Consulting the Geek Oracle

[Nanohedron]

Anyone know how to permanently disable audio ads? That is, the kind that just start yammering at you but there's no video source to pin the intrusion to. Self-starting audiovisual ads are bad enough - I'd love to completely eliminate those too - but at least I know where the noise is coming from; with the audio-only ads all I can do at this time is turn off my computer's speaker. I don't consider that a legitimate solution, because I say I have the right to a quiet surfing experience, and on my terms.

Most detestable, these trashy invasive tactics.

Oh, and I'm running Windows 10. TIA.

[Mr.Gumby]

Install an adblocker in your browser and be done with the lot. uBlock origin works well for me now although the old AdBlockPlus served me well for many years as well.

[Tunborough]

Here, we access the internet through a router, and the router has a built-in firewall with URL filtering. My approach would be to first identify the source URL of the offending audio, then if that site's only purpose is disseminating ads, block the site at the firewall.

Internet Explorer has an advanced setting you can turn off: "Play sounds in web pages". For Firefox, the Windows 7 sound mixer has a separate slider for Firefox that you can mute independently of other sounds; this likely mutes other sounds that you want to play like YT videos. As I recall, you use Chrome; not sure what options it provides.

[Nanohedron]

Install an adblocker in your browser and be done with the lot. uBlock origin works well for me now...

Many thanks! Installed uBlock Origin - took only a few seconds with Chrome - and now wherever I used to see ads there are no longer any, so I anticipate the audio-only ads will be covered as well. Thanks again for your help, and here's hoping.

[s1m0n]

I keep the speakers off by default, unless I actively want to listen to something. When I do, it`s two clicks on the speaker icon in the status bar to turn sound on again.

Also, I use Opera`s new ad-blocking browser, but even so some autoplay video slips by.

Disabling javascript on some sites also helps. Most sites that have anti-ad-block routines that hide content accomplish this feat with javascript, so disabling scripting gets me back in.

[calanthrophy]

This may just be extra credit at this point, but in Chrome and Firefox a speaker icon will appear on any tab that's making noise. That at least helps you find the offender to shut it up.

[Nanohedron]

... in Chrome ... a speaker icon will appear on any tab that's making noise.

Hmm. That hasn't been my experience. But then again I haven't customised or anything like that.

So far, the ad blocking afforded by uBlock Origin has been comprehensive and absolute. Love it to bits.