One of the biggest complaints about the Xbox 360 dashboard update was the fact that advertisements now took up a ridiculous amount of screen space. For some gamers, it’s gone too far, and a number of ad-blocking methods have been publicized via Reddit for those who don’t like to be sold extra crap on top of a service they paid for.
One of the simplest methods is to block the ad server (rad.msn.com) using your router, if the router settings support it. A more complex method uses the free OpenDNS service, and the instructions for use can be found at the bottom of this post.
I’ve not got a problem with advertising (it’s how Destructoid can provide so much free content, after all) but when people have bought an electronic device outright and then pay an extra $60 a year to access its online service, I think it’s a bit rich to litter the customer’s screen with ads. Excuse me if I don’t cry a river for Microsoft in this situation.
- Sign up for a free OpenDNS account.
- Add a network for your current IP address.
- Go to Advanced Settings and next to ‘Domain Typos’, ensure ‘Enable typo correction’ is checked.
- Go to Web Content Filtering settings and set the filtering level to ‘None’, and under ‘Manage individual domains’, put rad.msn.com and select ‘Always block’ and then click ‘Add domain’.
- On your Xbox, go to System Settings -> Network Settings -> (your connection) -> Configure Network -> DNS settings -> Manual, and enter the OpenDNS IP addresses for the primary and secondary DNS servers: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.
- Clear your hard drive cache: System Settings -> Storage -> Hard Drive -> press Y -> Clear System Cache
