Cheers StevePaul, thought I don't know about excellent; bitty, but hopefully helpful.

I used Adsweep for some time, but tired of trying to include my own filters to it, as I didn't grasp how at the time. I went back to Firefox for Adblock Plus, read up on ad blocking, and realised that a proxy filter should do the same job for Chrome. I tried Privoxy, but found it a bit complex and couldn't get my own filters to work. I tried a few others and found BFilter the easiest to use, especially as it doesn't need a whopping great 'Easylist'. I haven't used the Javascript filtering, but there's a mention of it in this thread. Blocking an ad site or stat/counter server lags is done by just adding a simple URL pattern in BFilter > Configuration > Advanced > 'urls.local' tab. (I've attached my list in case it's of use, along with a minimal Adsweep as a starting point).

The reason I use Adsweep is because excellent as Lex1's Adblock+ element hider is, it was loosing my settings all the time. Lex1 said it's a Chrome bug. I thought using the Adsweep script would work well to hide items which I preferred not to see from favourite sites (I'd worked out how to do it by this time), but there was no point in having all of Adsweep's filters when BFilter was properly blocking it all now. In fact, some of the Adsweep lines may be duplicating BFilter, but they're only one-liners, and were left in to remind me how each section works.

Yeah, I'd say this combination is ideal for me. Perhaps BFilter could do the tidying up so that Adsweep isn't needed, but I haven't put time into finding out how to block single elements with BFilter, so hiding them does fine for now. Just had a thought; if just about everyone online all over the world blocked ads all the time, the cynical in-your-face ad spammers would just die out, and the 'nice' ones would have to ask if you'd please click something to look at a couple of ads. Roll on the day that happens..!

Looks like I'll have to enable User Scripts again for your AS (and disable AS extension) ...

What do I do with the Urls (its somewhere in this thread isn't it) ?

Apologies, doing this on my phone in the pub (Number One son's birthday !!)

Yes, to use the cut-down Adsweep script you'll need to enable user scripts, etc. I chucked a shortcut to it in my Windows start menu so I can play with filters on the fly (it doesn't need a browser restart).

To add the URL filters, once BFilter's running and in the system tray, click the icon and go to BFilter > Configuration > Advanced > 'urls.local' tab, then paste them in and Save.

The best thing to do is leave all other 'ad block' extensions disabled/removed, and get BFilter working. Check out some sites (including this one), then enable the smaller Adsweep. If you've left it as it is then you'll see the big header on this site disappear. Also, if you've disabled avatars as I have, and find the big graphics people put in their signatures get in the the way, add this to BFilter; AD *photobucket*. I also get rid of gravatars with; AD *gravatar.*. I'd rather read what people have to say than look at the images they splat all over web pages. But that's just my preference.

@Michael ...

Thanks, I'll give it a whirl tomorrow, when I'm back in the world of the living !!

btw, take it the numbers in your name are your birthday ...

It that's the case, makes you the same age as my son ;-)

Nah, it's 31/8/56! I mistyped it in an email registration once, then just used it ever since.

Right, in that case you're almost as old as me ;-0

Have to be honest, your posts seemed a bit 'worldly'

@Michael

Seeing as your online ...

I'm going to install your 'solution' later on today, but because I like to understand what a particular solution does, could you let me have a couple of URLs so that I can see the effect that BFilter has ...

Basically I'm going to implement it in stages (all this afternoon) but would like to see the effect each stage has on the overall solution (ie. BFilter, URLs list and AdSweep) ...

Would the fact that I use Three Mobile Broadband have any affect on the implementation ?

I think specifically of how the Proxy is actually configured ...

Any help here greatly appreciated ;-)

Hi StevePaul. I'm on and off-line today, as I'm out walking this afternoon, but will be online again from this evening.

Your plan to do it in stages is the best way of course, as you can monitor what's actually working as you go along. So, after removing all adblock-type extensions and scripts, including flashblock...

BFilter is very easy to set up. On installing (if I remember correctly) it offers to run at Windows startup. If I got that wrong, just place a shortcut to it in your Programs > Startup folder. Follow the simple instructions on the BFilter site to configure your Internet Options to use a LAN proxy at address 127.0.0.1, port 8080. Or if you only want to use BFilter with Chrome, leave the Internet Options alone, and just add --proxy-server=127.0.0.1:8080 to your Chrome shortcut. (Thanks to others, in above posts). That will stop it from blocking ads in other browsers. It doesn't affect FTP applications and such anyway.

Go to the BFilter tray icon, and click Bypass to stop it blocking anything. Then run Chrome, clear the browser cache and then try some sites with ads, eg., this one, and dailymail.co.uk; there's an ad in the banner, plus one mid-page (just don't let the 'articles' numb your mind!) Then switch off the BFilter Bypass, and reload the pages; externally sourced ads will be gone. (To remove on-site promotions and banners you can use Adsweep, Adblock+ or dvCr, as I'm sure you know).

Next, grab the urls.local.txt file from post #31 above, and copy its contents into the edit box in BFilter; Tray icon > Configuration > Advanced > urls.local tab, paste and Save. Obviously, you can add your own pattern matches here easily, but as I said elsewhere, a huge list isn't required, just block sources one by one if you come across any.

Next (in my set-up) are FlashBlock and a small custom Adsweep. I've added my latest version of that which has dailymail.co.uk elements hidden, so you can see what I've done. I tend to block a lot in YouTube as well, and also the flipping great banner on this site! Any appropriate extension can be used to tidy up pages and hide various elements of course, but I chopped Adsweep down so it was manageable and understandable, and doesn't replicate what BFilter is actually blocking anyway.

Hope it goes smoothly for you - I don't see ads at all, or maybe when visiting some new site I see one, or find it's connecting to some stat or syndication server. One quick URL filter added to BFilter, and sayonara. If Adblock Plus from Firefox makes it over to Chrome then I'll use it because it has element hiding as well, and doing it from a context menu is so much easier. But this system is quick and easy, and works in exactly the same way. (So thanks to everyone writing proxy servers and element hiding extensions!)

Oops, missed a bit. The Internet connection won't have any affect on this at all. All a proxy does is act as a go-between after the data has arrived, filtering it before it's sent to the browser. It doesn't affect the actual connection, nor slow it down - I've noticed no lag whatsoever.

Oh, one last thing. When you switch BFilter's Bypass off so you can see the filtering results, clear the browser cache before hitting F5. I've noticed that Chrome leaves big blank spaces where the ads used to be, on this site for example. Clearing the cache sorts it out and the spaces are collapsed properly. Right; lunch and a walk in the park!

@Michael ...

Thanks for yet another great post ...

Everything works great (enjoyed the tutorial !!)

The command line is good, the only drawback being, is if you open Chrome from a link (eg Email) BFilter isn't enabled ... (Enabled it through Internet options anyway - was just testing this option) ...

One thing, I use Only2Clicks as a homepage (Bookmark thumbnails) and they get blocked by BFilter, how do I configure BF to ignore this site ?

It's really interesting. I've been a big fan of FireFox. It had everything I needed with some great extensions. Only one major issue, start-up times. Then Chrome came and I started using it for the only 1+ I can't find over Firefox: it start instantly.
We must make all kind of supplemental things: bFilter for blocking ads, mouse gestures don't work as it should (fixed by using ChromePlus), CCleaner for cleaning the flash cookies. And I ask myself why ? just for the startup times ? I guess so... not to mention that Chrome doesn't really feel that fast in loading pages, FF with the help of some extensions like AdBlockPlus, YetAnotherSmoothScrolling, BetterPrivacy, Downlaod Helper, Firegestures, Secure login etc, makes using it a real plaisure. I am sure that if they would improve start up times, some of us won't be here to discuss about Chrome ....

Still a Chromium fan, it's my main browser. But how much can I resist ? I don't want to spam the forum, but if it weren't for ChromePlus (based on Chromium) I wouldn't be using Chrome for a long time now.
Thank you for bFilter Michael, it makes the browser feel faster adding some more hope.