Take Back the Internet: No More Adverts on 4od - With No Addons or Software!

Intro: Take Back the Internet: No More Adverts on 4od - With No Addons or Software!

The internet is getting a little rediculous. You can't even watch some Big Bang Theory on TVShack anymore without hundreds of adverts popping up all over the place, and don't even get me started with adverts for streamed programs now. So, let's do something about it... -->

EDIT
I've now found this works with ITVplayer too, using the exact same method :)

STEP 1: Let's Get Started

First of all, I didn't come up with this method. It originally came from here. Plus a little extra stuff that I researched online. So here's all of it together. Therefore I don't take any responsibility for anything that may happen to your computer during this 'ible.

Right, first find notepad. I'm not sure about Mac users, but use the equivalent operation to the following. Right click on notepad and click 'Run as Administrator'. Then find the following directory:

Windows: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
Mac: /private/etc/hosts

Open the 'hosts' file (don't confuse this with the hosts.ics file). You may have to change the 'Text File' drop down box to 'All files (*.*)'

STEP 2: Hmm... File's With No File Extension... I'm Intruiged...

Now you should see some text explaining what's going on.

At the bottom of all the other stuff type the following:

127.0.0.1       imagec16.247realmedia.com

with a few spaces between the two bits.

You can now save the file.

STEP 3: And It's Done!

That's it, enjoy ad free watching of 4od. Hope this worked as well for you as it did for me. Comment on any queries and i'll try and sort them out for you!

Further Ideas I need help with
Ok so I reckon it could also be done with demand 5. (this is all for you UK people out there as they are restricted to the UK only) I've gotten as far as the following: oas.five.tv/ This has a similar result to 4od when realmedia.channel4.com is put into the host file. Basically it won't stream anything. I can't find anything to help me link the oas.five.tv/ to it's respective version of imagec16.247realmedia.com. Any help anyone could give would be aweosome! Three sets of adverts in FlashForward is too many for my liking!

Till next time!

Comments

[ThrowAway911]

The domain this post provides is irrelevant to 4oD's advert services. For anyone wanting a fix which *actually works* follow these instructions.

Open the start menu, type "Notepad" and right click the application and "Run as administrator" (You must use this method, don't try to right click "hosts" and open with Notepad - it likely will not open due to Admin security on System 32 files).

Click "File" in the top left, and click "Open".

In the Windows Explorer address bar, navigate to "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc", and click the drop down box at the bottom right above the "Open" button (It should by default say "Text documents (*.txt), and select "All files (*.*)" in the drop down box. Now open the "hosts" file, make sure you don't open "hosts.ics" by mistake.

Then, in the same place as in the post above, type or copy and paste in "127.0.0.1". Then press the "Tab" button on your keyboard, and copy paste in "cdn.http.anno.channel4.com".

Press "Enter" to start a new line and repeat this, inserting "127.0.0.1" (don't forget to press "Tab") but this time the web address will be "webstats.channel4.com".

And then do it again once more with "127.0.0.1" and "monitor.channel4.com".

It should look like the attached image.

Now when you load up your 4oD TV show, the ad screen will show but will remain blank, and you will watch the timer count down rapidly and your show will begin!

***It might take a restart to make this kick in, or clearing your web browser's cache, as the real IP addresses may still be in the temporary files of your browser***


--- If anyone is interested in how this works ---
The IP address "127.0.0.1" is the address of your local machine - this method will work by reassigning the IP address of the domains that provide adverts to the 4oD service to your own local machine, essentially removing the adverts' input, and then bypassing the ad timer and blocking 4's monitoring service.

[leonard.grabsky]

I chose one of the domain names shown in my browsers status bar during the adverts and added this line to the hosts file:
127.0.0.1 2a7e9.v.fwmrm.net
This caused the player to give a message telling me to disable my ad blocker before I can play the video.

[StevenB11]

Adding the above two lines doesn't work, you need to also add the following

127.0.0.1 mrm.channel4.com

[leonard.grabsky]

I still get the adverts with 127.0.0.1 mrm.channel4.com
I connect to a multitude of servers when the ads start, so which one do I choose?

[julia.hanchett]

doesn't work

[RobynD93]

Doesn't work =/

[ChevyS]

Thanks for the article. For those who live outside UK and want to access 4OD, you can use UnoTelly as I do to get around the geo block.