muncher is cool.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Innuendo on June 01, 2009, 10:52 PM
Ad muncher is cool.
-superboyac

Yes...cool enough to have the development pace of a glacier.  ;D

But still the best ad-blocker available anywhere.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: CodeTRUCKER on June 01, 2009, 11:04 PM
Ad muncher is cool.
-superboyac

Yes...cool enough to have the development pace of a glacier.  ;D

-Innuendo (June 01, 2009, 10:52 PM)
(https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/esmileys/gen3/4Medium/TFR1EA.gif)
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: vegas on June 02, 2009, 02:43 AM
I love it, I always will, but I am very disappointed I can't use it on a flash drive (still), so any PC i use is protected and blocked while I am there using it.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on June 02, 2009, 05:00 AM
vegas, from what I have read this will come later but will likely incur another charge to be able to use. And yes, I too am very disappointed at the extremely slow pace of development. Here are just a few of the "promised" features from AM:


I am also disappointed that during this development, read slow development, they choose to alienate users who choose to stick with the latest stable release by not providing them updates. Yes, I have never had a problem with an AM beta, but I know several people who fear the word beta regardless of how stable the author claims it to be. Ad Muncher is one of those tools which, even in final release, can cause a page not to load just by having it enabled due to a bug which might exist. This has happened to me on numerous occasions and turns on to be a programming error such a hung mutex or something similar. I personally feel that updates should be provided for the latest stable release until the next one is put out. If the beta is as stable as they say, release it as a new point, or dot, release and remove the beta tag!

They at least learned their lesson about future OS development as they added Windows 7 support PRIOR to it's release as opposed to how they added vista support 1 year after vista's release. 64 bit computing has been out for a while and AM still has no support for it. USB support is a feature which should be HIGH on the priority list given that you can use firefox and opera with ad blocking capabilities on ANY MACHINE you choose. I was given permission back in the day to use AM on a USB drive by Murray but this proved to be more of a pain in the butt as you have to reactivate ad muncher every time you plugin the USB device.

I am actually starting to like/learn ad block and how to use it's filters and am getting pretty satisfied with it's performance as well. This is all being spurred by the extremely slow development pace this team has. Sorry AM, I am moving on.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: app103 on June 02, 2009, 05:23 AM
Josh, if you remember back to the AOL ad problem I reported, and even graciously allowed access to one of my screen names for investigation (that's more trust than most people would have), gzip support was promised in the "next version" to take care of the issue, which never happened. (we are using that next version now, and I am not referring to the beta)

Hopefully they aren't making more promises they don't plan to keep.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on June 02, 2009, 05:32 AM
I think they are over-promising features which they simply cannot deliver. Murray keeps throwing the excuse, as does Jeff, that they are a two man operation. If that is the case, then perhaps they need to stop saying "This will be ready in version x.xx" or "This will be ready in the next beta" when the next beta isn't actually released for 5 months. Please note that 4.73 has been in beta for 6 months now, Jan 28 2009, meaning that registered users of 4.72 have not been receiving updates since then and are being given no notifications that they need to update to a BETA version in order to receive what they paid for. I don't care how stable an author claims code to be, if it's beta code don't stop support for the latest STABLE release.

And yes, I too have noticed that your AOL issue has gone unresolved despite at least 2 other reports coming in about it. Jeff claims "I do not have an AOL account so I cannot verify". At least that was the answer I got when I tried troubleshooting with him. Pretty poor excuse. They have released debug builds for people to test and find bugs on in the past, I do not understand why they didn't for this one.

Also, please note this quote from Jeff on their forums:

Yes, v4.74 will support filtering of 64 bit applications. A lot of work was done on this before work on Windows 7 support was added to 4.73

We will continue this work on 4.74 as soon as 4.73 is completed.
-Jeff

64 bit support is supposed to be what 4.73 was about.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Dormouse on June 02, 2009, 05:43 AM
Ad muncher is cool.
-superboyac

Yes...cool enough to have the development pace of a glacier.  ;D
-Innuendo (June 01, 2009, 10:52 PM)

Of course, with global warming, glaciers are gradually disappearing  :(
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: brotherS on June 02, 2009, 06:04 AM
Since my old system died I didn't use Ad Muncher (or any ad blocker) on my new system, maybe because I didn't frequent sites with very annoying ads so much. Now I want to install Ad Muncher again - I can still access the files on the old HD, is that enough to 'import' the registration?

And I had some really interesting conversations about Ad Muncher with someone from this site, if I recall correctly he knows or knew the guys behind it. Would that someone please PM me? I'm not sure who it was...

Ad muncher is cool.
-superboyac

Yes...cool enough to have the development pace of a glacier.  ;D
-Innuendo (June 01, 2009, 10:52 PM)

Of course, with global warming, glaciers are gradually disappearing  :(
-Dormouse (June 02, 2009, 05:43 AM)
And they are picking up speed (while melting away)! Good news for Ad Muncher's development pace? :D
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Carol Haynes on June 02, 2009, 07:03 AM
You just need the serial number that you got in the email when you bought AdMuncher.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: brotherS on June 02, 2009, 07:27 AM
I'm afraid that email is gone forever... along with my Outlook Express installation from 'back then'. I don't even know which of my gazillion email addresses I used when I registered... that's why I asked for an 'alternative solution'.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Innuendo on June 02, 2009, 10:41 AM
Boy, I didn't mean to stir up a hornet's nest with my little joke, but here's a reply on a few of the points above (in no particular order):

BrotherS, at one time you could just move install AdMuncher over your old directories and your registration info would be preserved. However, the latest versions have moved to a stricter online validation so I don't know if it will still work, but try it and see.

Glacial pace of development: It's been a slow road because it's been a two man operation. Fortunately, their income levels have increased to the point where they could afford to hire on another programmer. Hopefully, once he gets up to speed on the code things will move faster.

Forcing people to move to the beta version: They have come up with a new, more efficient way to filter that requires quite a bit fewer signatures to accomplish what they were able to do before with the bigger signature list. Unfortunately, this new way of doing things makes the new signature list incompatible with the old. Having to maintain two signature lists would slow development down farther than it already is.

Post-poned features: Gzip/HTTP 1.1 (yeah, they are practically the same feature code-wise) and 64-bit support have been a long time coming and people have a right to be upset. These were all supposed to be in the v4.72 update. However, after being near-lynched on the support forums for Vista support, the author decided to drop everything and get Vista support implemented ASAP or risk losing his entire customer base. What was to come in v4.72 was pushed back to v4.73.

Unfortunately, on the way to v4.73 Windows 7 was announced and builds were starting to pop up everywhere. It was then discovered the hack to get AdMuncher to work with Vista failed miserably on Windows 7. It was then decided by the author to move back those promised features again and re-writing AdMuncher and the installer properly to support Vista and Windows 7...and hopefully, every future Windows OS with UAC. He's concentrating on OS support first and the other features later. Whether or not that was the right thing to do, I cannot say.

One other thing is slowing development and that has been re-writing the old Assembly code into some flavor of C for easier maintaining of the codebase.

My guess is Murray is a perfectionist and he's got a case of OCD with his code not working just the way he wants it to before he releases it. That's just a guess, though, and may not be accurate.

AdMuncher is not perfect and I read above someone is leaving it behind for something else, but what? I've yet to find anything that does what AdMuncher will do for every program you have installed. Most adblockers restrict themselves to working with web browsers. If there are any true alternatives to AdMuncher I'd love to hear them.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: superboyac on June 02, 2009, 11:03 AM
Just email the developer, he'll send you your registration info.

As for Ad Muncher's development pace, yeah, it's slow.  But it works.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on June 02, 2009, 12:10 PM
Innuendo, I respect that they have hired another developer, but the problem with that is now, as you said, he has to play catch up and learn the code. Also, after talking with Murray, I am sure that he will have to triple check all code as the last developer they hired didn't know his stuff and caused many issues with actual releases.

The other issue I have with the slow development is the constant promise of all of these features which keep getting pushed to the right. Please notice, it took nearly 1.5 years AFTER Vista's release to get support for it. Windows 7 came out and they decided to not make the same mistake and jump on board early. Fine, good plan. But what about the other features which were promised for 4.73, in beta since Jan09? What about all of the users who don't have a version of ad muncher installed that is set to check for BETA updates? Unless you specifically know about the forums, irc channel, or the beta's, a normal user would not know to update. I did a test and did not update my father only to see if he noticed ad's starting to appear. Within 2 weeks of no updating, he reported to me that he started getting intermittent ad's which only increased as the month went on. It was at that time I told him to upgrade. Had I not been around, he would have assumed the product stopped working. Yes, releasing two lists can be counterproductive, but if you push out a new list format, RELEASE A STABLE VERSION so that users can take advantage of it. Don't force something onto any machine with the beta tag. My dad took 15 minutes of explaining as to why I was putting something that was labelled as a "test version", his understanding of the word beta, onto his machine. I understand that the code is stable and likely will not cause issues, but that is not something most users understand.

As I said, I support what the developers are doing but I feel they have promised too much and are taking too long to deliver what they promised. If this were someone serving as a project manager, they would have been fired in my line of work. I will hate to see when they try and venture into linux territory come 5.0's 5 year from now release. Development on the Windows version will probably come to a halt.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: app103 on June 02, 2009, 12:26 PM
And yes, I too have noticed that your AOL issue has gone unresolved despite at least 2 other reports coming in about it. Jeff claims "I do not have an AOL account so I cannot verify". At least that was the answer I got when I tried troubleshooting with him. Pretty poor excuse. They have released debug builds for people to test and find bugs on in the past, I do not understand why they didn't for this one.
-Josh (June 02, 2009, 05:32 AM)

AOL accounts are now free, and you don't even need one to run the software now (only need it to access certain features, like email). And if you have an AIM screen name it can be used in AOL's software, too, accessing aim.com email through it, so now there are 2 options for the same thing. So there should be no trouble getting access to the ads on the email window, which was my original complaint.

I seriously doubt that he can't verify. It might have been a problem way back when I first reported it, but that isn't the case today. Plus, I gave you access to that screen name on my AOL account to help him and I would have let him use it too, if it would have helped, so his excuses are pretty lame and carry no weight. (I'd still be willing to let him borrow one of my screen names if he's too lazy to get one of his own, if I thought it would help.)

But if they add the gzip support that should take care of the problem, any way.

And I sure hope they do, because the freeware TPA Ad Buster (http://www.tpasoft.com/adbuster/index.html) plugin is not an option for most AOL users today. It doesn't work with latest version of AOL, it's not Vista compatible, plus it's unsupported, buggy, and frequently crashes. Not to mention that it's pretty hard to find on the TPA site, ever since AOL threatened to stop working with them and allowing them access to information to develop other shareware plugins that are the TPA company's bread & butter. They were supposed to remove it from their site completely, but instead just removed all links to it from other pages. (Sneaky, but it made AOL shut up.) But TPA did keep the part of the deal with AOL that they wouldn't develop it any further, which is why the plugin is in the horrible state that it's in.

AdMuncher is not perfect and I read above someone is leaving it behind for something else, but what? I've yet to find anything that does what AdMuncher will do for every program you have installed. Most adblockers restrict themselves to working with web browsers. If there are any true alternatives to AdMuncher I'd love to hear them.
-Innuendo (June 02, 2009, 10:41 AM)

That's why I am still using it. I don't want to have to install & run a gazillion ad blockers that are application specific (and for some applications they don't even exist)
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Innuendo on June 02, 2009, 01:36 PM
I agree the developers are writing checks with their mouths that their butts can't cash. Personally, I'd prefer more frequent releases with fewer features added between non-beta releases, i.e. the developer said the only reason the current beta hasn't been released as final is because they don't have all the features coded that they want to be in the v4.73 release.

I say fine...release what you've got as v4.72.1 then. Add/fix some more stuff and release that as v.4.72.2, etc. When things are how you like it release that as v4.73. Then you can start the whole cycle over with v4.73.1.

At the current pace I don't think we have to worry about Linux and the v5.0 release. That's something our grandkids will have to deal with.  :P
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on June 02, 2009, 01:41 PM
As I said innuendo, I am in agreement with you. Make point releases, release new versions when you push out changes to the list structure. Don't force users to use beta code, regardless of how many times you claim it as reliable. Ad Muncher has caused me headaches in the past that are only resolved after exiting ad muncher. This is when a NO or MINIMAL filtering on URL filter does not work. It is at that time that murray gets involved because Jeff claims the problem is with something else but then Murray confirms its a bug in the way AM handles the data it receives.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: CodeTRUCKER on June 02, 2009, 02:34 PM
Not to condone laziness or lack of good planning, but is it possible that the reason incremental releases are not provided is because it might jeopardize the future, i.e., coding feature "A" now would prevent the implementation of features "B," "C," etc. requiring a total rewrite of the master architecture?

I have to face this when I develop an app or even a macro.  I have had to start over more than once because I painted myself into a corner.  
I hope I am saying this right? :huh:
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Innuendo on June 02, 2009, 02:45 PM
CodeTRUCKER, that's a very good point. I suppose that's possible, but no one would be able to say for sure if this is the case without being able to look over Murray's shoulder at his code.

I've never had a major problem with AdMuncher, but I have never had a qualm about running beta software, either.

I'm running a beta version of AnyDVD, a beta version of The Bat!, a beta version of Total Commander, a beta version of ACDSee Pro v3, and more on a beta version of Windows 7. I love running beta software because I always seize an opportunity to use new features.
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: superboyac on June 02, 2009, 03:38 PM
I used to be tentative about beta software, but over the years I've barely had any stability issues with them.  I think the word beta has changed drastically over the years to the point now where beta is just normal to me now.  heck, is gmail still beta? 
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: CodeTRUCKER on June 02, 2009, 03:50 PM
... heck, is gmail still beta? 
-superboyac (June 02, 2009, 03:38 PM)

<off topic>
Do not know about gmail, but I ALWAYS considered M$ Windows "beta" until XP came along (and some would probably question this)!
</off topic>
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: urlwolf on June 02, 2009, 04:40 PM
Josh, I'm surprised that you are switching to adblock.
Can you ellaborate on your experiences? Does it really work? For me, it missed a lot of ads, but it seems you can right-click and set rules. Not sure if it's worth it.
How much footwork is involved to get adblock working to the levels of admuncher (which is no work at all!)?

Thanks
Title: Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!
Post by: Josh on June 02, 2009, 04:48 PM
Well, here is the issue with point releases causing problems with other features. When you rewrite the filtering engine to process rules differently, thus making older versions not work with list updates, this to me indicates time for a new POINT release. Would it not?