The first ad blocking software I ever used was literally a proxy. It would start a server on the local machine and I'd point my browser's proxy settings at it.

The first ad blocking software I ever used was literally a proxy. It would start a server on the local machine and I'd point my browser's proxy settings at it. Then it would filter URLs from a blacklist. I think the company was called AdBusters back then. This may indeed be the same: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adbusters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adbusters