h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Are there tracking cookies besides the signon for h2 that are needed for it to run smoothly? Especially for people in the US?

I have noticed with more ad-spy-tracking cookies that are being removed h2 is sluggish sometimes

I have allowed bbc cookies but several keep popping up that have tracking warnings > centerport and 2o7.net and another one I'm forgetting.

Is there a page or website that tells more about individual tracking cookies?

Traveller in Time on top
"If you do not mind to mis the annual questionaire, only keep the www.bbc.co.uk for HooToo. "

If you want to stop tracking cookies from ever residing on your computer, you could do the following:

1. Use a program such as JavaCoolSoftware's SpywareBlaster to prevent tracking cookies from being installed on your computer in the first place
http://www.download.com/SpywareBlaster/3000-8022-10196637.html

2. Use a hosts file such as the one available at http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm. This option redirects calls from known offenders of spyware to somewhere else where it can't find the stuff it's looking for, and promptly falls over. It can mean that banner ads and sponsored links can stop working on a few sites, especially if they're through a tracking cookie service such as Tradedoubler, Valueclick, Doubleckick, etc.

3. Use both.

Thanks to both of you!

"There's no place like 127.0.0.1" Nice

Thanks for reminding me about the hosts file Croz - that's one aspect of my security that often gets overlooked and not updated.

By the way, someone on an email list I'm subscribed to suggested adding four Zone Labs urls because Zone Alarm has been known to phone home. You heard anything about this?

Yeah I heard something about it a few weeks back, but I gather the final verdict was "inconclusive" and was therefore left open to the end user as to whether or not ZoneLabs and Checkpoint servers should be hosts filtered. It doesn't apply to me anyway since I use a hardware firewall solution rather than ZA.

I also gather it only supposedly was an issue with corporate editions, but better safe than sorry.

Hmmm. Bearing in mind that this is Zone Alarm we're talking about, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and leave things be. There ain't too many other apps I'd say that about.

Hosts file updated

Now, if only I can remember the handful of urls I added myself and which I inserted alphabetically, instead of adding them at the bottom and clearly marking as such

Ah, maybe it was some Google adservers...

Nope - I still can't click on the ads that appear in Gmail. Must have been something else.