So, I wanted to start using some form of ad blocking and consulted the wiki...

It seems like the wiki is somewhat outdated, since Privoxy isn't available in the extras repos (atleast I didn't find it there :P) etc.

Anyway, the wiki page mentions that there's a considerable performance impact if you use Adblock... So I was wondering, what is the recommended up-to-date method for ad blocking? I really like adblock but if there's a hefty performance impact, I'd rather use something else.

Adblock is good, I don't know how much it impacts performance... but I see that web pages loading, scrolling and rendering without image banners, animated banners or even flash banners is MUCH faster and lighter

I've tested various methods on various tablets and found that the best compromise is the "hosts file" method. There is no performance or memory hit to speak of, and for my own usage results are undistinguishable from Adblock or similar extensions.

There is a package named "Advoid" for Maemo4 that makes it easy for the command-line-shy to install this on an N8x0.

I don't think it's available for Maemo5/N900 yet (although it's a Python app), but if you're not afraid of xterm it's easy enough to to it "by hand" : just download a ready-made ad-blocking hosts file from mvps and *append* the contents to your own /etc/hosts file (you need to install rootsh and use sudo gainroot first before you can change that file).

One benefit of this method is that it automatically applies to *any* browser you might use on the N900, even if it does not support extensions.

fpp you mention appending your current host file. I am on the N810 and use advoid, which is fantastic. Can you possibly post the command to append for xterm. I'm to assume that the person asking how to block files may not be as familiar with xterm as someone such as yourself. If I'm mistaken I apologize, but feel the commands might help other users as well who are gun shy when it comes to command prompts.

save that .txt file somewhere, (remember the location)
open xterm

Follow the directions on this link:

http://browser.garage.maemo.org/news/12/

It worked perfectly for me!

How many entries in the hosts file? I did this on linux, osx and windows years ago before adblock was around. Due to the nature of resolving and it's serial hunt through hosts, this greatly impacted everything due to the thousands of entries. Mine also included known malware/forged sites and bulletproof hoster sites though.

If you are talking thousands of entries with no performance impact on 'not just browsing' that's very good.

Being close to and knowing the guts of how these ad networks work, I'm guessing you need to update often?

Anyway, I'm using adblock and tested with/without it and there is a slight impact, but trivial, especially with so many sites overloaded with ads now. You aren't waiting for the pages to pull in junk from CDNs it improves overall performance. Even Amazon's pages load faster.

Plus, you don't have to constantly worry about updating your hosts file.

Finally, we are seeing more and more ERMs show up and just idiots that pull this content in w/out using an iframe (and heck if they are going to reverse every ad or have knowledge of what to look for), which means you now have active content that run in your context (access to DOM) allowing session jacking, credential stealing, etc. It is well known that orgs like the RBN easily get their bogus, mal-ads in frequently affecting sites you trust like Yahoo, etc. The ad networks and flow are fragile and not well vetted making this easy and frequent. A common way now to throw on keyloggers and recruit for botnets. Firewalls are dead - why bother when people happily come to you?

So, blocking ads is more than improving page performance and removing irritants. It is for me anyway.

Or, try the uber slow FF (fennec) for the N900, use that for 10 mins and you'll be back to microb+adblock in no time :-) *still scratching my head how it was released running slower than molasses on a 0C day or why it runs faster on my N810*

i had adblock 1.0.2 ... that worked .... but without any workable option to change the lists ... well ... wanted to upgrade to 1.1.1 ... followed suggestions ... and now i'm stuck with 1.0.2 is uninstalled ... but still on the add-ons list ... 1.1.1 installed ... but unactivated (i guess) stuck with restart browser ... that does nothing, cause it's not working

anyone can help?

i've reinstalled adblock from application manager ... it works ... but still .. if i go to add-ons ... the button restart browser to complete ...is there ... and nothing happens if i click it!