I Hate Mini Soda - How to Block Ads in MLB.TV

If you've ever watched MLB.TV, you know exactly what I'm talking about. They play the same 3-4 commercials every commercial break all season. Not only are they annoying, but they are played at twice the volume of the game. If I am going to blow my speakers, I want them blown on my terms, not because I have a terrible, faux-Russian accent blasting at me from a premium service that I pay for. In this post, I will show you how to re-route all attempts at accessing the ads back to your own machine.

What we're going to be doing here is editing your hosts file. If you're not familiar with what that is, it basically does the same thing as DNS; it tells your computer what IP address it should connect to when it is given a specific URL. In this case, when your browser attempts to connect to the URL which feeds you the lovely ads, it will look at your own computer and obviously not find them there.

One more thing before we get to the meat of this post. This is completely safe. If you mess this up, you are not going to break your computer. All changes are reversible and the hosts file is completely unnecessary (probably currently blank) and can be completely deleted with no adverse effects. Let's do it!

1. First, you will need to download HostsXpert. This is just a small executable program that requires no installation. Delete it when done if you so please. (You can also manually edit the hosts file if you want, but since the hosts file is a big malware target, it is often read only and this is the easiest way to get around it)

2. Extract the .zip file (right-click > extract) and run the .exe (you may need to click "continue" or "allow" to grant permission in Vista and 7). And it will show you the contents of your hosts file. Chances are it is the stock Windows hosts example. There is a chance that your hosts file does not exist. In this instance, HostsXpert will ask you if you want it to restore it as the Windows example. You do.

3. Click on "Editing" on the left



4. Find the empty box with the button above that says "Add Line"



5. Enter into the box each of these three lines individually and click "Add Line":
127.0.0.1 ad.auditude.com
127.0.0.1 asset.auditude.com
127.0.0.1 click.auditude.com

6. Close HostsXpert, delete it, and watch MLB.TV



As you can see, it's trying to connect to the server which injects ads in during the commercial break. Now, we've tricked it into looking in the wrong place and the ads don't load. No more Mini Soda!

Thanks to cloisterusmaxmius for this info:

For those on Mac OS X or Linux/Unix

Type:
sudo pico /etc/hosts

Into your terminal, and add those nasty addresses to your host file. Save, close, and enjoy.