How to block ads on any web browser on Linux

Last updated on March 28, 2013 by Dan Nanni

If you want to block ads while surfing the web on a web browser, there are browser-specific plugins to use (e.g., AdBlock or Adblock Plus on Chrome and Firefox). But if you are looking for a browser-agnostic or plugin-free way to remove ads from web pages (i.e., block ads on any web browser), this guide can help you.

A simple way to block ads on any web browser is to set up a local http proxy which then filters advertisements embedded in web pages, and renders ads-free web pages for you. One such proxy is Privoxy which is equipped with advanced filtering capabilities that can filter a wide range of well-known ads from web pages.

Install Privoxy on Linux

For Ubuntu or Debian:

To install and start Privoxy on Ubuntu or Debian, run the following.

$ sudo apt-get install privoxy
$ sudo /etc/init.d/privoxy start

For Fedora:

To install and start Privoxy on Fedora, use these commands.

$ sudo yum install privoxy
$ sudo service privoxy start

For CentOS or RHEL:

To install and start Privoxy on CentOS or RHEL, first set up EPEL repository on your system, and then run the following.

$ sudo yum install privoxy
$ sudo service privoxy start

Configure Privoxy

After installation, you can check whether Privoxy is running successfully as follows.

$ sudo netstat -nap|grep privoxy

tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:8118              0.0.0.0:*                   LISTEN      2093/privoxy

Now, edit proxy setting for your web browser as follows.

Proxy host: 127.0.0.1
Port: 8118

Once proxy setting has been edited, you can browse web sites as usual. You will find that websites are now free of ads. For example:

New York Times website before enabling Privoxy:

New York Times website after enabling Privoxy:

You can customize Privoxy's default filtering rules by editing /etc/privoxy/default.action.

$ sudo vi /etc/privoxy/default.action

. . . .
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# JavaScripts and Texts for ad and popup generation
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Blocked URL = http://pagead.googlesyndication.example.com/foo/bar/baz.js
pagead*.googlesyndication./.*.js
# Blocked URL = http://a.tfag.de/js.ng/
/js.ng/
/popunder
/js/slider.js
/t.php?cat=.*&kw=.*&sc=
scripts.chitika.net/.*.js
jlinks.industrybrains.com/
.adinterax.com/.*.js
.googleadservices.com/gampad/.*.js
js.adsonar.
. . . .

After filtering rules are updated, make sure to restart Privoxy.

On Ubuntu or Debian:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/privoxy restart

On CentOS, RHEL or Fedora:

$ sudo service privoxy restart

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