# News Sites Becoming Impossible



## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

I am finding that many if not most news sites are so full of RAM-consuming flash-based ads and "promoted stories" that they lock up my computer. Appears I may need an upgrade soon. Right now I have 4GB RAM - thinking that at least 6GB are needed. 

Mostly I just avoid news sites, and all their garbage these days.


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

Maybe an AdBlocker type program might be helpful to you? I forget exactly what I have but in order to see a lot of videos and pictures, I get a pop-up that I have to give permission to. It helps a lot. Mostly, it declutters.


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## Alice Kramden (Mar 26, 2008)

Yes, get Adblocker Plus and use Firefox. I had to go without it for a few days when things got all wonky with this 'puter, and I was SHOCKED at what is put up on the screen. I do not see any of it with the adblocker. Never, no, never again. I don't see how anyone can stand to surf the net without it.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

Adblocker and No-script. Another solution is to use one of the free proxy servers.


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## TMTex (Apr 5, 2013)

I use Chrome and "Disconnect" for general surfing. Even this site (HT) has a plethora of ads if you're not logged in. Disconnect keeps them at bay.


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## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

MichaelZ said:


> I am finding that many if not most news sites are so full of RAM-consuming flash-based ads and "promoted stories" that they lock up my computer. Appears I may need an upgrade soon. Right now I have 4GB RAM - thinking that at least 6GB are needed.
> 
> Mostly I just avoid news sites, and all their garbage these days.


Memory is cheap. If you have room for it, I would add memory.

There are a lot of other things you can do like clear your cache and check your hard disk.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

I'm with Harry above. I have all of 2GB ram and do fine because I dont let those silly ads and hidden scripts use my computer resources. Use Firefox with Adblocker and NO-SCRIPT. If NO-SCRIPT is too much work for you, then use Ghostery. Not as much control, but its automagic. I personally think websites that try to strongarm you into stuff are shooting themselves in the foot. Either people do as I do and block their garbage or they just avoid the website altogether. Most sites that do the strongarm tactics tend not to have all that much content anyway, they promise far more than they deliver, they just want traffic so they collect ad fees.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Thank you all- you saved the life of my computer which I was about to end with my shotgun!


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

sisterpine said:


> Thank you all- you saved the life of my computer which I was about to end with my shotgun!


Yeah, I've been tempted to take the Rambo approach to computing a few times. LOL

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHKQX2qCfxI[/ame]


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Any victory is temporary. Just until the avoidance methods become used enough to cut into ad revenue. Then the sites manage to find ways around your ways around them.
It is a continuous scramble in which your only real weapon is the knowledge that there is usually a way around as the people in the business of selling you view time can't eliminate you without paying a price of less people viewing.


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## JohnP (Sep 1, 2010)

I found out last year that economy dsl just isn't enough anymore so we upgraded our internet. Made a huge difference. RAM helps as well. Not always a cheap upgrade though.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

JohnP said:


> I found out last year that economy dsl just isn't enough anymore so we upgraded our internet. Made a huge difference. RAM helps as well. Not always a cheap upgrade though.


 I agree as most providers now the low end of DSL is around 10 Gbps Anything slower just will not do much anymore. I have been at this 10Gbps for the last few years and it is a nice speed not too fast not too expensive as it is the lowest end of most companies now. And as far as RAM goes it is very inexpensive these days I sure would go the the MAX that ones machine can handle. When I got this iMac is came with 2Gig. I went to the max it could handle at 8 Gig, and the cost was only 44 bucks including shipping. And it took me 2 minutes to change the two sticks out. LOL


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

I have had to tweak my settings a bit with the new PC but my cheap 56k dial up still is enough to load the news sites I visit adequately for me.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

I stuck with dialup long as I could. There are still some dialup friendly sites, but getting few and far between. But when at best it took half hour to load a webpage and usually browser just times out, it was time to move on. I actually use my internet for banking and other NECESSARY things that simply dont work on dialup anymore thanks to all their added bloat and eyecandy. I cant get DSL or cable so have to make do with a pay as you go mobile broadband wifi hotspot. $40 for 4GB data which lasts a month for me. I simply didnt install flash on my computer, so no flash ads or videos can run. Video is the enemy when doing expensive metered broadband, it will eat data so fast, the 4GB would be gone in days or hours, not a month like I stretch it. So are hidden scripts trying to run on most sites (I am blocking 71 on this site while writing this), thus my beloved NO-SCRIPT. I dont want to spend my expensive metered data on pure junk. You want to show me ads, you pay for my broadband. Dont leach off mine. And its just perverted and creepy for anyone to try to track me around the web. In real world its called stalking!


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