Pale Moon forum

In searching for a replacement for Adblock Edge (see here: http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3647), I came across something called AdFender (it got 5 out of 5 stars by Softpedia's Editors).

It looks like it really isn't an add-on, but instead a stand-alone program. [I'm putting this post here in Add-ons because I'm curious to find out if AdFender works in the same way as Adblock Edge / Adblock Plus.] In doing research on AdFender's website, I noticed this in a Q&A section:

AdFender runs as a HTTP proxy server on your local computer. It does not depend on our servers for browsing the Internet.

After AdFender is installed or updated, your security software must be configured to allow AdFender to connect to the Internet. When your browser tries to connect to a web server, it is instead connected to the local AdFender program and AdFender connects to the web server on behalf of the browser. When the firewall notifies you that AdFender is trying to connect to the Internet or act as a server, you MUST allow access, for AdFender to work properly.

http://adfender.com/support.html

Is this the same way Adblock Edge / Adblock Plus, etc., works? I must admit that after reading this, I am leery of installing AdFender. Can someone educate me on this?

In addition, it seems like you'd have to either start it up manually, or have it configured to start upon system boot-up, since it's a stand-alone program. Either way it is a minus (extra click or draining resources when not needed).

Yes, I used it. On Windows 8.1, I had a problem with it, where it wouldn't allow me to use the Windows Update feature or update my Windows apps(because of the proxy). This problem didn't occur on Windows 7, but I just installed AdBlock Plus for IE, which I wanted AdFender to work on Maxthon and IE.
AdFender works on its end, server-side, and blocks ads, you merely get the website that they produce when they block the ads. (Or so, that's what I think it does)
Adblock Plus works locally, as the other extensions, unless specified.
If you don't trust it, don't use it. Then again, this applies to anything you use on the net.

Thanks megaman. I guess I'll just keep on searching.

NoScript and RequestPolicy is what i use.

Works perfect and make the page loading faster

To answer the OP's question: No, they are not the same way of filtering ads.

AdFender is a proxy. This is a solution where all your browsing traffic is filtered through AdFender and ads are removed before they arrive at the browser. Depending on how it is set up, it will feed empty/fake data to the browser (blank image, etc.)
ABP is a request filtering agent. This is a solution where ad elements aren't even requested in the first place.

Proxies don't work for all connections, and using a local proxy may slow your browsing down (Pale Moon by default doesn't use http pipelining over proxies, for example, since quite a few proxies don't handle it very well) - this is why I generally prefer the second option unless you are implementing something browser-independent and/or for a larger number of computers at once.

dark_moon wrote:NoScript and RequestPolicy is what i use.

Works perfect and make the page loading faster

I am with you on Request Policy, but that was before the pain of having to allow so many sites and/or objects.
it does a nice job, though.

Thanks for the explanation Moonchild. Although AdFender is probably good at what it does, it definitely sounds like something I don't want to use.