i'm not a hacker, and i'm not going to win a hacking fight. i'm fairly comfortable with devices, and i'll learn fast, but i've just never had any interest in networking, and my knowledge about the topic is actually fairly minimal.

but, i was trying to block access to a specific server from my network when it clicked that i could potentially block ad servers that way and i'm actually surprised by how well this worked:

google's near monopoly on ads on the internet means this is almost a total block, and it keeps the processing off my overloaded and expired chromebook. the difference in performance was immediate.

i have a compaq laptop from the late 90s that works perfectly well but cannot play youtube videos because the ad servers on google/youtube crash it. i've moved from a windows 98 pc to an early xp laptop to a 2010ish expired chromebook for my tv just because the ad servers on google have forced me to upgrade. it's really quite ridiculous; none of these machines have broken, they all work, and they can all stream video, but i can't get past google's ad infrastructure with the first two.

the chromebook is a better option for integration with youtube anyways, granted, but i wonder if i might be able to save the laptop with this little trick.