Working with the Common Ad Sites Shield

This shield helps stop annoying banner and other ads from displaying when you go to Web sites. Webroot maintains a list of common advertising sites and adds these sites to your Hosts file. Instead of listing the correct IP address for these sites, the Webroot list puts in the IP address for your computer. This effectively blocks banner and other advertising from the sites in the list.

When you go to a Web site that has advertising from one of the blocked sites, you may see a small graphic that indicates a broken link to a graphic (typically a red x in a box). This just shows where the blocked ad would display.

If you have this shield turned on, Spy Sweeper updates these sites when you update your definitions.

If you want to remove entries in the Hosts file that you have created, select the Edit Hosts File option. This option lets you view the entries you have added to the Hosts file and remove them.

If the shields are unavailable (dimmed), you may not have access to this function. For more information, see Understanding How Spy Sweeper Works with Multiple User Accounts.