eDexter

The eDexter application was designed to be a program that acts as a local-only (it is not accessible throught the Internet) HTTP server on your computer. It is used to replace the empty boxes that occur when you use the Hosts file to block ads. eDexter will put one of its own images into the box that would have been occupied by the advertisement. This way, you will not have large, empty boxes in your browser and will instead have an image where the box used to be.

The site you have blocked in your Hosts file will still not be contacted at all, and so your web browsing can not be monitored by that site in any way as they won't even know your IP address because the Hosts file has blocked it. The replacement images will load completely off your hard drive and not from an external site, so eDexter is completely self-contained on your computer.

eDexter can use either its own internal 43 byte image, which is very fast, or it can use the included images. To use the internal image, make sure the check mark is gone from the "use images" setting in eDexter. To use the included images or your own images, check the option for "use images."

eDexter will listen locally (within your computer, and not to the Internet) on Port 80 (the HTTP port, used for web browsing), and does so to enable it to put the images into your browser. eDexter will leave your port 80 closed to all port scans. However, if by some remote chance a hacker got through on your port 80, eDexter will respond to them with a "server not found" message. This should make the hacker think they have been unable to connect with the computer.

The best advice is to run a personal firewall on your computer. Not only will this eliminate the very remote chance of someone getting through to eDexter, it will also eliminate a hacker's ability to get through on any of your ports. This means, in short, that you are as immune to hackers as you can be

eDexter is free to individuals for personal non-commercial use.