Disabling the banners that come with free Internet

[royjacob]

OK, does anyone know how to disable those annoying banners that come with Free Internet Providers like FreeLane or AltaVista. Please help before i go MAD

It is actually illegal to disable (hide) them.

But you can use the FindWindow api to find the banner.

Declare Function findwindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long

And the ShowWindow api to hide it.

Declare Function ShowWindow Lib "User32" (ByVal Hwnd As Long, ByVal nCmdShow As Long) As Long

[Gen-X]

Not only is it illegal but I would say anyone who does it is nothing more than a turd


The whole point of you getting interenet ABSOLUTELY FREE is that in exchange for them PAYING for your free internet you have banners.


What you are doing is breaking their agreement and trying to STEAL form these people money that doesn't belong to you.

You can't have your cake and eat it as well... So grow up and either PAY for your internet service or shut your trap and keep looking at the banners.

[theman32x]

how exactly would you go about using those api commands Matthew?

[invitro]

Hahaha, sorry i dont know the answer but i just think Gen's reply is kind of funny. But i dont know why ur getting free internet, i know some people have no money blah blah blah, but some providers offer it as cheap as 20$(CAN) a month.

BTW:Do those companies get profit of when u buy something from the banner or every time its displayed, or do the other guys have to pay them like a monthly fee for altavista to display banners?

Just to let you all know, I'm not encouraging royjacob to hide the banner. As you know, everyone has a choice to do something, I am not making royjacob do anything. So please don't get mad at me for just giving him the APIs.

But to answer your question theman32x:

How to use the FindWindow API:

'Find the Calculator by it's caption
Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32.dll" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As Any, ByVal lpWindowName As Any) As Long
h = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Calculator")

If h <> 0 Then
MsgBox "Found!"
Else
MsgBox "Window was not found!", 16
End If

'Or by it's class:

h = FindWindow("SciCalc", vbNullString)

If h <> 0 Then
MsgBox "Found!"
Else
MsgBox "Window was not found!", 16
End If

And how to use the ShowWindow API:

Use the FindWindow example above and complete it using this ShowWindow code.

Declare Function ShowWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nCmdShow As
Long) As Long
Public Const SW_SHOW = 5
Public Const SW_HIDE = 0

ShowWindow h, 0 'hides the Calculator window

ShowWindow h, 5 'shows the Calculator window

[Edited by Matthew Gates on 08-24-2000 at 11:30 PM]

[Gen-X]

Oh come on Matthew!!!!!


Thats like saying "I am giving this 10 year old a gun, he has a choice of what to do with it so it isn't my fault if he does bad"


That kind of attitude was the same attitude scientists who built the atomic bomb had. They believed they had absolutely no responsibility whatsoever for what it was used for regardless of the fact it wouldn't have killed millions of people if they didn't build it in the first place.


I suggest you think about this kind of thing before handing out information like that in the future.

That may be true Gen-X. But I never told him how to find the Window. Yes, I just gave the example. But it is almost impossible to know how to find a banner window unless you are told how to. I will not tell that information.

Thats like saying "I am giving this 10 year old a gun, he has a choice of what to do with it so it isn't my fault if he does bad"

But in that case, Gen-X, it's like giving a him the gun with no bullets.

[Gen-X]

But in that case, Gen-X, it's like giving a him the gun with no bullets.

So he goes somewhere else and asks for a bullet.

The other person thinks to themselves "I'm giving him a bullet with no gun.. so its safe"


Guess what!?!?! Now he has everything he needs to break the law and rob someone of their money and you gave him 50% of what he needed to do with it even after knowing the purpose of him gaining the knowledge WAS to break the law.


Can you spell "Aiding-and-Abetting"

I dont think you should have to worry about getting in trouble, because he could have just as easily found that same code elsewhere on this site.
just delete your post, and say you had nothing to do with it.

Ok ok, you win! Sorry for posting it up. You think ahead to much . Next time, I will simply say, "what you want to do is illegal offense and if you are caught, the worst they will do to you is terminate your account."

Hehe...I hate when problems like these comes up. You know you want to help the person since your very helpful, but a problem like this is hard to avoid and not answer it.

Sorry for doing what I did . And it won't happen again for a while..until a question like this comes up again, of course.

[Edited by Matthew Gates on 08-25-2000 at 12:04 AM]

[jmatello]

Matthew - thanks for your info!! You did not commit a crime or do anything wrong (in my mind at least!)

Gen-X - Relax...don't get so worked up about this....life is way too short...there are other more serious crimes to worry about....for example...OJ Simpson...

Matthew, dont be so hard on yourself,
IMO the free places are ripping you off, crappy unreliable service, and you have to stare at an ugly banner,

and most of the time your download speed is cut in half because of the banenrs loading.

I hate free ISP's.... I hear winfire DSL isnt so bad... it has a banner the size of the task bar... and its DSL, and cant be that slow...

[Gen-X]

Matthew, sorry I got stroppy with you, dennis is right about coming down so hard on yourself...

I just wanted to make sure you understood the implications... I know I look too far ahead... thats the bane of those with vision


Dennis, How can someone who is offering you something for nothing be "ripping you off"?

Ever heard the saying "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth"?

You can't complain about something being crappy when its given to you at absolutely no cost...

You either accept the things that come with it being free or you go out and purchase your internet time...

Ok, They arent ripping you off....
I had to have something to start my sentance with

BTW I do purchase my internet time.... $20 a month unlimited time no banner, but its starting to get slower need to switch ISP's soon.

So we're settled? (Shakes hand)

That's cool.

Well, America Online 4.0 is the main ISP. My first and secondary are Netzero and Freeinternet.com. I don't use AOL much though. So if all else fails...AOL!

I actually like Netzero a lot. And even when I am forced to use the banner, Netzero still has the best connection and the banner doesn't get as annoying anymore after you've used it for a days.

I heard WorldSpy was also good, and that doesn't have any banners at all, no emails, no news, etc. I don't know the link, but this ISP is great. Only problem for me, though, is that there are no local numbers near me.

But I am satisfied with my 3 ISPs which work good enough to keep a connection to the Internet .

I Really dont like AOL, but unfortunatly there are always a few "not so smart" people in the house, so your parents wont let you change to a good paid one(where you actually have to use DUN! <gasp>).

for example, it took my brother and my dad 3 weeks to figure out how to dialup into mindspring(I even added a shortcut to the desktop), and 2 weeks to learn how to use Internet Explorer, they still dont know how to use either one properly, and I assume that the reason for this is too much catering and "pretty colors!" from AOL.

I know things should be easy for the end user, I think thats a crock of ****, the easier it is, the dumber the person stays, and the more work you do.
I think when somebody gets a computer, before using it, they have to pass a test, and if they dont they should have to be trained, its so annoying when you see a seemingly inteligent person looking on a computer, and you Know this guy isnt dumb, but he never learned how to use a computer, now he works with one, and doesnt know crap about it.
sure he'll get training for his job, but some people(such as my brother and dad) just use computers to go on the internet, thats Fine but at least learn how to do something, how to fix it.
I have had to fix the computer, printer, and scanner so many times its not funny.
if I am not there to fix it, they just sit around restarting it, hoping it will work.
people dont have to become experts at using a computer, but i think they should at least learn how to describe a problem to a tech support guy, because when I dont know how to fix something() I am always the one who has to call, because the other people in the household knows only these words

internet
email
<insert name here>.com
computer
help

they dont even know what a browser is called, they dont know the name of it either(Internet Explorer).

Alright, this should go in the chit-chat forum.. I will also post it in there tomorow or something.

getting back to something that is relevant..

Its OK for a free ISP to display banners, but i heard that NetZero makes you Click the banners like once an hour or you get disconnected,
now i really dont think that is right...

Dennis Wrenn Its OK for a free ISP to display banners, but i heard that NetZero makes you Click the banners like once an hour or you get disconnected,
now i really dont think that is right...

Yes, you have to click the banner or it detects you as beng inactive, and this screen comes up and it gives you 60 seconds to Click Resume. But to all of you who use Netzero, I designed a program which will click that Button from Hell everytimg it comes up. Here is the code to it:

Public Declare Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowExA" (ByVal hWnd1 As Long, ByVal hWnd2 As Long, ByVal lpsz1 As String, ByVal lpsz2 As String) As Long
Declare Function findwindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function SendMessageByNum Lib "user32" Alias
"SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As
Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
Public Const WM_LBUTTONDOWN = &H201
Public Const WM_LBUTTONUP = &H202

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim a***rame&
Dim awtdialog&
Dim button&
a***rame& = findwindow("a***rame", vbNullString)
awtdialog& = findwindow("awtdialog", vbNullString)
button& = FindWindowEx(awtdialog&, 0&, "button", vbNullString)
Call Click(button&)
End Sub

Sub Click(Wh)
DoEvents
X = sendmessagebynum(Wh, WM_LBUTTONDOWN, 0, 0&)
X = sendmessagebynum(Wh, WM_LBUTTONUP, 0, 0&)
End Sub

Hope that comes in handy ;].

LOL Matthew, you still have to click Command1, why even bother?
and IMO, mouse_event is better for sending clicks `n stuff than send message..

PS:
Why havent ya been on ICQ for a while?

oops, the code is suppose to go in a Timer which its interval is set at 100. And it works .

Q:Why havent ya been on ICQ for a while?

Sometimes it crashes, sometime I go in privacy mode, or I go Available (Online). I'll go on now.

[LAURENS]

Jesus,

I never saw people seriously compare hiding a banner to building an atombomb or shooting people. To be more accurate, I never saw anybody compare hiding a banner to anything, but that's not the point. Come on, relax, it's not such a big deal. It reminds me of the days when I got worked up about people sporting the fact that they where using illegal software. It never did anyone any good that I got annoyed about it, it just got my bloodpressure to alarming levels and I lost a few friends.

But anyway, the topic inspired people in posting some nice codesamples. I like the "button from hell"-click, the expression as well as the code.

[Kersey]

Just realized FREE might be another F-word after all.

almost nothing is for free these days...

Something might be free for You but eventualy someone has to pay for it. and this someone might even be you....

Atombomb => freedom for Allied Forces in 1945
BUT dead fish in ocean since (bikini) and so on

Automating the "button from hell"-click => your screen free from banners
BUT NetZero might hit the sack when everybody does this and eventualy you have to pay again for your ISP.

Well do think about it to hard.....
it's almost Weekend.
and you might even get up early ( or stay up very late )
and see the sun come up ..... for free

greetinx,

Don

I dont have AOL,
and I know things seem free to kids, because their parents pay for it, but if my dad didnt pay for my ISP(MindSpring) I would, because i cant stand not being on the internet.
and what are you talking about whining??
I consider whining when you complain about something and you are almost having a fit, while waving your arms back and forth like a fish out of water...

But how come denniswrenn and Matthew Gates are not Gurus?

[royjacob]

I completely agree with HDR. I think that denniswren and Gen-X simply over-reacted for nothing.

[parksie]

I think that if people get something free, then they're not entitled to complain about it. If they're paying, then they have paid for the right to complain.

PS: denniswrenn and Matthew gates should be gurus too...

[dimava]

guy guys.... net zero detects if its not visible, then shuts its self of... also if any free isp catch you, you have to pay $20-$50 (varieas from isp to isp) from the day thar you signed up... but if someone makes the exe, please email it to me at [email protected]

parksie: You should be a Guru too!

[parksie]

It wouldn't be right for me to get guru at this stage, as there are quite a few people who deserve it more than me (denniswrenn, Matthew Gates, JHausmann, and others).

[dimava]

(but for real parkie's thinking give me the ****ing guru status no one deserves it more then me muhahhahahaha)

[parksie]

(parksie plots to kill dimava off before his telepathic skills cause any more trouble)

Actually, yes, I would like Guru status, but there's just people still up for it who deserve it more than me

[dimava]

(dimava takes out his time machine and travels back to the pre historic time and dies becuase a dinosaur spit and it just flooded his house)


(but before he dies he looks up seeing Dr. Evil in his space ship taht looks like a giant _ _ _ _, and this time dr. evil was out side of it pretending to suck on it)

[royjacob]

Can anyone tell me how to find the class of a window. Matthew Gates' method works well if i know the caption of the window, but banners do not have any caption so i need to find out how to get the class of a window

[parksie]

Try the GetClassName function, which works as long as you know the handle to the window. You can use FindWindow to retrieve a window handle from the class. Use Spy++ or similar to find the window handle. Check out the code on this thread: http://forums.vb-world.net/showthrea...threadid=26362

It's a working VB Spy application.

[theman32x]

i think using spy++ lets you find the class name of a window

[royjacob]

What is 'the handle' of a window and where do i get Spy++ from?

go here:
http://64.82.89.52

and download CSpy.zip or CSpy2.zip

there is no difference between them except the way they display things.

'version 1
0 class
  1 class
    2 class
0 hwnd
  1 hwnd
    2 hwnd
0 caption
  1 caption
    2 caption

'version 2
0 class
0 hwnd
0 caption
  1 class
  1 hwnd
  1 caption
    2 class
    2 hwnd
    2 caption

I prefer version 1.

PS: both were made by me, and include Full source code.

[parksie]

Dennis - it gives a not found error...and don't forget - I wrote it first

[royjacob]

c

[HeSaidJoe]

'open a std project
'this project uses a list box (List1) 

'list all running task in list1 with there hwnd

'add a bas module and put this code in it
'
Option Explicit

Private Declare Function GetWindow Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wCmd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetParent Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
'
Private Declare Function GetWindowTextLength Lib _
"user32" Alias "GetWindowTextLengthA" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32" _
Alias "GetWindowTextA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal _
lpString As String, ByVal cch As Long) As Long

Const GW_HWNDFIRST = 0
Const GW_HWNDNEXT = 2

Public Sub LoadTaskList()

    Dim CurrWnd As Long
    Dim Length As Long
    Dim TaskName As String
    Dim Parent As Long
    
    Form1.List1.Clear
    CurrWnd = GetWindow(Form1.hwnd, GW_HWNDFIRST)
    
    While CurrWnd <> 0
    Parent = GetParent(CurrWnd)
    Length = GetWindowTextLength(CurrWnd)
    TaskName = Space$(Length + 1)
    Length = GetWindowText(CurrWnd, TaskName, Length + 1)
    TaskName = Left$(TaskName, Len(TaskName) - 1)
    
    If Length > 0 Then
    If TaskName <> Form1.Caption Then
    Form1.List1.AddItem TaskName & "  " & CurrWnd
    End If
    End If
    CurrWnd = GetWindow(CurrWnd, GW_HWNDNEXT)
    DoEvents
    
        Wend
        
End Sub

' put this in the form load event of your form

	Call LoadTaskList