Preventing Adsense Clicks by Home Network Users

How to make AdSense safe family notebooks

[jetteroheller]

Some weeks ago, my wife nearly clicked on my ads, as she was searching for vacation destinations and found a page from me.

My doughters become also older and will be soon also surfing around.

I am just implementing to insert the AdSense code by SSI. For example

<!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/ssi.pl?from=german&insert=300x250" -->

Now I want to convert the other notebooks from my family in AdSense secure notebooks

Thats my USER_AGENT
[ Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; Alexa Toolbar) ]

Seems Alexa changes the USER AGENT string.
I would like to add an unique identifer to the USER_AGENT string, in order that my SSI can sort out my familiy notebooks at inserting the AdSense code.

My server sets 20 year lasting cookies,
but I lost 5 times my own cookie in the last 3 years, so I think cookies are not very reliable.

[Noel]

[webmasterworld.com...]

But why not make the script to look at the(LAN) IP's of the family, and let it decide to show ads.

N

[jetteroheller]

But why not make the script to look at the(LAN) IP's of the family, and let it decide to show ads

All notebooks are connected to one WLAN router.

My provider gives dynamic IP addresses

I have to see my ads to find out that everything is all right.

[Noel]

All notebooks are connected to one WLAN router.

My provider gives dynamic IP addresses

Wow.. So all your PC get a WAN IP from your ISP!
What a waste of IP's :-)

N

[Critters]

change the host file on all PC's to an incorrect IP for the URL google uses on ads?

[trillianjedi]

Wow.. So all your PC get a WAN IP from your ISP!
What a waste of IP's :-)

No, he only has one IP, shared by all the PC's on his LAN via his WLAN router... much the same as most home network setups I would imagine. It's actually a very efficient use of IP's ;-)

change the host file on all PC's to an incorrect IP for the URL google uses on ads?

That's an excellent idea. Be careful though, google sometimes use "syndicate2" as a sub-domain. I presume they would all still want to use other google services.

TJ

[trillianjedi]

... actually you're ok as they have a dedicated .tld for it.

Put this in the hosts file on all PC's you wish to block ads to (in /windows/system32/drivers/etc/):-

127.0.0.1 googlesyndication.com

It will of course block all ads from all sites, and they are likely to get a browser error when loading pages and have to click a button.

That may be a bit of a pain.

TJ

[jetteroheller]

change the host file on all PC's to an incorrect IP for the URL google uses on ads?

1.) What is a host file, where to find it

2.) My family is in general allowed to view AdSense ads, there is only one exception, the AdSense ads with my publisher ID

[trillianjedi]

1.) What is a host file, where to find it

The hosts file contains a list of known domains and their corresponding IP addresses.

Anything in the hosts file overides a DNS lookup.

Putting:-

127.0.0.1 googlesyndication.com

... as a line in a PC's hosts file, will tell the browser on that PC to go to 127.0.0.1 (localhost) for any queries to that domain.

The ads will therefore not show, although it may have un-wanted side-effects. The best thing to do is to try it.

I gave the path to your hosts file (assuming Windows 2000 and up) in my post above. Edit it with notepad. It's a file called "hosts" with no extension.

2.) My family is in general allowed to view AdSense ads, there is only one exception, the AdSense ads with my publisher ID

The above trick will block all adsense ads, and possibly with side-effects, but worth a try.

I can't think of any other way of doing what you want to do, whilst allowing you to view ads on your site, if you don't want to do it with cookies.

TJ

[zCat]

If you use FireFox / Mozilla (probably a good idea if you have surfing kids anyway) there's an extension which enables you to define your own user agent strings:

[extensionroom.mozdev.org...]

A somewhat more ambitious solution would be to set up a local HTTP proxy for your home network which dynamically rewrites the user agent on all outgoing HTTP requests. Assuming your router can't do such a thing that means you'd probably need to set up a dedicated Linux box or something.

[Noel]

No, he only has one IP, shared by all the PC's on his LAN via his WLAN router... much the same as most home network setups I would imagine. It's actually a very efficient use of IP's ;-)

Yes thats what I also thought, but this was his responce:

My provider gives dynamic IP addresses

Thats why I answered like that.

The hosts file trick is also a good way of doing it..

N

[trillianjedi]

My provider gives dynamic IP addresses

Dynamic simply means it's allocated from a pool ad-hoc, as opposed to static where you are consistently assigned the same IP. Most home DSL/dial-up users are assigned IP's dynamically.

The more I think about it, the more I think that the host file trick may not be the best way - it will cause browser errors in IE... the firefox trick posted above is certainly worth investigating further.

TJ

[EricGiguere]

To find out more about modifying the user agent string, just google for strings like "browser masquerading" or "changing user agent". It's actually pretty easy to do with Mozilla-based browsers like Firefox, harder with IE.

Eric

[vincevincevince]

You could use something like the adblock plugin for firefox. I use it to hide adsense for that very reason...

[EricGiguere]

Actually, sounds like an enhancement for the adblock plugin or a new plugin entirely: a plugin that only blocks ads with specific AdSense publisher IDs as opposed to all ads in general.

Eric

[2by4]

No, adblock lets you block any url of any type, so if you want to block for example just the client number, you just use some wild cards: http: //*<client number>* and the ads from that client number won't appear.

[kiladen]

How about just TELLING your wife and daughter not to click on your ads? Give them a list of your sites, and by some random coincidence they find your page out of all the trillions on the net, tell them not to click on ads on them.

[MatthewHSE]

If you switch to Firefox and set the UA string to something unique, it should be trivial to write a little PHP script to serve AdSense only to UA's that don't match yours.

Alternatively, you could ask your ISP for a static IP. It will cost extra, but it would give you a consistent IP address to check for. The downside of this is that it won't work if you access your site from anywhere other than your home Internet connection - for instance, if you use a laptop while travelling.

[Idaho]

This is an interesting topic and one that I've worried about myself. I have to admit that the methods of blocking ads went completely over my head. I'm guessing that I'm not alone and that a huge percentage of Adsense users would also find the instructions offered here difficult to implement.

If Google can track clicks that are made on your own computer or network of computers, why don't they simply not count those clicks? Let them solve their own problem.

[vitaplease]

how about Google adding an option on their toolbar?

12 people in a company, some need to see the ads others better not?
Activating/Deactivating through the toolbar could help
and prevent unnecessary descussions..

[RedMist]

Would there be the same problem at a university if someone uses a PC in the library to log into his/her adsense/adwords accounts and setup web pages. If someone built a site for his class and put up his/her notes for other students to read then other students may click on ads from the same university PC the person used to setup the site.

[PCInk]

** WARNING: This post contains the word 'Norton'! **

You could install a Norton program with the advert blocker, delete all the default blocker rules and then add just one with your publisher ID in it! You can then switch the adblocker off when you want to work on your site and see the adverts.

(Have I found the first positive use for Norton's ad blocker?!)

[emodo]

I've had great success with the:

127.0.0.1 googlesyndication.com

solution, if there are side effects, I have not seen them.

[jcmiras]

I have also the same problem, the computer that i am using to monitor my Adsense is connected to a LAN with a hundreds of computers. I'm just hoping that if someone in our network surf my websites, he/she must not click the ads. I hope google find a solution to this.

[Brett_Tabke]

There is absolutly no way that Google would throw you out for a random stray click or two on your own ads.

I know people that religiously click their ads once a day for the last year plus to make sure they are working.

[sailorjwd]

I would recommend using the host file change to block all adsense ads... if someone in the house accidentally clicks on an ANY ad 10-20 times you might get your Adsense account disabled if someone complains about fraudulent clicks.

[sailorjwd]

"I know people that religiously click their ads once a day for the last year plus to make sure they are working. "

What a great idea coming from a Mod... I certainly hope you are in that religion. Don't drink the coolaid.

[Brett_Tabke]

You should *always* check that the ads on your site are working. If not - why are you taking the hit to run them? It is your site - don't let anyone tell you what you can and can not do on the privacy of your own site.

[emodo]

Do you hear that rumble?

Thats the adwords forum STORMING the gates. Run Brett, Run.

*Unfolds Lawn Chair*

This is gonna be good.

[jimilives]

Totally making a mountain out of a mole hill, Good that your trying to be honest though. But seriously if you get over 200 clicks a day google isnt going to close your account if .5% came from your network, they are looking for patterns in IPs they dont freak over a couple odd clicks, i too have a friend who clicks each of his pages once a day thinking it makes him an extra buck or so, its a waste of time but they dont kill his account over it.