Anti-WebMiner is a free portable program for Microsoft Windows devices that will add protection to the system against various web mining scripts when used.
Web mining refers to the mining of cryptographic currencies in the web browser, usually in form of JavaScript that is run on sites that are visited in the browser.
I talked about ways to block miners that run on websites, and saw first instances of Chrome extensions with integrated miners.
While I’m not against mining in the browser, it has to be the user’s choice in my opinion whether to contribute resources of the computer. If a site or service asks users to do so, that’s fine. If users are not asked, it is not.
Anti-WebMiner for Windows
Anti-WebMiner is a simple program for Windows that you may run to block known mining domains using the operating system’s Hosts file.
Basically, all the program does is redirect known mining domains from where the scripts are loaded, so that the scripts cannot be loaded.
The application displays an install button prominently in the interface when you run it. A click on the button adds the domains to the Windows Hosts file so that requests to these domains are not coming through anymore.
Tip: Check out our Hosts file using and editing guide, and our overview of software to work with the Hosts file.
Anti-WebMiner comes with an uninstall button as well. You can use it to remove the hosts file entries again. The uninstall operation removes only the entries that the program added to the Hosts file and leaves other entries untouched.
While you can use the program for adding and removing entries to the Hosts file to block web miners, you may also use copy the entries directly to the Hosts file if you prefer it that way.
The developer maintains the list of supported Hosts file on GitHub. You do need to revisit the page regularly however to pick up new mining domains and changes to existing ones. Good news is that users who work on non-Windows devices may use the information and apply it to their systems to protect it against mining operations in the browser as well.
The main advantage of the application is that it is easier to use; useful if you don’t know what the Hosts file is, or how to manipulate it, or if you don’t want to do it.
Now You: How do you protect your system against mining scripts?
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