Wirecutter - How to block ads and pop-ups

Dana Davis

Most antivirus software is a rat’s nest of chaotic marketing and weird, annoying third-party software. Thankfully, you can ignore most of that, because Windows includes pretty good antivirus software for free. It’s often as reliable as any paid software.

If you’ve never purposefully—or accidentally—turned Windows Defender off, and you’ve been installing automatic updates, you’re already set. Don’t buy anything else, don’t install anything else. And tweak the settings only if you need more protection.

What about Macs? If you stick to downloading software from the official Mac App Store, you’ll stay reasonably well protected. But if you’ve downloaded something sketchy, and your Mac is acting strangely, you can use the free version of Malwarebytes to scan for and remove malware.

Dana Davis

You can protect against pop-ups or nefarious ads on the web with browser extensions—small programs that add features to your web browser.

We recommend two browser extensions: Privacy Badger (Chrome, Firefox), which blocks tracking tools used to create profiles about you for advertising, and uBlock Origin (Chrome, Firefox), which blocks ads, notably malicious ads and pop-ups meant to trick you into downloading software you don’t intend to. Enabling these extensions can cause certain websites to load incorrectly, so you may need to know how to turn them off on certain sites or on sites that don’t have obnoxious ads.

Lastly, enable your browser’s optional HTTPS-only mode, which helps prevent you from navigating to unsecured sites. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a guide for how to do this on every major web browser, and it takes only a minute.

Dana Davis

Your Wi-Fi router not only broadcasts your internet connection to your mobile devices but also links those devices together, so it’s important to set your router up securely. Here’s how:

Your Wi-Fi password—this is the one you use when you add a new device to your network or share with guests—doesn’t need to be something too crazy, but experts recommend making it at least 12 characters long and not something super obvious such as your name or street address. A passphrase, like those you can create with 1Password’s “memorable password” option, is a great way to make a unique but memorable password.

Some routers use a default password like “password” or “1234” to protect the administrator settings, which may make it easy for someone on your network to alter settings without your knowledge. Change that default to something unique. If you’ve never logged in to your router before, this process can be a bit tricky, but How-To Geek can help you figure out the router’s address, and this page lists default passwords for each router brand.

Yep, routers need automatic updates, too, just like everything else connected to the internet. Most routers don’t need as many updates as a computer or a web browser, but router companies do occasionally push out critical security updates. Make sure this setting is enabled on your router when possible.

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We’ll be back in your inbox next Monday with more security advice! In the meantime, you can find all our simple online security tips here.