Reviews of Ad Muncher

1. 
   FixXxeR

   Reviewing 4.8 Build 31318 (Oct 23, 2009)

   For those who do not understand why the features I have mentioned before are important, let me provide you some information.
   
   Gzip is used by many websites to compress data being sent by the web server to the requesting client in an attempt to lower bandwidth usage. Ad Muncher not supporting this requires that data be sent in full size thus requiring more bandwidth. Many web server administrators enable this to reduce operating costs and to help users which might not be as fortunate as you and I to have a high speed connection. It helps those who also have limits on their bandwidth usage (say, 3gb/month as I have witnessed).
   
   From the AM Forums: http://www.admuncher.com...topic.php?f=5&t=282 regarding gzip support.
   
   HTTP 1.1 is a standard finalized in 1999:
   
   http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.html
   
   Given that this was finalized well before ad muncher came about,k I find it hard to believe that this support is not yet implemented. HTTP 1.1 offers significant advantages over the dated original standard. The most notable is persistent connections which allow connections to a server to remain open in the theory that a client who submits one http request is likely going to submit more. Again, this cuts down on unneeded bandwidth usage, server resource usage, and traffic to/from the site.
   
   From the AM Forums: http://www.admuncher.com...amp;t=3134&start=15 regarding http 1.1
   
   Regex support offers users the ability to cut down on the number of filters required and can provide even more power in creating filters that catch various items that a single filter would miss. If you have ever messed with regex, you will understand its power when it comes to things like what ad muncher can do.
   
   Per site filtering offers users the ability to create a filter specific to one site which would help alleviate the possibility of a single filter breaking many sites. Yes, this can be done in a way now using CSS or JS, but that type of workaround should not be required. A user should not have to know CSS or javascript in order to say that a filter should only apply to one website or domain name.
   
   From the AM Forums: http://www.admuncher.com...opic.php?f=5&t=5890 regarding Per-Domain/Site filtering.
   
   While each of the above features might not make a big difference on a single request by ad muncher, adding them up during a normal users daily usage with thousands upon thousands of http and various other website requests sure will.
   
   USB portability is something that is needed given the advent of usb thumb drives. Almost all popular browsers are portable now and as such, so are any addons that come with them.
   
   From the AM Forums: http://www.admuncher.com/forum/search.php and type in portable. You will see that it is very much possible to make ad muncher portable. Only a minor change would be required to get it working and that is to make it store the registration data in the config file and make it per installation.
   
   With the advent of portable software, I feel this feature is a necessity in order for ad muncher to remain competitive. Yes, I know it will come eventually but it will also be likely at an additional cost or license addon for existing users given the latest price changes.
   
   x64 support is something that is needed because, like it or not, web browsers are not the only 64 bit application. 64 bit is the future of computing (especially if we want to move past the 3.25GB RAM limit imposed by 32 bit computing). Saying that supporting current and future technologies like this is not essential is like telling a car manufacturer not to add the auxiliary input jacks to car stereos because "It's not needed and won't make it better. People can just listen to mp3 cds".
   
   Hopefully this provides some insight to the users reading this review as to why these features are important and why you ask the developers to put more effort into these features which could help save some of us time and money. The developers of this program, which does work, don't get me wrong, are taking far too long on features which should be standard already in this application given other products support for these same standards/features. These features are things that WILL make ad muncher more efficient, easy to use, and faster. They are essential to ad muncher and the user base should realize this.
   
   I love using ad muncher but I am really starting to question whether I should keep it installed or go with a product which actually keeps up with modern (and decade-old, for that matter) times. 1 year between releases is unheard of in the modern age of computing for anything but anti-virus/security programs and operating systems. Even linux has 6 month incremental releases in some distributions and that is an entire operating system. Heck, it took one year for the .8 release to come after 4.72. Most of these features are only being touted as being in the v5 release and who knows how long it will be before that comes to exist.
   
   Do I feel a 2/5 is fair, given all of the above? Yes I do. So, until some headway is made on some of these more important features, 2/5 my rating remains. Good application but features are missing which are critical especially given the pace of modern web technology innovation.
   
   EDIT
   
   Bumped up to a 3/5. I was being unfair in the rating but I do feel that this will not get above a 3/5 until all of the promised features from years ago show some signs of being implemented.
2. 
   dhry

   Reviewing 4.8 Build 31318 (Oct 22, 2009)

   Absolute best program of it's type.
3. 
   emanresU deriseD

   Reviewing 4.8 Build 31318 (Oct 21, 2009)

   I find it hard to swallow that HTTP 1.1/Gzip support wouldn't "make Ad Muncher better". It would definitely make it better, especially for users who frequent sites that use those things... It really helps.
   
   As a pure ad blocker, slamming AdBlock Plus is nonsense. ABP does a very good job blocking ads. But that's essentially all it does. Ad Muncher's popup/popunder blocking is the real advantage it has over ABP.
4. 
   pjb

   Reviewing 4.8 Build 31318 (Oct 21, 2009)

   Ad Muncher still rocks. Have been using it for many years.
   Would not like to have my computer without it.
5. 
   Diam0nd

   Reviewing 4.8 Build 31318 (Oct 21, 2009)

   This is the best blocker in the business. Nothing comes close to it, especially AdBlock.
   
   FixXxeR:
   Sorry, but NONE of the features you mentioned are 1) essential 2) would make Ad Muncher block better. They would be a welcome addition, but none of them is important enough to bring the rating down to 1.
   I bet you were red and screaming at the monitor, while dripping spit, when writing this little "review" of yours too. Well, best of luck, kiddo.

Discuss Ad Muncher

1. Jan 28, 2009 - 8:13 PM
   ssb

   No HTTP 1.1 yet!
2. Jan 27, 2009 - 11:33 PM
   war593122

   Windows 7 is now supported in AdMuncher 4.73 beta.
   
   Please see IRC for official information and release.