An ad unkillable by hosts list

[lockheed]

I have been using your hosts list with combination of my own specific list applicable for Poland (I sent you that list update, by the way) and it is working fine.

 

However, there is one ad that I just can't seem to block, no matter what I do.

 

It is all over filmweb.pl domain. For example, if you go to 

www.filmweb.pl/search?q=pasja

  it should be displayed at the top of the page. I can block it with Opera built-in manual adblock

( http://3.fwcdn.pl/adv/* )

and it is blocked.

 

However, no matter how I try to put it in a hosts file, it just doesn't work and the ad still appears.

 

I tried 

3.fwcdn.pl

fwcdn.pl

3.fwcdn.pl/adv/*

 

and probably every other combination. Nothing. The ad is still displayed if I do not block it within Opera.

Edited December 10, 2013 by AdvancedSetup
removed hyperlinks

[AdvancedSetup]

This site appears to possibly be dealing with illegal movie downloads and as such we cannot assist you.

If you believe this legal and wish to discuss this further you can send a PM to the following user.

MysteryFCM

https://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showuser=1009

Thank you.

[lockheed]

What are you talking about? This is the same thing as imdb.com, just in Polish.

It is the second (or even first) biggest movie information database in Europe.

[AdvancedSetup]

No problem just took a quick glance and it looks like dozens of of sites that do deal in pirating movies.  I didn't try to translate the site and investigate it.

 

That said MysteryFCM would still possibly be the best resource if using hphosts for blocking ads.  Though what is wrong with using Opera to block it?

[lockheed]

I messaged him, thanks for the suggestion.

 

I use Opera only on one machine, only part of the time.

I put hosts file on the router to affect all connecting computers.

[AdvancedSetup]

You may be able to use netstat -a from the command line to assist in locating a specific host or a tool like this

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437.aspx

[MysteryFCM]

Sorry for the delay, the following have been added to hpHosts;

 

1.fwcdn.pl

2.fwcdn.pl

3.fwcdn.pl

[lockheed]

I think adding all those three hosts entirely messed up the layout of the filmweb.pl website.

It now cannot load properly. Just take a look.

[lockheed]

In fact, even adding just 3.fwcdn.pl in hosts file breaks some functionality of the site, namely it removes EDIT option of posted comments.

[lockheed]

I wonder what is so special about Opera's ad block that it can block those ads perfectly fine and without any negative impact, while every other method I tried either doesn't work, or breaks something else.

[lockheed]

Please, remove 2.fwcdn.pl from the hostsblock list, because blocking it brakes the largest film database website in Europe at filmweb.pl

[MysteryFCM]

They've been removed, thank you (though I'd suggest having a word with the sites ops as that should never be happening).

[lockheed]

I think that is their way of preventing people from using adblocks. Just few months back, those urls were just for ads. Now they moved part of their content there.

[John L. Galt]

The domain name says it all:

 

X.fwcdn.pl:

 

• X=number {1,2,3}
• fw=filmweb
• cdn=content delivery network
• pl=poland, same suffix as main filmweb.pl

Basically, fwcdn.pl is filmweb's content delivery system - it's probably being used to serve up images, video, etc. for things like interviews, trailers, etc. just like imdb has available.  And, as such, blocking *.fwcdn.pl is going to block their ability to deliver said content to you when you visit their main site filmweb.pl.  Many websites will have alternate domains established such as this in order to help separate the actual (usually multimedia) content from other stuff (which may, IIRC, be actually hosted on 3rd party websites / servers) in order to make the user experience on their primary website seem (no pun intended) as seamless as possible,.

 

Now, as to the fact that they are serving up advertising, well, you can look at it two ways:

 

1. They are a legitimate business site, and (you'd hope) are reasonable enough not to sponsor malicious advertising through their own content delivery network, and since you are using their services, it's only fair to allow their own advertising to come through, or
2. You're on a low-bandwidth / capped bandwidth connection, and every little bit of blocked content helps you stay online longer to conduct all of your business, social, and personal surfing.

My personal opinion is that I think it is a smart business decision on their part to have at least part of their advertising run directly through their cdn, so if you block it you lose functionality of theirr website, provided that they are very thoroughly screening all advertisements that they are serving to their users.

 

However, in seeing many hundreds of thousands of websites over the years, I have my doubts, particularly if they are outsourcing their actual advertising content to a 3rd party vendor, which many, many, many companies / websites proprietors do.

 

If you have ample bandwidth with no caps (or illogically high caps - my current ISP provides me with ~300 GB / month), I think you can allow those to come through.  Since they are not separate popups but displayed inline in the main website itself, you should be pretty safe.

 

As MysteryFCM said, though, probably would not hurt to contact the webmaster for filmweb and ask some poignant questions about their cdn and their use of it to deliver advertising content, particularly in regards to their advertisement screening process.

 

HTH

[John L. Galt]

I think that is their way of preventing people from using adblocks. Just few months back, those urls were just for ads. Now they moved part of their content there.

 

It could be that they established the domain for the actual purpose of serving content, but that can be a daunting task when you have hundreds of GB or even several TB or more of data to move.  So, they may have opted to first use the domain to serve advertising (or also, possibly, in order to help make it pay for itself) until the content could be moved and tested thoroughly before going live with the content delivery system.