Re: Windows Firewall

"spyware cookies"??? you're mixing your metaphores!

I think what you are looking for is a Proxy.

One of the best is Privoxy, and it's free.

www.privoxy.org

It _CAN_ be very technical, but Privoxy's easy setup w/ its default
settings works very well without any tweaking, and you need not dive into
its technical details if you don't want to. IF you do want to, the
documentation is extensive.

Privoxy will block most ads, banners, popups, and any
"bad" javascript or html behavior. It can block cookies,
and by default does block a few outright (doubleclick); most
others it turns into "session cookies", so that they dissapearas soon as
you end your session.

If you ever have a problem where you think Privoxy has blocked something
it should not have, just click its icon in the Tray and uncheck ENABLE,
then refresh the page.

To Install it:

Just read the ..\doc\user-manual.txt file, jump directly to the
Quick-Start section, then make the (easy) change to IE's options to make
it use the proxy (IE Options, connections tab, highlight the connection,
click the Settings button, fill in the proxy section as described in the
manual for localhost, port 8118) and off you go. Be sure to clear the IE
cache too, so already cached ads don't keep showing up.

It sounds harder than it is! Don't let the mumbo jumbo
in the user-manual.txt's early sections scare you off.
Jump right to the Quick-Start section.

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If you are on a dial-up connection, Privoxy is a MUST,
since it eliminates the fetching of ads, leaving the
bandwidth for use by "real" content. Speeds up browsing
a lot on a dial-up.

Test it yourself: enable Privoxy, flush your cache, go to
a regular site (try a newspaper site, not google!). Time it
and notice the appearence of the finished page (w/o the adds).

Then repeat, but first UNCHECK Privoxy's enabled menu. See how much
longer it takes, and the look of the page, now filled w/ ads? You'll
never go back!

.