adshield
http://www.adshield.org
Price $29.95
Right after the installation the application requested to restart the computer and took the liberty to change Internet Explorer proxy settings. Besides, the application doesn't provide for cascade proxy settings, or any ad blocking settings for that matter. Ad blocking features function rather poorly, and they can only be toggled on or off. Once toggled off, however, they can't be reversed.
The application produced the impression of a most "raw" and faulty solution of all mentioned in this review. Since the application functions could not be retrieved once they had been disabled, the application was excluded from consideration and got the lowest estimation - 1 point. We are convinced that using this application is a sheer waste of time.
ad blocker pro
http://www.3bsoftware.com
Price $19.95
Annoyingly enough, Ad Blocker Pro changes proxy settings and requires restarting the computer to complete installation. A major drawback is that to start the application you need to close all Internet Explorer windows. When running, the application lowers computer operating speed significantly, especially when several IE windows are open at once. That is, in effect the application slows down the connection instead of speeding it up, though a smaller bulk of information is loaded from the Internet. When several web pages were open simultaneously, we were forced to close the application from the Task Manager, because it was eating up all of the CPU resources. It turned out that after the application had been closed, Internet access was closed as well (the application had changed Internet Explorer settings). To restore the settings and access to the Internet we had to manually enter the former parameters for the Internet Explorer (this might present a problem for a common user).
Due to slow speed, CPU overload and IE settings breakdown other features of the application were not considered, and it was estimated with two points
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