TechFriday: Circumventing AdBlocker detection websites
Posted By RichC on May 26, 2017
Are you tired of more and more sites with pop-ups blocking content and asking your to whitelist their sites from your browsers ad blocking extension if you want to read their content? 
Then read on.
First, I’m an advocate for advertiser supported websites and appreciate readers who occasionally read and click the few ads that are semi-hidden in the sidebar or bottom of the page (aka: this site). If websites keep their advertising to the unobtrusive minimum, then please whitelist them and support the site.
If the site you want to visit is obnoxiously full of ads, then something like AdBlock-Plus is your friend. It uses excellent filter lists and will eliminate a lot of the clutter on most websites. Still there are going to be those annoying websites which detect your ad blocking extension and pop-up blocking features. Most will pop up a “we detect your ad blocker” window and block their content until your whitelist. If you grow tired of this and dislike their ads for one reason or another, give this a try if you are not on a mobile device.
I don’t want to see ads, period
If you’d rather not see any ads while you visit an anti-adblocking site, try the following steps instead. They enable AdBlock to circumvent the tests most websites use to detect ad blockers. (See “How does a website know you’re using an ad blocker,” below.)
1. Subscribe to the Adblock Warning Removal and Anti-Adblock Killer filter lists.
- Click the AdBlock button and select Options.
- On the FILTER LISTS tab, click update now. Wait a few moments for AdBlock to fetch the latest updates to your filter lists.
- Enable the Adblock Warning Removal list.
- Visit reek’s website and click Subscribe to subscribe to the AakList (Anti-Adblock Killer filter list). When you’re prompted to confirm, click OK.
2. Create a custom filter for the site.
- In AdBlock’s options on the CUSTOMIZE tab, click Edit.
- In the text box type:
@@||example.com$generichide (Chrome) or@@||example.com$elemhide (other browsers).
Replace “example.com” with the name of the website. For example, to create a filter for twitch.tv, type@@||twitch.tv$generichide (Chrome) or@@||twitch.tv$elemhide (other browsers).- Click Save.
- Reload the page where you were seeing the anti-adblock warning.
- If it doesn’t work, type chrome://settings/cookies in the address bar, clear cookies and local storage for that site, and test again.
If the Adblock Warning Removal and Anti-Adblock Killer filter lists don’t work, try adding a userscript as well
If the steps above don’t prevent the site from showing you the anti-adblock warning, try installingTampermonkey (for Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Opera) (or Greasemonkey for Firefox) and the Anti-Adblock Killer userscript.
If nothing else helps, try turning off JavaScript
Many sites use JavaScript tests to detect ad blockers. If the filter lists and userscript above don’t prevent the site from blocking you, you can disable JavaScript in your web browser’s settings. Please note that this may break other parts of the site, however.
Having a little trouble with these instructions?
One of our users wrote a helpful article that shows how to subscribe to the Anti-Adblock Killer filter list and install the Anti-Adblock Killer userscript. (Thanks, Tabish!)
Here’s another article with step-by-step instructions for disabling JavaScript and using Tampermonkey/Greasemonkey, courtesy of GuidingTech.com.
Report the website to help other folks
If the above steps don’t remove the warning, please report the website to the folks who maintain the filter lists:
- For English-language websites, please report the site to EasyList.
- For sites in other languages, you can find the contact information for those filter lists in our Knowledge Base.
You can also report the site to Anti-AdBlock Killer.
Have you disabled or even uninstalled AdBlock but a site still asks you to disable your ad blocker?
Please see this Knowledge Base article.
Bonus tip #1 (Forbes.com, Hulu.com, ComedyCentral.com)
We found a nice article on how to bypass websites that block AdBlock (e.g., Forbes.com). This method, which incorporates some of the steps we suggested above, also works on Hulu.com and ComedyCentral.com (according to the comments, at least; your mileage may vary).
Bonus tip #2 (TimesofIndia.com, IndiaTimes.com, EconomicTimes.com)
Please see this Knowledge Base article for some custom filters that prevent these sites from raising that anti-adblock wall. Note: You may still see a few ads disguised as native content. But hey, at least you can get in to read your news without seeing all those OTHER ads.Bonus information: How does a website know you’re using an ad blocker?
There are a couple of ways websites can detect ad blockers. The easiest way is to try to download a tiny piece of JavaScript code that’s like “bait” for an ad blocker, then use another piece of code to test whether the download occurred. If the download is blocked, the site knows an ad blocker is in use.
Similarly, the site can try to download a resource that’s commonly used to serve an ad, and if that resource is blocked or hidden, it indicates an ad blocker is present.
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