Torowaa
(?)Community Member
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- Posted: Tue, 08 May 2007 02:04:23 +0000
QUANTSERVE REMOVAL TUTORIAL v.1
This thread is being made for user concern over the Quantserve demographic cookie tool that GaiaOnline uses to view what sites and interests it's userbase has individually. I have taken it upon myself to get the lag fixed by making an active thread in the SF and now people have asked me to make a tutorial for wallbashing it entirely from their systems. So, below you will find a precise tutorial on how to remove the Quantserve cookies from your machine and how to keep them from coming back period. Any questions and concerns should be directed to me in this thread.
WHAT IS QUANTSERVE?
Quantserve unleashes cookies into your system to track what websites you view most and reports back to quantcast.com to let them know; they then tally the websites that are visited most by GaiaOnline's userbase and they let GaiaOnline know via their website. It's a good marketing tool but the idea of it can bother some people; thus the reason I made this thread.
REMOVAL VIA FIREFOX BROWSER
Please follow the precise steps listed below to disable the Quantserve cookies directly from your browser.
REMOVAL VIA INTERNET EXPLORER BROWSER
Internet Options > Privacy > Sites.
Copy/paste these:
quantserve.com
quantcast.com
edge.quantserve.com
pixel.quantserve.com
shout.quantserve.com
Then block.
REMOVAL VIA OPERA BROWSER
Please see the post by Windpowa for detailed screenshots.
REMOVAL FROM OTHER BROWSERS
Technically, other browsers are more than likely going to have near the same setup. If you cannot find how to block these cookies in your browser or you just want to totally annihilate them please see the step below.
ULTIMATE WALLBASH METHOD
In order to ultimately shut out and disallow the cookies from happening all together you can modify your hosts file via Windows; to do so please follow the below directions very, very carefully as messing up the hosts file can lead to some messy business. Those of you who take the time to read the steps slowly and pay attention will have no problem.
WINDOWS XP USERS
WINDOWS VISTA USERS
MAC OS X USERS
ALL YOU CAN EAT KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HOSTS FILE
I hope this helped those of you who took the time to stop by here for answers. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments please by all means ask here or send me a PM. If you have any technical problems when trying to edit the host file please feel free to contact me.
Need help with other computer issues? I might know the answer to those too. Have a good day!
Credit goes to Windpowa for giving me the hosts file solution in the first place.
This thread is being made for user concern over the Quantserve demographic cookie tool that GaiaOnline uses to view what sites and interests it's userbase has individually. I have taken it upon myself to get the lag fixed by making an active thread in the SF and now people have asked me to make a tutorial for wallbashing it entirely from their systems. So, below you will find a precise tutorial on how to remove the Quantserve cookies from your machine and how to keep them from coming back period. Any questions and concerns should be directed to me in this thread.
WHAT IS QUANTSERVE?
quantcast.com
Quantcast is a team of web analytics experts building powerful statistical technology to understand internet audiences. Quantcast helps web publishers of all sizes understand the composition of their audiences and attract higher advertising rates, and helps advertisers and agencies find elusive online audiences wherever they might be. This web site allows anyone to view audience reports on hundreds of thousands of websites.
Quantserve unleashes cookies into your system to track what websites you view most and reports back to quantcast.com to let them know; they then tally the websites that are visited most by GaiaOnline's userbase and they let GaiaOnline know via their website. It's a good marketing tool but the idea of it can bother some people; thus the reason I made this thread.
REMOVAL VIA FIREFOX BROWSER
Please follow the precise steps listed below to disable the Quantserve cookies directly from your browser.
Firefox removal
Firefox: Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies and Exceptions:
quantserve.com
quantcast.com
edge.quantserve.com
pixel.quantserve.com
shout.quantserve.com
> Block
quantserve.com
quantcast.com
edge.quantserve.com
pixel.quantserve.com
shout.quantserve.com
> Block
REMOVAL VIA INTERNET EXPLORER BROWSER
Internet Options > Privacy > Sites.
Copy/paste these:
quantserve.com
quantcast.com
edge.quantserve.com
pixel.quantserve.com
shout.quantserve.com
Then block.
REMOVAL VIA OPERA BROWSER
Please see the post by Windpowa for detailed screenshots.
REMOVAL FROM OTHER BROWSERS
Technically, other browsers are more than likely going to have near the same setup. If you cannot find how to block these cookies in your browser or you just want to totally annihilate them please see the step below.
ULTIMATE WALLBASH METHOD
In order to ultimately shut out and disallow the cookies from happening all together you can modify your hosts file via Windows; to do so please follow the below directions very, very carefully as messing up the hosts file can lead to some messy business. Those of you who take the time to read the steps slowly and pay attention will have no problem.
WINDOWS XP USERS
FOLLOW ME SLOWLY
Open Notepad. (To do so: Start > Accessories > All programs > Notepad)
Go to: (File > Open > My computer > C: > Windows > system32 > drivers > etc > hosts)
Copy the lines of text in the below quote.
127.0.0.1 quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 edge.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 pixel.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 quantcast.com
Paste these lines of text AFTER all the rest of the text in the hosts file. DO NOT erase anything in the file.
Note: 127.0.0.1 localhost MUST be the first line of text! Do not paste above it!
Hit save and close your browser(s). Restart the browsers.
You're done.
Go to: (File > Open > My computer > C: > Windows > system32 > drivers > etc > hosts)
Copy the lines of text in the below quote.
127.0.0.1 quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 edge.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 pixel.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 quantcast.com
Paste these lines of text AFTER all the rest of the text in the hosts file. DO NOT erase anything in the file.
Note: 127.0.0.1 localhost MUST be the first line of text! Do not paste above it!
Hit save and close your browser(s). Restart the browsers.
You're done.
WINDOWS VISTA USERS
FOLLOW ME SLOWLY
Open Notepad as "Read as administrator". (To do so: Start > Accessories > All programs > Notepad > Right click > "Read as administrator" wink
If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
Go to: (File > Open > My computer > C: > Windows > system32 > drivers > etc > hosts)
Copy the lines of text in the below quote.
127.0.0.1 quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 edge.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 pixel.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 quantcast.com
Paste these lines of text AFTER all the rest of the text in the hosts file. DO NOT erase anything in the file.
Note: 127.0.0.1 localhost MUST be the first line of text! Do not paste above it!
Hit save and close your browser(s). Restart the browsers.
You're done.
If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
Go to: (File > Open > My computer > C: > Windows > system32 > drivers > etc > hosts)
Copy the lines of text in the below quote.
127.0.0.1 quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 edge.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 pixel.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 quantcast.com
Paste these lines of text AFTER all the rest of the text in the hosts file. DO NOT erase anything in the file.
Note: 127.0.0.1 localhost MUST be the first line of text! Do not paste above it!
Hit save and close your browser(s). Restart the browsers.
You're done.
MAC OS X USERS
Stella Black
Changing your Hosts file on Mac OS X is easy enough if you follow some simple directions. You don't have to know exactly what's going on, as long as you follow the steps, everything should work fine. smile First thing is to make sure you're on an administrator account, or else you can't edit the Hosts file.
Now Quantserve should be blocked on any browser you use. heart
- To block Quantserve in your OS X Hosts file:
Open the Terminal program. You can find it in Applications > Utilities. For those of you not familiar with Terminal, you'll get a window that looks like this: click for screenshot.
Type:
sudo pico /etc/hosts
(Make sure you type that exactly as you see it, or better yet, copy and paste. Terminal is a powerful application that can do serious damage to your computer with one typo. I take no responsibility for what happens if you're not careful.)
If you've never used Terminal before, it will output a warning like mine above, and then it will ask for your admin password. Type it in and hit enter; you won't see any characters on the screen, but it's there. Once you do that, you should have a screen that looks like this: click!
Move the cursor with the arrow keys to the end of the line that says "127.0.0.1 localhost" and hit enter to make a new line. Type these four lines:
127.0.0.1 quantserve.com www.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 edge.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 pixel.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 quantcast.com www.quantcast.com
127.0.0.1 edge.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 pixel.quantserve.com
127.0.0.1 quantcast.com www.quantcast.com
Your screen should now look like this: click!
Hit control+X, it will ask you if you want to save. Hit Y, then enter. Quit Terminal and restart the computer.
Now Quantserve should be blocked on any browser you use. heart
ALL YOU CAN EAT KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HOSTS FILE
Windpowa
127.0.0.1 is the loopback address : It points to your own PC. Save the file, and from now on (you have to restart your browser though) all requests to quantserve.com or the other domains listed above will be redirected to your own computer, doing nothing unless you have a web server running on your computer. In the same fashion, you could add stuff like 127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com to block Google ads, etc... There's a pretty complete list here, it'll block most ads and known spyware sites while it's at it. It doesn't cover quantserve and stuff, so you'd have to add the lines I've put above anyways.
Endrael
There's another really good host block list here.
I hope this helped those of you who took the time to stop by here for answers. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments please by all means ask here or send me a PM. If you have any technical problems when trying to edit the host file please feel free to contact me.
Need help with other computer issues? I might know the answer to those too. Have a good day!
Credit goes to Windpowa for giving me the hosts file solution in the first place.