If you surf the Web, you've seen every type of ad imaginable, from pop-ups and pop-unders to noisy banner ads to the now-ubiquitous fly-ins and slide-ins. Fight back with blockers that promise to eliminate most, if not all, of these pesky Web ads. And for some real fun, test your current ad blocker against some of the toughest pop-ups I've seen at the Pop-Up Test site or the Pop-Up Killer site.

Most of these ad and pop-up blockers are freebies or have free trials, so give one a go. If its performance isn't up to your standards, uninstall it and try others until you find one that's a perfect fit with the way you browse.

Want my secret weapon for blocking ads? It's Ad Muncher, one of the most effective (and just as important, simple-to-use) ad and pop-up blockers I've ever encountered. Granted, Ad Muncher will set you back $30 (it has a 30-day trial), but I promise that it blocks 98 percent of banner, Flash, floating, pop-up, inline, and text ads. Ad Muncher has other useful features, too, such as an anonymous proxy server to disguise yourself while surfing.

If a Web site doesn't work correctly, or if you want a site's pop-up to pop up, the fix is easy. Just right-click Ad Muncher's icon in the system tray, choose the My Filters tab, click New, cut and paste the address into the Keyword field, choose No Filtering in the Filter Category, and click Close. And if you have any trouble, right-click on the offending page to have the program send the developers a detailed report. Better yet, use Ad Muncher's live chat feature: Chances are good that you'll get answers directly from the guy who programmed Ad Muncher.

For more about Ad Muncher, browse to "Ad Muncher: The Only Way to Block Ads."

Price: $30 (30-day free trial)

Download Ad Muncher

Pop-Up Killers

PopUp Ad SmasheR has a weird name, but it stops most of the typical browsing annoyances in Internet Explorer. You can configure it to stop pop-up and pop-under ads, animated and floating ads, Flash ads, timer ads (which can prevent you from accessing a Web page), deceiving dialog box ads, and message box ads.

In my tests it worked well, though it allowed a couple of static ads to slip through. Its "Smart Pop-Up" feature permitted some pop-ups to appear, too, until I tweaked the settings. The Ad Control feature gave me a way to allow, or block, specific pop-ups and ads--or to block everything on a site. Unfortunately, applying the rules, even through the wizard, is a little kludgy and takes multiple steps.

The program also keeps browser helper objects from downloading, removes Web bugs, and automatically cleans your Temp folder. You can configure any of the settings to meet your security needs.

Ad SmashR is free to try and only $20 to keep. If you find IE's security settings and pop-up stopper lacking, this program is worth a try.

Price: $20 (15-day free trial)

Download PopUp Ad SmasheR