How To Bypass AdBlock Detection

Have you ever visited a new website only to see a message along the lines of “It looks like you’re using an adblocker. Please disable it or whitelist this site. Without advertising income, we cannot survive.”? For some sites, the message is the only barrier they place in your way and once you get past it you can view the site even with your adblocker turned on. Other sites up the ante and won’t let you view their content until you turn your adblocker off.

The trouble with website advertising

Website advertising has become a troublesome thing. The reality is that websites like TechJunkie need ad revenue to be able to pay people to create the content you’re reading, but advertising on some websites can be so intrusive that it detracts from the viewing experience. Some ads are infected with malware, and some sites will track you and follow you everywhere you go online. Many websites use advertising networks to deliver their ads. A placeholder is placed on the page with a link to the advertising network. An ad server within that network detects when someone opens the page and serves and ad up inside the placeholder. You then see the ad, the server logs it and the website gets paid per view or per click.

The trouble with that setup is the website owner has very little say in what gets displayed. Site owners can fill in a questionnaire or specification sheet to tell the company what they really do not want to see on the site but that’s about it. The ad server takes care of the rest automatically. Aside from site owners having no control over the ads shown, it is disturbingly simple for a hacker to penetrate an ad server and place their own advertisement with malicious code or links. This ad will then be served on the website without anyone knowing. It’s a problematic state of affairs.

Until the internet advertising industry cleans up their act, people are going to continue to use look for ways around it. It is no surprise that many web users have chosen to just opt out of the whole messy situation by using an adblocker. Some websites are actively blocking visitors who try to use adblockers. This is a losing strategy, as visitor numbers have been shown to dramatically drop on sites that try the strongarm approach, but it does still happen. Fortunately, there are ways to view a website even if they try to stop you.

Here is how to bypass AdBlock detection so you can go where you like while online.

Incognito Mode

There is a very simple way to bypass AdBlock detection: use Firefox Incognito Mode. Open up Firefox, navigate to the menu in the top right, select Incognito mode and wait for the window to open. Type or paste the URL as usual and access the site. This works on the majority of websites that block access to those using adblockers.

Some websites will still block you even using this method. There is still a way around that which I list below.

You can try the same technique with Opera and Chrome but my tests show that they are less effective at getting around restrictions, especially Chrome. It will not work, which isn’t surprising given how Google makes their money.

Google cache

If Incognito Mode doesn’t work for you, there’s always the Google cache. You can type the website into Google and select the down arrow next to the URL and select Cached. This brings up a snapshot of the website that you can browse freely. If the website has a lot of interactive content, it won’t work so well. If it’s a news site or general interest site, it should work fine.

You could also use the Wayback Machine. It too takes a snapshot of websites and will show them. Type the URL into the box in the center of the page and the engine will give you the latest copy of the site. You can browse as you see fit. There’s a similar service at Archive.is.

Greasemonkey

If you use Firefox, you can also use a Greasemonkey script to circumvent AdBlock detection. If you use Chrome or Opera, you need Tampermonkey. Install the appropriate script handler into your browser and navigate to this GitHub page. Install the script using Greasemonkey or Tampermonkey and restart your browser. Navigate to the website as usual.

As mentioned at the top, websites like TechJunkie rely on ad revenue to keep the lights on. The difference between us and other websites is that we are very careful about who we allow to advertise on the site. Please whitelist TechJunkie rather than block us as we really do depend on the ads. If you do come across an ad that is intrusive or not suitable, contact us rather than block us please. We would much rather work with you to improve your experience than lose you as a reader!

Do you know of any other ways to bypass AdBlock detection? Tell us about them below if you do!